The 1914 Christmas Truce (Part 1)
Dan Snow's History Hit
00:00
German Trenches on the Western Front
The system of trenches on the western front is not the enormous multi line field fortification that people envisage when they think about trenches. In december 19 14, the german army was only just starting to set up what they called pionia parks in which they would store building materials from Germany and occupied territories. So how a trench looked is very much defined by then, of where it is situated. It isn't defined on wo built it. You might be able to see a german trench but mostly it's a field. Sometimes it's hedges and fences and trees. The odd dead cow, sadly, lots of dead soldiers.
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