This series is set in 1917, on the Western Front in the trenches of the First World War.

Unlike previous wars, which were often fought mainly from fixed lines and trenches, World War II was a highly mobile war, often fought in cities, forests, or other areas where mobility and visibility were restricted.

The onset of trench warfare after the first few months of World War I greatly increased the demand for howitzers, as they were more suited at hitting targets in trenches.

Turkish trenches at the shores of the Dead Sea, World War I, 1917.

While at the close of the First World War the Foreign Legion's prestige was at a high, the Foreign Legion itself had suffered greatly in the trenches of the First World War.

The conflict is often compared to World War I, in that the tactics used closely mirrored those of that conflict, including large scale trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire across trenches, human wave attacks across no-man's land, and extensive use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas by the Iraqi government against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds.

The conflict has been compared to World War I in terms of the tactics used, including large scale trench warfare with barbed wire stretched across trenches, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, human wave attacks across a no-man's land, and extensive use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas by the Iraqi government against Iranian troops, civilians, and Iraqi Kurds.

* 1917 – World War I: Battle of Messines – Allied ammonal mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge are detonated, killing 10, 000 German troops.

Set over a four-day period in March 1918 in the trenches at Saint-Quentin, France, Journey's End gives a glimpse into the experiences of the officers of a British Army infantry company in World War I.

The sequel to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, which Universal had filmed in 1930, the novel and film follow the lives of several young German men who have returned from the trenches of World War I and their struggles to re-integrate into society.

* 1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles – British and Australian troops attack German trenches in a prelude to the Battle of the Somme.

Telegraphic communication using earth conductivity was eventually found to be limited to impractically short distances, as was communication conducted through water, or between trenches during World War I.

More internationally, the First World War saw a great resurgence of interest in Tangrams, on the homefront and trenches of both sides.

Churchill had been an enthusiast of the concept of airborne warfare since World War I, when he had proposed the creation of a force that might assault the German flanks deep behind the trenches of the static Western front.

Whatever it was, it died in the trenches of World War I.

During a battle in the last months of World War I, the protagonist, an unnamed Jewish private and a barber by profession ( Charlie Chaplin ), is fighting for the Central Powers in the army of the fictional nation of Tomainia, comically blundering through the trenches in combat scenes.

During World War I, German troops referred to as pioneers, who were early combat engineers or sappers and stormtroopers began using two types of hand grenades in trench warfare operations against the French to clear opposing trenches of troops.

In the early years of the 20th century, the Queen of Norway sent gifts to London's crippled children signed " With Tiny Tim's Love "; Sir Squire Bancroft raised £ 20, 000 for the poor by reading the tale aloud publicly ; and Captain Corbett-Smith read the tale to the troops in the trenches of World War I.

" John Smith " ( Ronald Colman ) is a British officer who was gassed and became shellshocked in the trenches during the First World War.

In World War I, raiding troops called " Sturmtruppen " or Storm Troopers carrying submachine guns, mostly the MP-18, were sent by the Germans to try and disrupt or even break into no man's land and into the trenches of British and French lines.

For most of World War I Allied Forces, predominantly those of France and the British Empire, were stalled at trenches on the Western Front.

The Doughnut Girls of World War I are an early example, serving refreshments to troops in the trenches.

Towards the end of the war, especially in defense of static targets as in the battles of Cold Harbor and Vicksburg, trenches between both sides grew to a World War I scale.

* 1865 – American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.

This was followed by a second series, Blackadder II ( 1986 ) set during the reign of Elizabeth I, a third series Blackadder the Third ( 1987 ) set during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the reign of George III, and finally Blackadder Goes Forth ( 1989 ) in 1917, set in the trenches of the Great War.

* 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.

* July 30 – American Civil War – Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.

His epic, The War The Infantry Knew, has become a classic among military historians for its comprehensive treatment of all aspects of daily life and death in the trenches.

One area where the Confederate engineers were able to outperform the North was in the ability to build fortifications that were used both offensively and defensively along with trenches that made them harder to penetrate.

Young's masterpiece Night Thoughts emerged from obscurity by being mentioned in Edmund Blunden's World War One memoir, Undertones of War ( 1928 ), as a source of comfort during time in the trenches.

One platoon opened fire on the sentry and threw grenades into a concrete bunker believed to hold the triggering equipment for the bridge demolition charges, a second platoon began to assault a number of trenches and gun-pits on the eastern bank of the canal, and a third began moving towards the bridge.

There were two main lines of thought regarding Brazil's joining of the war: One, led by Ruy Barbosa called for joining the Entente ; another side worried about the notices of bloody and unfruitful fighting in trenches, nurturing critical and pacifist feelings in the urban worker classes.

One squadron of Canterbury Regiment swung south against Ali Muntar and entered the enemy trenches just after the 53rd ( Welsh ) Division.

One part of the city centre maintains the name of Šanac (' trench ') after the old trenches which preserve the old hexagonal form of the historic centre.

One nurse described the death of one soldier who had been in the trenches during a chlorine gas attack.

One other theory is the fact that ANZAC troops were especially good at digging tunnels between their own trenches and the enemies, and were regarded by both sides as diggers, one being derogatory and the other more in jest.

One advantage for the Confederates was the strength of the Dimmock Line, formidable artillery positions connected by earthworks and trenches for over, circling the city and anchored on the Appomattox River to the east and west.

Johnson's camp, where many were quartered, was quickly protected by the digging of trenches.

The trenches in these ridges are generally water-courses, and rather chasms or gulfs than any thing that deserves the name of a valley.

Sitting a few miles back from the trenches around Ypres ( nowadays known by its Flemish name Ieper ), Poperinge ( or " Pops ", as the soldiers called it ) was a busy transfer station where troops on their way to and from the battlefields of Flanders were billeted.

The name of the celebrated infantry officer who appears daily in the trenches

In recent years, a collaboration of American and Greek scientists excavated trenches on the site, discovering numerous walls and artifacts dating to Classical and prehistoric times .< ref name =" Soter1999 ">

All those rivers and trenches were first made by the Etruscans, thus discharging the flow of the river across the marshes of the Atriani called the Seven Seas, with the famous harbor of the Etruscan town of Atria which formerly gave the name of Atriatic to the sea now called the Adriatic.