This is a series of photos designed to give students an idea of what trench warfare and World War I was like. I shut my mouth and have students deconstruct photos and notice details as a class. By the end the "get" it. My main focus is how it began as an adventure, and became a real hell.

1. World War I

2. Uniforms

10. Trench Warfare Troops dug in on the Western Front from Belgium to the Switzerland. They thought the war would be quick, but for four years the trenches became their home.

19. Teenagers in War Many teenagers fought in World War I, often lying to eager recruiters about their true age. The youngest known soldier was 12 years old.

25. Life on the battlefield ranged from extreme boredom to intense, overwhelming agony. It was a surreal existence never encountered by an army before.

33. Mud Once the fields stopped growing food, and the forests were blasted away, there was nothing left to hold the earth in place. Battlefields became mug bogs, making a miserable existence worse.

43. The Battle Continues After a quick victory was not achieved, and old tactics clearly did not work, the Allied and Central Powers continued to grind along regardless of results.