The War in the Trenches
Read our amazing selection of images and articles of the First World War in the trenches, from birds and beasts at the fighting front to military entrenchments at Christmas. Plus, download a selection of extra wartime articles from our archive for free.
The rifle, machine gun and heavy artillery created a type of battlefield that has become popularly synonymous with the First World War.
ARCHIVE ARTICLES
BIRDS & BEASTS AT THE FIGHTING FRONT
THE SECOND CHRISTMAS OF THE WAR
'A muddy Christmas but no firing': one of several photographs that appeared in a sober but positive assessment of the war, published on Christmas Day, 1915.
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Two views of unidentified battlefields published in the magazine. The top image is a view through a sniper's loophole, overlooking German trenches. It appears in a 1915 article that offers a bizarre combination of reportage on warfare and wildlife. The position was reached at considerable hazard, through a farmyard full of dead and rotting animals. Between periods of action, there are lyrical descriptions of birds. A golden oriole nest, for example, is spotted in the trees to the left. The bottom landscape by 'an erstwhile subaltern', was published as part of a letter in February 1916, with helpful annotations, such as 'Boche trenches', showing the enemy positions.
'Knife Rests' by Edward Handley-Read, a painting by moonlight of wire protecting a British trench, from a 1916 exhibition review.
'French infantry hunting out Huns from ruins on the Somme', published in 1916.
A French and British band improvise in a rest area in 1917. Note the biscuit tin drum.
Agnes has worked for Country Life in various guises — across print, digital and specialist editorial projects — before finally finding her spiritual home on the Features Desk. A graduate of Central St. Martins College of Art & Design she has worked on luxury titles including GQ and Wallpaper* and has written for Condé Nast Contract Publishing, Horse & Hound, Esquire and The Independent on Sunday. She is currently writing a book about dogs, due to be published by Rizzoli New York in September 2025.
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Dorfold Hall: The 'most neat and beautiful house of brick' that owes its existence to a desperate effort to secure successionDorfold Hall in Cheshire is an outstanding Jacobean house, but was an unexpected product of dynastic disappointment. John Goodall examines the remarkable circumstances of its construction; photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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The London house where Rolls-Royce's co-founder Charles Rolls tinkered with his very first car is for sale at £17 millionCharles Rolls, the engineer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce, got his hands dirty when using the stables of this fine London home as a makeshift garage. Annabel Dixon reports.
