Overview: Between two battles, life in the trenches was very hard for the combatants of the First World War, who, in addition to the hardships, the lack of hygiene, the rain, the lice and the rats, lived with the smell of death. In the summer of 1914 the combatants left for a "jovial war" of a few months, but from November, decimated by artillery, they buried themselves on the western front for four years of combat along a line of 700 km, from the North Sea to the Swiss border.