The Trench - Hardcover

A book detailing the experiences of soldiers on the front line in the first world war.

The TV series The Trench, in which a group of early 21st century volunteers spent time living in as exact a reconstruction of the conditions of a First World War front-line trench as possible, attracted much criticism. Critics were quick to point out that such an essentially defining condition as fear of death and terrible injury was bound to be absent. The series was condemned by some as tasteless playacting. The book taken from the series faces these accusations and makes a strong argument for the case that the "playacting" does reveal historical realities that other types of research can't. Early in the book, Richard Van Emden confesses how puzzled he was by a First World War photo of British soldiers, in full view of heavily armed Germans, jog-walking back to their own lines. Why were they not running as fast as they could? Dress a modern day volunteer in the full battle order of a Great War soldier and the answer becomes immediately clear. However strong one's desire to run, the equipment was simply too heavy and cumbersome to allow more than a jog. This is the kind of telling detail that reconstruction can illustrate more effectively than any written record and there are other examples in Van Emden's book.

However, the book is much more than the story of the making of the TV series. It provides a wide-ranging picture of life in the First World War trenches for the ordinary soldier. The routine tasks that occupied the men in the long stretches when they were not required to go over the top or fight the enemy. How they combated the mud, rats and lice that conspired to make their lives a misery even when they were not in immediate danger. How they ate and how they slept--poorly, in both cases. How they dealt with gas attacks and shelling of their trenches. The most extraordinary voices in this book are not those of Van Emden and his crew or the 2001 volunteers who manned the TV trenches. They are those of the four veterans that Van Emden quotes extensively. From the perspective of great old age--all four are 103 or 104--they recount their memories in vivid and moving detail. In the final analysis, their contributions are what make this book a valuable addition to the vast library of books on the First World War and not the much-criticised premise on which TV series and book were built. --Nick Rennison