Trench warfare
Trench warfare prevailed on the Western Front from late 1914 until the Germans launched their Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. After the buildup of forces in 1915, the Western Front became a stalemated struggle between equals, to be decided by attrition. Frontal assaults, and their associated casualties, became inevitable because the continuous trench lines had no open flanks. Casualties of the defenders matched those of the attackers, as vast reserves were expended in costly counter-attacks or exposed to the attacker's massed artillery. There were periods in which rigid trench warfare broke down, such as during the Battle of the Somme, but the lines never moved very far. The war would be won by the side that was able to commit the last reserves to the Western Front.
The Trench (Dix)
The Trench (German: "Der Schützengraben"), but earlier known as "Das Kriegsbild" ("The War Picture") or simply "Der Krieg" ("The War"), was an oil painting by German artist Otto Dix. The large painting was made from 1920 to 1923, one of several anti-war works by Dix in the 1920s inspired by his experience of trench warfare in the First World War.