Carlin also talks about the length of the battles and how taxing that was on the soldiers. Churchill said that to use the term battles was incorrect.
They were more similar to sieges. Battles up to that time and after were hours to days at the most. Verdun lasted for something like 8 months.
Battles also tend to move.
Trench warfare just doesn't. Soldiers had to live amongst the bodies of the fallen for months on end. That some of the 'floors' of the trenches were spring like due to the bodies. That soldiers endured weeks of constant shelling.
That this was the first and last time that soldiers had to endure these types of conditions for those lengths of time.
Kinda makes one understand how Tolkien came up with Mordor and other scenes for his Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
