Trench Warfare on the Western Front By the end of 1914, the commencing year of W.W.I, it was apparent that the old fashioned warfare of dashing cavalry charges and rapid movements of troops was over. Soldiers were forced to shelter themselves in trenches from enemy rifle and machine-gun fire and the explosions of artillery shells. The first use of trench warfare began in the Battle of the Marne and from then on, armies remained in the trenches for the next four years. As quoted by military historian J.F.C.Fuller, “success (in the war) depended on overcoming the defensive trinity