Introduction

The early battles of the First World War during the autumn and winter of 1914 were open, mobile affairs of the kind long familiar to professional soldiers. By early 1915, however, a new type of war had emerged - trench warfare.

Modern artillery and machine-guns had been employed in the Boer War only a decade or so previously, but the perfection of their use led to the creation of a static front: the Western Front. Attempts to circumvent this Front, notably at Gallipoli in 1915, only succeeded in perpetuating the same form of warfare.

Over the Top offers an innovative examination of trench warfare on the Western Front and Gallipoli during 1914-18 in the major battles that influenced the outcome of the First World War.