Military historian builds replica trench from First World War

It’s hard to imagine how gruesome it was to fight in the cold trenches during the First World War.

As Canadians commemorate the 100th anniversary of the poppy for this year’s Remembrance Day, it’s important to carry on the educational aspect of what past veterans went through.

Andy Robertshaw is a British military historian and battlefield guide who constructed a 100-metre replica of a First World War trench to help educate people on what it was really like to be involved in that war.

“It’s recreating the reality of day-to-day living in a trench system,” Robertshaw said on the John Gormley show this week, “And when you’re bounded by dirt, when you can’t put your head up, and in between, you’ve got to eat, sleep, drink, and go to the toilet.”

The replica has many similar features to what the actual trenches were like in the Great War. It’s a different way to learn about the history of the war, as opposed to reading it in a book.

“It’s a way of opening a window on the war, but allowing them to touch it, to smell it, to feel it, to experience what it’s like to be in a trench in winter in a way that they can’t do in a classroom, and that’s why we do it,” Robertshaw said.

Robertshaw has written more than a dozen books on military history while specializing in the studies of the two world wars.