Initial battles

The first battles were the deadliest of the war. On just one day of the Battle of Charleroi, 27,000 French soldiers lost their lives, making it the bloodiest of the conflict. An unrealistic and obsolete notion of war saw men confronted with the fearsome efficiency of modern weapons, such as the machine gun. Red trousers became the symbol of the divide which separated the dream of a quickly fought out and chivalrous battle from the reality of industrial warfare. Subject to bombing raids and machine gun fire, soldiers had little choice but to try to protect themselves in the shell holes which scattered the battlefield.