WORLD HISTORY

Read the excerpt below and answer the question that follows. “To keep out the chill night winds the men had spread their shelter halves over the foxholes which had been dug into the side of the bank. When the enemy’s barrage opened it was directed particularly at this spot, where he believed the infantry was lying in readiness to go over. It was not surprising, then, that the entire vicinity was thoroughly bombarded. In quick succession the shells struck, many of them so near that they blew men to pieces less than ten feet from us and peppered our shelter halves with stones and lumps of mud, leaving many of them perforated like sieves.”-William L. Langer, Gas and Flame in World War I, Knopf/Borzoi Which characteristic of warfare associated with World War I is described in the excerpt?