World War I was a writer's war, and there's a lot of metaphorical resonance in living men digging holes where they would in time die. The lines of trenches on the Western Front covered only about 400 miles as the crow flies, but because of the endless zigzagging, the trenches themselves may have run as much as 25,000 miles. But the stalemate of trench warfare wasn't seen on every front. Especially at the beginning of the war, there was a lot of offensive movement, especially in the initial German strikes. Especially on the Eastern Front, where the Germans were very successful against the Russians, who had a large but pretty hapless army. Also for the blessed few of you who sat through all of Lawrence of Arabia, you'll remember that T.E. Lawrence's exploits took place in the context of World War I, with the British battling the Ottomans.