Creating the Trench
If soldiers were lucky they would have been able to dig-in, create the trench, in safety, away from rifle and artillery fire. But in combat the soldiers would have had to frantically dig a small fox-hole with their entrenching tool, putting the loose soil in front of them as protection, to lie in under cover. they would then gradually dig down, making the hole bigger until a depth in which they could stand and these were joined together. Soldiers in trenches further back would have dug towards them to link up.
