At first no, it was a mobile battle when the war started. Attacks in Belgium were fast paced, up to the First Battle of the Marne, the war was normal and generally speaking did not spell the doom that the next four years would bring. The Western front became a stalemate for years, 10% of fighting men were killed which was double the stats in previous wars. The new technological advances, weather, and disease brought this on. It wasn't until 1918 - late in the war - did the lines start to sway and become reduced. The armies would move onto trenches that hadn't been occupied for years, often seeing skeletons of their former pals muddled into the dirt or their grave markers gone from wear and weather. For four years however, yes, the Western front was hell, it rained, it rotted, the gas would seep into the ground so you wouldn't even be able to get low during artillery strikes, rats and bugs would invade every crevice of every piece of clothing to the point that special devices were used to boil them off uniforms. The war was truly a new one, and a horrible one. SOURCES: The First World War, John Keegan. A Doughboy With the Fighting 69th, Albert K. Ettinger.