Our battle reenactments take place within systems of opposing trenches with a crater-pocked no-man's-land in between. Belts of barbed wire protect the sandbagged front trenches, which are punctuated by bunkers with functioning machineguns in them. Behind the front line are supporting trenches and dugouts, where officers plan attacks and counterattacks and the soldiers rest and eat their rations.
The sights and sounds of battle are produced by blank cartridges in rifles and pyrotechnic devices that simulate grenades. Mortars fire rounds that fly through the air but detonate harmlessly. Other devices spew out colored smoke to imitate poison gas. At night, flares illuminate the landscape.