The First World War was only meant to last six months. When the Australians and New Zealanders arrived at the Western Front in 1916, the fighting had been going for a year and a half and there was no end in sight. The men took their place in a line of trenches that spread through Belgium and France from the North Sea to the Swiss Alps. Beyond the trenches was no-man's land, an eerie wasteland where rats lived in the ribs of the dead and the wounded cried for help. Beyond that was the German Army. The Anzacs had sailed for France to fight a war the whole world was talking about. Few who came home ever spoke about it again.