Life In The Trenches

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Life In The Trenches

• By Ms. Houselog

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Death

• Many men died on their first day in the trenches
  as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper's
  bullet.

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• It has been estimated that up to one third of
  Allied casualties on the Western Front actually
  occurred in the trenches.
• Aside from enemy injuries, disease was another
  big contributor.

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Rats

• Millions of brown and black rats infested the
  trenches.
• Gorging themselves on human remains (eating
  mostly the eyes and liver) they could grow to the
  size of a cat.

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Infections

• Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful
  disease that began suddenly with severe pain
  followed by high fever.
• A lit candle was fairly effective in removing
  lice, but the skill of burning the lice without
  setting yourself on fire was difficult to learn.

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• Trench Foot was a fungal infection of the feet
  caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench
  conditions.
• It could turn gangrenous and result in amputation.

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Boredom

• Since both sides were constantly under watch by
  snipers and look-outs during daylight, movement
  was logically restricted until night fell.

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The Smell

• The trenches were filled with a mixture of
  smells
• Rotting carcasses lay around in thousands.
• Overflowing latrines would similarly give off a
  most offensive stench.

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• Men didnt have the luxury of a bath in weeks or
  months and would smell like a mixture of odors
  and of dried sweat.
• The feet were thought to give off the worst odor.

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• Trenches would also smell of creosol or chloride
  of lime, used to stave off the constant threat of
  disease and infection.
• There was also the lingering odor of poison gas,
  rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke
  and cooking food...

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No Mans Land

• The territory between the opposing front trenches
  was marked with huge craters caused by the
  shelling nearly all vegetation was destroyed.

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• Both sides filled this land with barbed wire to
  slow down any rapid advances by the enemy.
• The machine gun and the new long-range rifles
  made movement in this area almost impossible.

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Attacks

• Both sides quickly recognized that assaults
  against the enemy trenches were suicide if begun
  in broad daylight, so attacks tended to take
  place just before dawn or right at dawn.
• Except for artillery shelling, daytime was
  relatively safe for the soldiers on the front
  line.

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• Once the sun went down, men crawled out of their
  trenches to conduct raids, investigate the layout
  of the terrain, and eavesdrop near the enemy
  lines to pick up information on their strengths,
  weakness and strategies.

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In The End

• By the war's end, each side had dug at least
  12,000 miles of trenches.

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Resources

• Featured Article Life in the Trenches
  http//www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.h
  tm
• The Trenches Symbol of the Stalemate
  http//www.pbs.org/greatwar/chapters/ch1_trench.ht
  ml