Individuals spent only a few days a month in a front-line trench. Daily life here was a mixture of routine and boredom – sentry duty, kit and rifle inspections, and work assignments filling sandbags, repairing trenches, pumping out flooded sections, and digging latrines.
What was the living conditions like in ww1 trenches?
Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. They were very muddy, uncomfortable and the toilets overflowed . These conditions caused some soldiers to develop medical problems such as trench foot.
What were living conditions like in the trenches?
Trench life involved long periods of boredom mixed with brief periods of terror . The threat of death kept soldiers constantly on edge, while poor living conditions and a lack of sleep wore away at their health and stamina.
How bad were the conditions in the trenches?
Life in the trenches was very difficult because they were dirty and flooded in bad weather . ... Sustained exposure to the wet, muddy conditions could cause Trench Foot, which sometimes would result in the foot being amputated. Cold weather was dangerous too, and soldiers often lost fingers or toes to frostbite.
Did soldiers sleep in the trenches?
Daily life
Most activity in front line trenches took place at night under cover of darkness. During daytime soldiers would try to get some rest, but were usually only able to sleep for a few hours at a time .
Did soldiers eat rats in ww1?
With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps . The rats grew bigger and bolder and would even steal food from a soldier’s hand. But for some soldiers the rats became their friends. They captured them and kept them as pets, bringing a brief reprisal from the horror which lay all around.
How did soldiers use dead bodies in the trenches?
Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell . ... Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse.
What did they eat in the trenches?
The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), bread and biscuits . By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips. The main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat.
Why did they build trenches in ww1?
World War I was a war of trenches. After the early war of movement in the late summer of 1914, artillery and machine guns forced the armies on the Western Front to dig trenches to protect themselves . Fighting ground to a stalemate. ... British soldiers standing in water in a trench.
Why were the trenches built zig zag and not straight?
All the trenches were dug in a zig-zag pattern so the enemy couldn’t shoot straight down the line and kill many soldiers . If a mortar, grenade or artillery shell would land in the trench, it would only get the soldiers in that section, not further down the line.
What diseases affected soldiers in the trenches?
But the majority of loss of life can be attributed to famine and disease – horrific conditions meant fevers, parasites and infections were rife on the frontline and ripped through the troops in the trenches. Among the diseases and viruses that were most prevalent were influenza, typhoid, trench foot and trench fever .
How did soldiers go to the toilet in the trenches?
These latrines were trench toilets. They were usually pits dug into the ground between 1.2 metres and 1.5 metres deep. Two people who were called sanitary personnel had the job of keeping the latrines in good condition for each company.
Was life in the trenches really that bad?
Trench life involved long periods of boredom mixed with brief periods of terror. The threat of death kept soldiers constantly on edge, while poor living conditions and a lack of sleep wore away at their health and stamina.
Did they use trenches in ww2?
It was also the first conflict in world history to have more deaths caused from combat, rather than from disease spread during fighting. Trench warfare was also employed in World War II and in the Korean War to some degree, but it has not been used regularly during conflicts in the ensuing decades.
What dangers did soldiers face in the trenches?
Trenches provided protection from bullets and shells, but they did carry their own risks. Trench foot, trench fever, dysentery, and cholera could inflict casualties as readily as any enemy. Rats, flies, and lice were also commonplace.
How did soldiers get rid of the rats?
Cats and terriers were kept by soldiers in the frontline trenches to help free them of disease-carrying rats. The terriers were actually very effective in killing rats. ... They don’t play with their prey like cats do. They kill immediately.
