What were the conditions in the trenches really like?

Rat Infestation
 There were millions of rats in the trenches. There were two types.
 The brown rats were the worst. They ate dead the bodies of dead soldiers.
They could grow to the size of a cat.
 Men were afraid of these rats as they would even run across their faces in the dark. They
tried lots of ways to get rid of them such as: gunfire, with the bayonet, and even by clubbing them to death.
 A single rat couple could produce up to 900 babies in a year, spreading infection and contaminating food.
The rat problem lasted for the whole war.

Lice infestation

Lice were so common because men in the front-line rarely, if ever, washed. It was not unusual for men to go
over a month without washing. Lice spread due to this, breeding in the seams of filthy clothing and causing
men to itch constantly. One soldier counted 163 on himself!

 Even when clothing was washed and deloused, lice eggs remained hidden
in the seams; within a few hours of the clothes being re-worn the body
heat generated would cause the eggs to hatch.
 Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began
suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. Recovery - away from
the trenches - took up to twelve weeks. Lice were not actually identified
as the cause of Trench Fever until 1918 (after the war).

Trench Foot
 What were the conditions in the trenches really like?
 Many soldiers fighting in WW1 suffered from trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by
cold, wet and unhygienic conditions.

 In the trenches men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet
socks or boots.

 The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If
untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation.

 The only remedy for trench foot was for the soldiers to dry their feet and
change their socks several times a day. By the end of 1915 British soldiers
in the trenches had to have three pairs of socks with them and were under
orders to change
their socks at
least twice a
day. As well as drying their feet, soldiers
were told to cover their feet with grease
made from whale-oil as it was water-proof.

Food

 It is not surprising that food in the trenches

was poor. The main food was tinned bully
beef (corned beef) with bread or biscuits.
 What were the conditions in the trenches really like?
 It took so long for fresh food to reach the soldiers on the front line that usually the bread and biscuits
were stale. As the war went on flour was in short supply, so bread was then made from ground-up
turnips (-not very tasty!). The main meal became a thin pea-soup with lumps of horsemeat in it (often
with weeds and nettles in it because the kitchen staff had no fresh vegetables!). Soldiers would drink
weak coffee and oxo (a type of gravy), as tea, fresh milk and sugar were a luxury. There was little drinking
water so soldiers drank rum instead. The water was treated with chloride to kill the germs so had an
unpleasant taste.
 What were the conditions in the trenches really like?
Boredom and camaraderie

• Once the soldiers had completed the daily trench chores of refilling
the sandbags, repairing the duckboards and trench floor, and
draining the trenches, many of them became bored.

• They couldn’t really move around or do much as the fear of a

sniper’s bullet was always there.

 To relieve the boredom, they used to write letters home and diaries. These letters were censored (checked
by officers to prevent soldiers giving away key war information or bad news about
the trenches that might affect morale at home).

Camaraderie
 Many soldiers enlisted with their friends. That meant that they were often in
the same ‘PALS’ battalion as them and fought alongside them in the trenches.
They would spend hours together and became close. To pass the time they
would sing, talk about home, and write letters. They would try to help and
protect each other.
 What were the conditions in the trenches really like?
Gas
 The Germans were the first to use chlorine gas. It destroyed the lungs of its victims and
this led to a slow death by asphyxiation or choking (lack of oxygen).

Mustard Gas

 Mustard Gas got its name from its sometimes yellow appearance. It had no smell and
took twelve hours to take effect. It was so powerful that only small amounts had to be
added to high explosive shells to be effective.

 Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks. It caused internal and external bleeding,
this was extremely painful and most soldiers had to be strapped to their beds. It usually took a person
four or five weeks to die of mustard gas poisoning.

 When gas was first used some soldiers covered their mouths with socks or rags soaked in urine to help
fight against its effects, later, gas masks were used to protect soldiers.
 What were the conditions in the trenches really like?

 No Man's Land was the term used by soldiers

to describe the ground between the two
opposing trenches.

‘No man’s land’

 If the area had seen a lot of action No Man's Land would be full of broken and abandoned military
equipment. After an attack No Man's Land would also contain a large number of bodies. Advances across
No Man’s Land were always very difficult. Not only did the soldiers have to avoid being shot or blown-up,
they also had to cope with barbed-wire and water-filled, shell-holes.

 Soldiers were only occasionally involved in a full-scale attack across No Man's Land. However, men were
sometimes ordered into No Man's Land to obtain information about the enemy. When an artillery shell
had landed just in front of an enemy trench, soldiers were often ordered to take control of the shell-hole
and to try and spy on the enemy.