As you have just read in the previous topic, most of the troops were killed due to gunfire and other battle related casualties. But not all of the deaths were due to these reasons, many were killed due to lack of nutrition, the cold, damp conditions of the trenches, disease and fleas and even due to lack of sleep! In this topic I will be looking at the terrible conditions that the soldiers had to live in and find out why so many died due to these conditions.

Trenches were designed so that they would be about six feet in depth and be wide enough for two soldiers to pass at a time. At regular intervals along the trench a firing step would be positioned so that the soldiers could stand on it to see over the top of the trench and fire a weapon into "no-man’s land". Along the bottom of the trench would be wooden duckboards that would stop the soldiers from sinking into the wet mud below. In general terms the German trenches were in better conditions than the British and French trenches, sometimes even being built with concrete walls and having intricate underground rooms for soldiers to sleep. This would give the German soldiers a mental advantage over the Allies as they could have a decent nights sleep without lying in the mud. This would have been hard for the Brits and French to follow as they were on the offense and didn’t have the time or the money to spend on making concrete trenches, besides they would be constantly moving and their hard work would be wasted on making strong trenches which they than had to leave behind.

Due to the large numbers of people involved in trench warfare every day, there wasn’t the time or the money to look after each one individually. This meant that the soldiers had to live in terrible conditions and it would mean that the army would have to build an entire underground cities for them to live in comfortably, which was an impossibility.The luxuries of beds, proper food and even the ability to keep clean were non-existent during this period. These conditions alone could drive soldier mad, let alone having to "go over the top". Proper food, if any, was scarce and the soldiers would sometimes have to go a day or more without food. With the water being unclean, many soldiers caught diseases from drinking while others suffered from malnutrition or lack of sleep. So, as you can see, you had to be mentally strong as well as physically to survive a week of trench lifestyle.

The trenches were regularly flooded, while soldiers would try to sleep in such inhospitable conditions. Corpses of colleagues once living, scattered around the trench, would pass on diseases as well as bring parasites such as lice, maggots, fleas etc... Blood lay all around, another possible way to catch disease, while fires occasionally ripped through the trenches burning the remaining belongings of the soldiers along with the men themselves. With the lack of hygiene and the piles of filth and bodily waste the soldiers and trench smelt terrible.

Many diseases were easily caught by the soldiers in these conditions. Here are just a few:-

*fungal infections ("trench foot" where feet could fall off)

*warts and blisters (commonly on feet)

*typhoid (through dirty water)

*flu/cold (common but deadly in such conditions)

*hypothermia (through cold wind and snow)

Themselves, many of these diseases could be cured by drugs but due to the lack of drugs in the trenches they became deadly.

How the soldiers felt

The following extracts are the views of some soldiers who fought in the trenches in World War One.

Soldier at Somme - "Corpses lie along the parapets, rotting in the wet; the mud makes it all but impassable, and now sunk up to my knees, I have the momentary terror of never being able to pull myself out..."

"men die from slow suffocation in the mud, the wounded are often suffocated in the mire before the stretcher bearers can get to them."

Robert Graves - "The trench smell still haunts my nostrils : compounded of stagenant mud, latrine buckets, chloride of lime, half buried corpses, stale human sweat and fumes of cordite and lyditte.

Sgt.Pottering - "Rats, feeding on the flesh of corpses, became giant sized. I saw a rat bite a sergeant’s ear while he slept. They got used to the troops; boots had to be worn at night and faces covered while food had to be suspended from the dug-out ceiling."

The above sources tell of the terrible conditions of trench life, from mud that could swallow men up, to giant rats that spread disease through the lines. These were only three of millions of soldiers views and already they give a good account of the trenches. Just imagine the immense numbers of men who never returned to share their views and sights...