CONDITIONS

Conditions in the trenches were dreadful, especially in those of the British. The German trenches were more advanced. They had underground caves with bunk beds, in which, during an artillery bombardment, the troops could hide in relative safety. For the soldiers in the trenches everyday was a battle against disease, lice, boredom, enemy fire and hundreds of other dangerous things. One of the most recurring battles was against water and mud. With no proper drainage, duck-boards had to be laid to prevent the troops from literally drowning and to try and prevent diseases such as trench foot. The trenches were hard to dig and kept on collapsing in the waterlogged sand. Also the shells from the guns and bombs made big craters in the ground. The rain filled up the craters and then poured into the trenches.  

TRENCH FOOT

This is a dreadful disease that many soldiers in the First World War developed. It was caused by cold, wet and insanitary conditions. The trenches were all of these things and the soldiers who were unable to change their footwear were perfect victims. The feet would slowly go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If left untreated trench foot could end in amputation. Over 20 000 men were treated for trench foot in the winter of 1914-1915 and that was only in the British Army. The only successful treatment for trench foot was a change of socks several times a day. By the end of 1915 all British soldiers were issued with three pairs of socks and were ordered to change them at least twice a day. As well as changing their socks soldiers were told to keep their feet dry and cover them with grease made from whale oil. It has been estimated that a battalion at the front would use ten gallons of whale oil every day.

RATS

Many soldiers who were killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. Where trenches often subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. Due to the decaying corpses and the scraps of food left around rats were attracted in their thousands to the trenches. With one pair of rats able to produce 880 offspring in a year the trenches were soon swarming with them.

One soldier wrote: "The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn't defend himself.'

Rats devoured the dead bodies and two or three could always be found on every corpse. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse.

One soldier described finding a group of dead bodies while on patrol:

"I saw some rats running from under the dead men's greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured and from the yawning mouth leapt a rat. "

The rats were of course a source of bacteria and were a means of spreading disease along the trenches. Conditions were such that it was impossible to get rid of them.

LICE

One other major problem faced by the troops was lice. A very frequent job for the soldiers was to de-louse their uniforms. There were many different methods. A lighted candle was quite effective but a lot of skill was required to burn out the lice without burning your clothes. If it was possible the army arranged for the men to have baths while their clothes were being put through delousing machines. This however rarely worked and a fair proportion of the eggs remained in the clothes. Within two or three hours of the clothes being put on again the body heat had hatched them out.

Not only did the lice cause scratching but they also carried a disease known as trench fever. The symptoms were pains in the shins, followed by a very high fever. The disease did not kill but it stopped many soldiers from fighting and made up 15% of all cases of sickness in the British Army.

AMPUTATIONS

In the British Army alone over 1.65 million men were wounded during the First World War. Out of these, around 240,000 suffered total or partial leg or arm amputations as a result of their war wounds. Most of these men were fitted with artificial limbs.

UNCLEAN WATER

Due to lack of clean water and no proper sanitation many soldiers contracted the disease dysentery. This involves the inflammation of the lining of the large intestine which causes stomach pains and diarrhoea. It is infectious and spread quickly in the trenches. The diarrhoea caused men with this disease to lose important salts and so if the body dehydrates it can be fatal.

In the early stages of the war dysentery caused by contaminated water was a problem. It was some time before they were able to set up proper supplies of water. Each soldier was issued with a water bottle that they refilled in the reserve trenches but this was never enough and they often had to depend on unclean water collected from shell-holes.

RATIONS

Britain sent a total of 3,240,948 tons of food to the soldiers fighting in France and Belgium during the First World War. 300 000 field workers to cook and supply the food were employed by the British Army. At the start of the war the troops were provided with 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables a day. As the army grew these rations had to be reduced to 6 ounces of meat a day. But later on those soldiers not in the front line only had meat 9 days out of 30.

On the Western Front there was a lot of criticism of the quantity and the quality of food given to the troops, their main intake being canned corned beef, bread and biscuits. Due to a shortage of flour in the winter of 1916 the bread was made using dried ground turnips. By this stage the main food was pea soup with some lumps of horsemeat. Not only were vegetables used in the soup but weeds such as nettles.

With it taking up to eight days for the bread to reach the front line it was usually stale on arrival so the soldiers solved this problem by crushing it and adding whatever else was available. The food was also always cold as it had to be carried in a container up the communication trenches. The Army attempted to keep the food shortage from the enemy and announced that the soldiers were provided with two hot meals a day. They received 200 000 letters from furious soldiers pointing out the truth. They claimed that the men in the trenches were treated appallingly but the officers were well fed.

When the advance came food became a bigger problem. The men all carried emergency food called iron rations. This consisted of a can of corned beef, a few biscuits and a tin of tea and sugar. These iron rations were not to be opened without the permission of an officer.

Shortage of food and the poor condition of what was available caused a lot of ill health among the soldiers in the trenches and left them weak and vulnerable to disease.

Conditions in the trenches were so awful that some soldiers went to extreme lengths to escape them. Some were so desperate to get home and hoped for a 'blighty' wound which would mean that they would be sent home. Some inflicted wounds on themselves in a desperate attempt to be relieved of their front-line period of duty. To inflict a wound on oneself was a capital offence and if a man was found guilty he could face execution by a firing squad. In the British Army a total of 3,894 men were found guilty of self-inflicting wounds - however none were actually executed.

Others simply killed themselves, their lives in the trenches simply too awful to bear. The most commonly used method of suicide was to place the barrel of their rifle against the head and press the trigger with their toe. Some unable to endure any more, stood on the firing step so as they could be shot by an enemy sniper.