Life in the trenches during WWI

By: Alexis Angelakis

Construction of trenches

• Building a trench took about six hours for 450 men to build 250 meters of that trench. After this, barbed wire, board walks, and sand bags were added.

• There were three main ways of constructing trenches: – entrenching, sapping, and tunneling.

• Entrenching is the method of digging: standing on the ground, and digging downwards. This method was most efficient, because many men were able to construct a trench at once. However, it also left the men exposed to the nearby enemy.

• Sapping involved digging at the ends of the trench inwards. Only a few men could do this at a time.

• Tunneling is like sapping, but leaving ground overhead that was to be later removed.

Layout of trenches• A trench was around two meters deep and two meters wide• the trench lines were never built in straight lines.• Trenches were dug zig-zagged,

– This prevented enemy troops from firing down the trench lines, and it helped prevent any gas attacks from spreading far down the line.

• Armies typically built three lines of trenches.– The first trench, known as the front line was closest to No Man's Land (the territory

controlled by neither side of a battle . On the Western Front, no man's land was covered with shell craters, mud, dead bodies, and barbed wire. To go out into no man's land in daylight was a death wish .The front line was connected to communication trenches to move supplies and men forward, without being exposed to the enemy.

– The second line, around 75 meters back, was the support trench, a “back-up” for the front line. If the enemy had successfully occupied the first trench, the support trench would be used instead.

– 300 meters back from the support trench, was the third trench. This was the reserve trench. The reserve troops could gather together for a counter-attack, if the first two trenches were occupied.

Living Conditions• Hundreds of soldiers crammed together in a constrained

space.• The nearby presence of the latrine added a horrible smell to

the trenches on The Western Front. In the front lines, soldiers set-aside specific areas of the trenches for latrines. When they became full of waste, they were covered with dirt and filled-in.– Latrine: a communal, makeshift toilet used in trenches.

• The overwhelming presence of dirt and filth because of living halfway underground and being unable to wash clothes and or change for days or weeks.

• A multitude of lice and rats led to the spread of disease• Maggots and flies thriving on decomposing human remains

Living conditions continued…

• Troops in the trenches were also subjected to the weather, considering that trenches were located outside and did not provide much coverage

• In the winter, the temperature was usually below 0 degrees in the trenches.• Trenches were usually filled up with water to the soldiers waists.

– An example of this was the winter of 1916-1917 in France and Flanders.– This particular winter was the coldest by many means:

• The trenches flooded with water, whenever it rained. Men suffered from exposure, frostbite, and trench foot (A fungal infection of the flesh caused by the foot being wet, cold, and constrained into boots for days. This would cripple a man).

Real life images of life in the trenches

• A image of the trenches when they were flooded.

• An image of a latrine being used in the trenches

Tactics & roles in trench warfare• Listening posts: Used to monitor enemy activity and to gather useful

information. Occupants of listening posts were expected to keep watch for any signs of enemy activity in the area, such as preparations for a gas attack.

• Barbed wire: This was strung by the mile in front of the opposing trenches. Its purpose was for when soldiers from one army charged across No Man's Land, they would become caught in the wire, and then shot down by machine gunners in the enemy trench.

• Poison(mustard) gas: It produced new forms of injuries that no man had seen before. Bodies were burnt and blistered all over, people went blind, and people struggled for breath until they would choke to death.

• Shell -fire: pieces of metal thrown by an exploding artillery shell. When shells exploded, men who didn’t take cover were exposed to flying shrapnel, which could kill them. WWI was the first war in which these artillery shells were used.

• Carrier pigeons: These pigeons were used to carry communications. not only for critical dispatches, but also often sent from the front line carrying status report messages back to the main headquarters. They are recorded of having a 95% success rate in navigating successfully to the proper destination.

Tactics & roles in trench warfare continued…

• Runners: A runner was a soldier responsible for passing on messages between fronts during the war. This was one of the most dangerous jobs of all, since these soldiers had to leave the safety of a trench. Runners were very important in WW1.– **FUN FACT** Hitler was a runner for the German army during WW1 and

was wounded twice.• Signalers: being a signaler meant you were close to the frontline troops, providing

signal communications back to your country. Signalers were also used to assist the artillery and provide information on their enemy targets. In these positions, the signaler became an easy target to enemy shelling and attack, therefore many signalers lost their lives.

• Snipers: a rifleman who hides and shoots at individual enemy soldiers. Sniper's on both sides kept watch for any enemy soldiers who might come above the trench line.

• sentry - a soldier placed as a lookout. If they fell asleep while on sentry duty, it was a serious offense and was sometimes punishable by death.

Here is an image of a carrier pigeon, that was used to deliver messages to an intended destination.

Rats and lice

• Rats: they filled themselves on human remains, and grew to massive sizes: some rats as big as cats.

• The rats would also sometimes eat the fresh rations (food given to soldiers) of the soldiers, and nibble at the soldiers as they slept or if they were wounded.

• The rodents would attack a corpse's eyes, and then burrow themselves into the bodies.

• They were a terrible problem because one pair of rats can produce as much as 880 offspring a year, leaving the trenches crawling with millions of them.

• Lice: Parasites that are hard to get rid of. • They bred in uniforms and caused the soldiers to itch.• The cause of the horribleTrench Fever

diseases• Trench fever: Trench Fever, a painful disease that began as a severe pain and a high fever.

This disease was caused by the bacterium which the lice spread. Many soldiers were unable to resist the disease. Only twelve weeks of recovery away from the trenches would cure it.

• Shell shock: A disease that caused the soldiers to have psychological trauma. The soldiers saw a lot of terrible things and experienced internal damage .Whenever a shell bomb would explode next to a certain soldier, the explosion would cause the soldier to get a concussion. This lead the soldier to leave the battlefield and be located to a hospital. Many of the soldiers that experienced Shell Shock were mentally and physically disabled for years.

• Trench foot: was another disease that spread to the soldiers in the Trenches. This disease was caused by the cold and wet conditions. For a long time the soldiers would stand in puddles of rain and waste. This caused their feet to numb and swell up. In some cases, the feet would have to be amputated.– Here is a primary source of what trench foot was like--- "If you have never had trench

foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.” (Harry Roberts)

entertainment

• During the war, the soldiers founds ways to entertain themselves when they were in the trenches. – One way that they would entertain themselves

would be to lure rats into their trench with food and when they got one, they would beat them with their shovels.

– Write in journals while in the trenches to record their memories.

– Read books.

QUIZ!

• 1. What was the name given to the gap between the trenches?

• 2. This disease was caused by wet and cold conditions and would affect a soldier’s feet.

• 3. These were used to monitor enemy activity and gather info on the enemy.

• 4. How many trenches were there per side and what was each one called?

• 5. This was known as a communal, makeshift toilet?• 6. Why were trenches dug in a zig-zagged way?

Answers!

• 1. no mans land• 2. trench foot• 3. Listening posts• 4. three; front line trench, reserve trench, and

support trench. • 5. latrine• 6. To help prevent gas attacks from going far

down the trench line.

Sources

• http://trenchwarfareworldwar1.weebly.com/living-conditions.html

• http://www.1914-1918.net/intrenches.htm• http://trenches.jynx.ca/?page=trenches• https://sites.google.com/site/

worldwar1class6/life-in-the-trenches/health-and-diseases-in-the-trenches