Life in the Trenches Flashcards
Why were the trenches built?
To protect themselves from machine guns
How were the trenches built?
Building walls and barricades of earth, with sand and wood above
How long were the soldiers fighting in the trenches for? Why?
over 3 years because they couldn’t cross no man’s land. if they did, they would die
What made Trench Life so difficult for the soldiers?
- cold
- tough sleeping conditions
- constant danger
- disease
Free time
- lots of letters were sent, letter writing was encouraged
- writing poetry
- sculptures were created as souvenirs and to use free-time out of scrap metal. the soldiers would etch, carve and weld
Food
Biscuits along with other foods were very hard
Daily routine
- Stand to dawn: an hour before dawn soldiers were made to ‘stand to’
- The Morning Hate: both sides fire machine guns and rifles at each other
- Breakfast and weapon cleaning: some eat, some clean
- Daily chores: everyone assigned different chores
- Stand to dusk: ‘stand to’
- Repairs and patrols: repair trenches or patrol no mans land
- Described as hell
- Lots of standing in lots of mud
Trench foot
Feet swell 3x the size, very painful, either swelling will go down but will still go in pain, or amputation.
Soldiers check each other’s feet.
Lice
infestations, laid eggs, bite, drink blood. Soldiers left with boils and itches - couldn’t get rid of them
Rats
Hundreds and hundreds, bite, eat flesh of dead soldiers
Shell shock
Affected by: lack of sleep, irregular meals, lice torment, under heavy shell, fire constantly, the thought of their death, nerves always on end. 80,000 cases after war
Emotional wounds
- large amounts of combatants couldn’t cope with strain of warfare
- 1/7 of the personnel discharged with disabilities had war neuroses.
- excluding wounds, emotional disorders made 1/3 of the remaining discharged.
