LIVING CONDITIONS
The Daily Routine
The soldiers had a routine when it was not interrupted by an attack or raid against the enemy or defending against the enemy when they attacked. The routine started by-
Stand to at Dawn
It began with the morning ‘stand to’. An hour before dawn the soldiers were woken up and every one would take their positions so they could fire at the enemy if they were attacked. They had to be ready because this was the time when most of the attacks would happen, since it was not as bright and not to dark. As it got brighter the tension of the early hours with machine gun fire, shelling in their front were not as tens as it was at dawn.
Breakfast and weapon cleaning
After the ‘stand to’ the men would have their breakfast and clean their weapons. The breakfast would come from the field kitchens if there was enough everyone would eat, until they were full. At the beginning of the war, soldiers got just over one pound of meat, the same amount in bread and eight ounces of vegetables each day. As the war went on it war harder to find fresh meat so it was reduced to 6 ounces of 'bully beef' which is known as corn beef today. The soldiers would put a sauce on their beef which was like barbecue sauce but much stronger so change the taste of the beef.
Inspection
The daily inspection would be checked to make sure that the weapons were clean and serviceable as for the men they would check their health conditions. This would include trench foot. Trench foot was basically fungal inspection on their foot. This infection was caused by wet, cold and unsanitary trench conditions. The worst that could happen to their foot was an amputation. About 20,000 men of the British army alone in 1914 were told that they had trench foot, but as the conditions improved in 1915 it rapidly faded.
The daily Boredom
Since there were barely any attacks in the daytime the men would get bored and have nothing to do since they were not assigned to any task of one kind. While their daily chores completed, the men were free to attend to their personal tasks such as cleaning and repairing their personal equipment, reading writing letters home or preparing meals. If not anything the men would just go to sleep.
Stand to dusk
This would basically be the same thing as stand at dawn but it was at dusk. So they had to get in position so they could be ready if an enemy attacked.
Re-supply and Maintenance
The men would be ordered to ‘stand down’ and the nights work of re-supply and maintenance would begin. Men would be sent to the rear fetch rations and water whilst others would be on guard duty. Guard duty would be really boring and there was a real big chance that they would go to sleep and if they were to get caught the penalty for that would be death because, falling asleep on duty was considered to be serious offence.
Patrolling, Listening Posts and Wiring Parties
As the sun was about to set the men were on patrolling duty. Since it was getting darker that meant that the enemies could come out and attack the solders. The men had to stay alert and had to dominate no man’s land to prevent the enemy mounting a raid during the night time.
The soldiers had a routine when it was not interrupted by an attack or raid against the enemy or defending against the enemy when they attacked. The routine started by-
Stand to at Dawn
It began with the morning ‘stand to’. An hour before dawn the soldiers were woken up and every one would take their positions so they could fire at the enemy if they were attacked. They had to be ready because this was the time when most of the attacks would happen, since it was not as bright and not to dark. As it got brighter the tension of the early hours with machine gun fire, shelling in their front were not as tens as it was at dawn.
Breakfast and weapon cleaning
After the ‘stand to’ the men would have their breakfast and clean their weapons. The breakfast would come from the field kitchens if there was enough everyone would eat, until they were full. At the beginning of the war, soldiers got just over one pound of meat, the same amount in bread and eight ounces of vegetables each day. As the war went on it war harder to find fresh meat so it was reduced to 6 ounces of 'bully beef' which is known as corn beef today. The soldiers would put a sauce on their beef which was like barbecue sauce but much stronger so change the taste of the beef.
Inspection
The daily inspection would be checked to make sure that the weapons were clean and serviceable as for the men they would check their health conditions. This would include trench foot. Trench foot was basically fungal inspection on their foot. This infection was caused by wet, cold and unsanitary trench conditions. The worst that could happen to their foot was an amputation. About 20,000 men of the British army alone in 1914 were told that they had trench foot, but as the conditions improved in 1915 it rapidly faded.
The daily Boredom
Since there were barely any attacks in the daytime the men would get bored and have nothing to do since they were not assigned to any task of one kind. While their daily chores completed, the men were free to attend to their personal tasks such as cleaning and repairing their personal equipment, reading writing letters home or preparing meals. If not anything the men would just go to sleep.
Stand to dusk
This would basically be the same thing as stand at dawn but it was at dusk. So they had to get in position so they could be ready if an enemy attacked.
Re-supply and Maintenance
The men would be ordered to ‘stand down’ and the nights work of re-supply and maintenance would begin. Men would be sent to the rear fetch rations and water whilst others would be on guard duty. Guard duty would be really boring and there was a real big chance that they would go to sleep and if they were to get caught the penalty for that would be death because, falling asleep on duty was considered to be serious offence.
Patrolling, Listening Posts and Wiring Parties
As the sun was about to set the men were on patrolling duty. Since it was getting darker that meant that the enemies could come out and attack the solders. The men had to stay alert and had to dominate no man’s land to prevent the enemy mounting a raid during the night time.
Hygiene
Hygiene played a big role in trench warfare since so many men were dying or getting sick from it. The men had to live with death on a daily basis. Meaning that they had to get used to death around them since men were always on the verge of dying. Most men died of death by enemy shelling. There were no warnings that the enemy was about to bomb them, but instead the enemy brought random death to the trenches. Many men dies from this and were buried under the trenches and some were even buried alive.
- Rats
There were rats everywhere, you could find them in about every place that you can think of. There were two types of rats on was the black and the other was the brown rat. They were both distrusting but the brown one was more since it eat of human remains, they would grow to a size of a cat. Some rats would go over your face if you were sleeping at night. The men would try to kill as many rats as possible as a game. They would use whatever they could find in order to kill them from a gun to a golf club.
Lice
Lice was normal in the trenches, everyone how lived in the trenches had lice. An estimate of 97% of officers and men who worked and lived in the trenches had lice. This was a never-ending problem lice would just keep on breeding in the clothing of the men. It was like haven for the lice but a nightmare for the soldiers. Men would shave their head completely since they were so fed up with lice on their head, but they still had lice everywhere else on their body. This caused trench fever, which was a disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by a high fever.
- The smell
The smell in the trenches was horrible. The smell was a combination of rotting flesh, overflowing latrine, the stench of humanity, the smell of disinfectant, the smell of battle. All this combined smelled horrible.
Lice was normal in the trenches, everyone how lived in the trenches had lice. An estimate of 97% of officers and men who worked and lived in the trenches had lice. This was a never-ending problem lice would just keep on breeding in the clothing of the men. It was like haven for the lice but a nightmare for the soldiers. Men would shave their head completely since they were so fed up with lice on their head, but they still had lice everywhere else on their body. This caused trench fever, which was a disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by a high fever.
- The smell
The smell in the trenches was horrible. The smell was a combination of rotting flesh, overflowing latrine, the stench of humanity, the smell of disinfectant, the smell of battle. All this combined smelled horrible.
Trench foot
Trench foot was really disgusting and painful for the soldiers. Trench foot was a medical condition caused by too much time and exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, and cold conditions. In WW1 the British army had a total of 20 000 casualties resulting from trench foot alone. Trench foot was that bad that soldiers had to get the toes or their whole foot amputated. Think of your foot being in water for a long time, trench foot was a hundred times worst because the foot would get fungus on it and would start to rotten where when you foots in water it just gets wrinkly and you think that’s it’s the worst thing that can happen throughout the day.
Trench foot was really disgusting and painful for the soldiers. Trench foot was a medical condition caused by too much time and exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, and cold conditions. In WW1 the British army had a total of 20 000 casualties resulting from trench foot alone. Trench foot was that bad that soldiers had to get the toes or their whole foot amputated. Think of your foot being in water for a long time, trench foot was a hundred times worst because the foot would get fungus on it and would start to rotten where when you foots in water it just gets wrinkly and you think that’s it’s the worst thing that can happen throughout the day.