Trench Conditions
The conditions of the trenches in the Western Front were horrendous and often described as ‘hell on Earth’. They were harsh, stagnant and extremely hazardous, and despite the constant danger brought from machine gun fire, shells, grenades, poison gases and tanks from enemy lines, troops had to additionally deal with the physical and mental health risks and diseases brought by the severe conditions of the trenches. Many of these diseases were caused from weather change, lack of hygiene and a polluted environment.
The trenches were continually water-logged, muddy, and crawling with lice and rats. The unsanitary conditions that lacked a proper form of waste disposal and the abundance of rotting corpses made the trenches ideal breeding grounds for rats, causing an infestation which contributed to a varying range of diseases (such as Wiel’s Disease’).
Weather was also a contributing factor. The cold brought on by the winters in France were inevitable, and with only two blankets each, troops were forced to sleep as closely to one another in order to survive. These extreme weather changes brought the temperature down to below freezing, and soldiers would often awake with their eyelids frozen shut, and experience common cases of hyperthermia. Many soldiers could barely make it through the winters alone.
Another source of sickness was trench fever, brought on by the invasion of lice which were riddled throughout soldier’s clothes. Trench fever caused severe pains and high fevers, and recovery time took approximately twelve weeks, taking a toll on fatigued troops.
Trench Foot was another underlying issue within the trenches. It was a fungal infection brought on from standing in wet and unsanitary waters for extended periods of time (trenches were often three feet deep in water). These infections quickly turned gangrenous and often required surgical amputations.
As well as this, dysentery was additionally a dangerous condition caused from unsanitary conditions within the trenches and an infrequent supply of drinking water. Soldiers often resorted to drinking dirty water from shell holes and melted snow as a source of water, and ended up with bacterial infections of the intestines resulting in diarrhoea, fevers, vomiting and stomach aches (dehydration usually turned fatal).
Death was therefore a very common sight to be seen in the trenches. The shellfire from snipers and artillery, poison gas, disease and in many cases suicide from the warfare made soldiers within the trenches ready to face their death. Of the many soldiers involved in the trenches of the Western Front during WWI, over 200,000 died.
The trenches were continually water-logged, muddy, and crawling with lice and rats. The unsanitary conditions that lacked a proper form of waste disposal and the abundance of rotting corpses made the trenches ideal breeding grounds for rats, causing an infestation which contributed to a varying range of diseases (such as Wiel’s Disease’).
Weather was also a contributing factor. The cold brought on by the winters in France were inevitable, and with only two blankets each, troops were forced to sleep as closely to one another in order to survive. These extreme weather changes brought the temperature down to below freezing, and soldiers would often awake with their eyelids frozen shut, and experience common cases of hyperthermia. Many soldiers could barely make it through the winters alone.
Another source of sickness was trench fever, brought on by the invasion of lice which were riddled throughout soldier’s clothes. Trench fever caused severe pains and high fevers, and recovery time took approximately twelve weeks, taking a toll on fatigued troops.
Trench Foot was another underlying issue within the trenches. It was a fungal infection brought on from standing in wet and unsanitary waters for extended periods of time (trenches were often three feet deep in water). These infections quickly turned gangrenous and often required surgical amputations.
As well as this, dysentery was additionally a dangerous condition caused from unsanitary conditions within the trenches and an infrequent supply of drinking water. Soldiers often resorted to drinking dirty water from shell holes and melted snow as a source of water, and ended up with bacterial infections of the intestines resulting in diarrhoea, fevers, vomiting and stomach aches (dehydration usually turned fatal).
Death was therefore a very common sight to be seen in the trenches. The shellfire from snipers and artillery, poison gas, disease and in many cases suicide from the warfare made soldiers within the trenches ready to face their death. Of the many soldiers involved in the trenches of the Western Front during WWI, over 200,000 died.
First-Hand Experiences
--A segment of Pvt. Patrick Eccles diary:
“And then the wind is continually biting into you, it’s awful being stuck in these trenches during the long, cold, harsh winter with nothing to do and nowhere to go. And if it wasn’t cold it was wet, my trench has recently been flooded, and it took a whole 6 days for the water to drain away! And as if having to live knee deep in water wasn’t enough, there’s trench feet. This is when your feet swell up to the size of footballs and hurt like mad. But I was a lucky one, I still have my feet, two other men in my company had theirs amputated - mind you they did get to go home. I wish I could, anything would be better than this suffering.”
(http://www.westernfrontassociation.com, 2012, The Western Front Association)
“And then the wind is continually biting into you, it’s awful being stuck in these trenches during the long, cold, harsh winter with nothing to do and nowhere to go. And if it wasn’t cold it was wet, my trench has recently been flooded, and it took a whole 6 days for the water to drain away! And as if having to live knee deep in water wasn’t enough, there’s trench feet. This is when your feet swell up to the size of footballs and hurt like mad. But I was a lucky one, I still have my feet, two other men in my company had theirs amputated - mind you they did get to go home. I wish I could, anything would be better than this suffering.”
(http://www.westernfrontassociation.com, 2012, The Western Front Association)
--Harry Robert, a soldier from the war at the time wrote; "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." (Harry Robert).
--August Hope, an AIF soldier on the Western Front wrote about the horrors he experienced:
“It was 9 a.m. and the so-called trench was full of corpses and all sorts of equipment. We stood and sat on bodies as if they were stones or logs of wood. Nobody worried if one had its head stuck through or torn off, or a third had gory bones sticking out through its torn coat. And outside the trench one could see them lying in every kind of position..... And so they lay, in all their different positions, mostly Frenchman, with their heads battered in by blows from mallets and even spades, and all around rifles, equipment of all kinds and any number of kepis. The 154th had fought like furies in their attack, to revenge themselves for the shellfire. A heap of five corpses lay just this side of the barrier; we were constantly having to tread on them to try to squash them down in the mud, because, in consequence of the gunfire, we couldn’t get them out of the trench. Our feelings gradually became quite blunted.”"
(http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk)
“It was 9 a.m. and the so-called trench was full of corpses and all sorts of equipment. We stood and sat on bodies as if they were stones or logs of wood. Nobody worried if one had its head stuck through or torn off, or a third had gory bones sticking out through its torn coat. And outside the trench one could see them lying in every kind of position..... And so they lay, in all their different positions, mostly Frenchman, with their heads battered in by blows from mallets and even spades, and all around rifles, equipment of all kinds and any number of kepis. The 154th had fought like furies in their attack, to revenge themselves for the shellfire. A heap of five corpses lay just this side of the barrier; we were constantly having to tread on them to try to squash them down in the mud, because, in consequence of the gunfire, we couldn’t get them out of the trench. Our feelings gradually became quite blunted.”"
(http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk)
--“Trench stinks of shallow buried dead Where Tom stands at the periscope, Tired out. After nine months he's shed All fear, all faith, all hate, all hope"
- Robert Graves (Through the Periscope, 1915)
- Robert Graves (Through the Periscope, 1915)