On the inside, the trenches were reinforced with wood beams and sandbags to prevent them from collapsing, in case of a direct artillery hit. As the seasons changed and rain fell, life could become miserable for soldiers, even when they weren't under fire. The trenches of World War I are primarily associated with suffering and death where soldiers lived in constant fear of enemy attacks or contracting deadly diseases. Parapets were built at the top of the trench and firing steps around 5 feet from the floor of the trench were made for men to stand on to spy on or shoot at the enemy over the parapet. A nurse didnt help us or anything. Accession Number: E00081 Australian ambulance workers near Bernafay, transporting men suffering from trench foot to hospital. An American nurse wearing a gas mask while working in the trenches. Museo Centrale del Risorgimento/Mondadori via Getty Images. Jimmy, great hub about the trenches in WW1. A flamethrower attack during the German Spring Offensive. As mentioned, to do so during the day would be extremely risky, and so it was typically done at night or out of the range of the enemy. Soldiers would often have to share bivouacs with other soldiers, which led to close friendships forming between them. The trench systems on the Western Front were roughly 475 miles long, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps, although not in a continuous line. Jools Hogg from North-East UK on June 21, 2012: Jimmy, great hub. The undermining of enemy fortifications can be traced back to the fall of the walls of Jericho. Trenches of World War I Well the Battle of Champagne started about the middle of February and lasted for nearly four weeks. However, as the months went on and casualties mounted, both sides found themselves fighting in trenches more and more often. For most of the war, coverage and photographic imagery would be tightly controlled and although the publication of the daily casualty figures would be available in black and white every morning, these cold numbers were deliberately kept distant from their visual and visceral reality. I cannot begin for an instance to know what these young men went through. Stagnant mud, cigarette smoke, the smoke from cooking food. A group of Portuguese soldiers entering a "gas trench" as part of their training for gas warfare during World War I. In this article, we will take a look at what life was like for soldiers living in these trenches. The trenches were often very cramped and uncomfortable, and they could be filled with water when it rained. Yet, strangely, none of these men died during the war. Here, British soldiers occupy a German trench in at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, France during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Anyway, it stinks," the soldier wrote in an account featured in Traces of War. The end result was a complex system of tunnels that mirrored the trench lines above. The defeat at theFirst Battle of Marne would have meant they needed to retreat and lose land. Very quickly the trench lines of the Western Front ran from the sea, in the north, to Switzerland, in the south. There were Field kitchens set up away from the front line cooking meals for the soldiers fighting in the trenches. This is a condition caused by exposure to damp and cold conditions. LauraGSpeaks from Raleigh, NC on June 29, 2012: What a wonderful, complete hub. Privacy Policy. No one living in the trenches escaped them, men shaved their heads and shaved all of their body hair to try to avoid infection but the lice lived in their clothes. There were three standard ways to dig a trench: entrenching, sapping, andtunneling. Group of men simply dig to a certain depth, and fortify their new positions. World War I archaeology may be most different from the archaeology of previous periods in that living families are still impacted by the discoveries made in the trenches. How wide were the trenches in ww1? Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Why was it implemented over traditional battle? And while disease had been common during past wars often killing more soldiers than combat World War I also marked the first conflict in history to have more deaths caused by combat than any other factor. How was this done? Great job as usual Jimmy. A fatigue party carrying duckboards out of a support line trench at night in Cambrai. 1914. When he pricked them with his needle and you jumped he knew life was there again. In fact one trench I had, I had a boot showing out of the side of the trench and on investigating I found there was a Frenchman attached to the boot. that's not very big if think how many men there were living in them. When, Where, and Why was ground broken to begin with? But in some cases the German trenches were already better than the British - as officer Peter Jackson found out during the Christmas Truce of December 1914. Gas attacks and flamethrowers often led to painful, agonizing deaths for soldiers, whose bodies were left to pile up in the trenches-turned-graves that they had helped build. By 1915, both sides were mainly using ammonal explosives, but other types were also trialled. Those first trenches we had I think had been French that area had been French trenches. Soldiers were also at risk from enemy snipers. A number of larger attacks took place in the early months of 1915. The Germans would often drive their shafts deeper than the British and French, and then line their tunnels with timber, even if they were dug into the hard chalk. To complement the historical images, archaeologists rely on modern aerial imaging. Then, ooh, painful, terrible. On June 7, 1917, British forces detonated 19 massive mines beneath German trenches, blasting tons of soil, steel, and bodies into the sky. Soldiers in the trenches spent their time in unsanitary conditions among open latrines, others who went days without bathing or changing their clothes, and the remains of many men who lost . Voices of the First World Waris a podcast series that reveals the impact the war had on everyone who lived through it through the stories of the men and women who were there. A British soldier rests in a waterlogged trench in Belgium. The explosions were so loud that the noise was heard in Downing Street. India Arnold from Northern, California on June 20, 2012: I am amazed at the difference in ration sizes of the British or Allied soldier vs the German soldiers. They picked out spots where they would get good observation on the enemy lines and would watch, say, a weak point in the parapet where it was shallow, and as soon as a German went by they would let him have it. licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/), Pingback: Exploring the War Underground | World War I Centenary, Pingback: The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars | DavidCarrigg.ca, Unless otherwise stated content on this site is Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales, Created by the Learning Technologies Group, IT Services, University of Oxford. These were almost entirely men whod been big game hunters and were crack shots with rifles, they were used to stalking and if they had any kind of a target at all theyd be sure to hit it. Trench warfare featured prominently in World War I. Id never seen anything so fantastic in my life as the German dugouts. This made them a breeding ground for disease, which was a constant threat to soldiers' health. A consequence of this was that very little of the war could actually be seen from the frontlines. It is one of the recommended novels for the final year of high school in British Columbia, and it is grim, poetic, beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. What a miserable place the trenches must have been. Although there is no official figure of how many soldiers died from these diseases on both fronts, the number is estimated to be as high as 100,000 fatalities. Although Trenches in World War 1 provided soldiers with the most needed protection from bullets and shells, they also did carry their own risks. They were very muddy, uncomfortable and the toilets overflowed. Around 12 feet deep and between 3-5 feet wide, the floor of the trench was made from wooden planks or duckboards. To support our blog and writers we put affiliate links and advertising on our page. You didnt feel it you see. SeM/Universal Images Group via Getty Images. 1918. But our boots froze while we were sleeping it was painful. How long was the longest trench in WW1? - ElegantQuestion.com Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. A direct hit could still dissolve a trench into the Mudscape of No Mans land, but nevertheless they offered a measure of security and a respite from the terrors and dangers of the Front. At the top of the trenches were sandbags to protect the soldiers from enemy fire, there were often small gaps between the sandbags for the soldiers to watch enemy movements or to fire through. This content is accurate and true to the best of the authors knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from What were trenches like in WWI? Between 1914 and 1918, more than eight million military personnel died and more than six million civilians were killed. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Science can explain why. The German officers when they came out their boots must have been polished by their batsmen til they shone as if they were going on parade. I mean your boots were good and of course you had puttees, you see, went up your legs to your knees. A doctor used to come round in the morning and just feel at your toes, you know, feel at your feet. Are electric bikes the future of green transportation? Wait a moment and try again. If you just caught your toes then itd make you scream. With so much death and decay, rats soon became a nuisance in the trenches, eating the flesh of soldiers who had fallen in combat. Being stiff as boards, we just hacked the skirt off about two feet up the skirt with bayonets and walked about in short coats. In total, the trench systems on the Western Front are estimated to have stretched for roughly 475 miles. There were no toilets or washing facilities for the men the smell of faeces and urine filled the air, even the creosote used to mask the smell of the cesspits had its own unique aroma. It can lead to inflammation, numbness, and even gangrene. This trench contained reserve troops ready for deployment to the front line trench on very short notice in case of an emergency. No-man's land was also full of dangerous obstacles, such as barbed wire and shell craters. Furthermore, heavy rains has had turned the landscape into a thick layer of mud, as deep as one meter in some places. Dead British and German soldiers near the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a fortified position on the German lines that was the site of brutal fighting during the Battle of Loos. Fighting in the trenches was horrific and futile, before an attack a bombardment of shells would be fired into the enemy lines. Cartoon by Frank Dunne Accession Number: E00572 Captain C.E.W. The trenches of World War I are one of the most significant topics of study when learning about the First World War. The answer lies somewhere between "with great difficulty" and "they didn't." Although WWI was known as the Great War, trench hygiene was anything but great. World War 1 was a brutal and bloody conflict that saw casualties mounting on all sides, but perhaps the most dangerous position during the war was deep down in the trenches. The trenches only offered so much protection against enemy fire as British private A Cochrane witnessed. Check out today's epic new video to find out what really made life in the trenches suck! SUBSCRIBE TO THE INFOGRAPHICS SHOW https://www.youtube.com/c/theinfographicsshowOFFICIAL?sub_confirmation=1 MY SOCIAL PAGESTikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@theinfographicsshowDiscord https://discord.gg/theinfoshowFacebook https://www.facebook.com/TheInfographicsShowTwitter https://twitter.com/TheInfoShow Find more interesting stuff on:https://www.theinfographicsshow.com SOURCES:All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted. These rats grew so bold that they would sometimes crawl over sleeping soldiers and steal food from their pockets. 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. This Hub is wonderfully written. It won't be its last. Nurses used to laugh at us! artillery. I went inside the German trenches down to the German officers dugout. The threat could be from snipers, shellfire or from taking part in a trench raid or a major offensive. But the statistics that really astonish archaeologist Birger Stichelbaut are the ones that show how deeply the landscape was transformed in parts of Europe: A 37-mile stretch along one 420-mile front line in Belgium, for instance, was shot through with more than 3,000 miles of trenches. And this shell from the pom-pom arrived and blew half his head off. And the trenches often hurt more than they helped. Circa 1917. However, the 31st Australian Battalion is recorded to have once spent 53 days in the front-line trench, which was an isolated case. A discovery that sticks with archaeologist Simon Verdegem is a German backpack with a teddy bear inside, found near the Belgian village of Langemark during the construction of a gas pipeline. According to HISTORY, this strategy proved ineffective, and so forces later began mounting surprise attacks from the trenches at night. They would play cards or dice, or sing songs. Soldiers who stood in water for too long and could not dry their feet fell victim to this disease. And when we got together wed [barks] have a bit of a dog fight. Why did these shark hunters bury their dead with extra limbs? This photo, shot in 1917, captures an image of a battlefield in Soissons, France. Please find our full statement here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/14dd0ae/askhistorians_will_remain_in_limited_operation/. Finally, all three parallel trenches were interconnected by the fourth trench known as the communication trench. Troops transporting a wounded soldier through the narrow trench system. LiDAR surveys reveal just how much of the landscape in Western Europe is still marked by zig-zag trenches, shelling craters, and other remnants that may not be obvious on the ground. In the end, the total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I exceeded 40 million, with more than 20 million dead and 20 million wounded. Living in the cold and wet led many soldiers to get trench foot. For instance at Maison Blanche, a souterraine near the village of Neuville St Vasst, Private Lacey, who would not survive the war, drew pictures on the bare chalk walls of the animals on his family farm back home in Canada, a link to an idyllic past which was forever shattered by a global war. British soldiers lined up in a narrow trench. The Germans, their lines designed to be permanent, incorporated running water and electricity into their underground spaces. Along much of the rest of the Front they were dug into the harder chalk, which proved to be excellent material for the construction of tunnels. When World War I is mentioned, the first thing that comes to every persons mind is muddy and rat-infested trenches with dead bodies in every corner. The body of a dead German soldier lies in a trench. Graham Lee from Lancashire. Virginia Allain from Central Florida on November 07, 2014: This is most informative. In this article lets explore the Top 10 Facts about the Trenches and Life in Trenches during World War I. read about the countries involved in WW1. Apart from the frontline trenches, there were the support trenches which were used for supply and medical purposes. IWM (Q 51569), Two German soldiers in curtained-off bunkbeds. And the overcoats, the greatcoats, of course were frozen and the yellow clay that was on them was frozen too, very hard to get it off, it was a great weight. These large mines greatly aided large-scale infantry attacks, but smaller mines, or camouflets, were also used to collapse the enemys tunnels. Verdegem says he was surprised that most of the archaeological remains discovered at Wijtschate dated to a little-known battle that took place in 1914, rather than a major battle that occurred in 1917 when Allied troops launched a surprise attack on Wijtschate to retake a German stronghold. protect soldiers from enemy fire. Eventually we had to go over the top and we went on so far but we didnt meet the enemy because theyd gone on too far and we were called away on our left to occupy another trench. To provide much-needed relief, each group of soldiers would usually spend between four to six days in the front-line trenches before being relieved by another group. Many of the soldiers that inhabited these unique places were not professional soldiers, but civilian artisans, such as stone-masons, carpenters, painters or craftsmen, that had signed up to go to war. Life in the trenches of the First World War - The Long, Long Trail We came across some French soldiers, I dont know what they were doing up there I dont think they were far away, but they had thick felt boots and a kind of rubber outside. 1914-1918. "The landscape today remains the last witness.". Even after their clothes were washed, eggs laid in the seams by the lice would hatch and re-infect the soldiers. The constant dampness led to a condition known as "trench foot," which caused dead tissue to spread across the foot and could require amputation if left untreated otherwise, the afflicted soldier could die of infection. Main casualties during the first tours in the line were caused by enemy snipers. See some of the most horrific images of World War I trenches in the gallery below, then learn more about the history behind this catastrophic warfare. This is where soldiers would stand watch and keep an eye out for enemy activity. One survivor of the attack on the Messines ridge talked of chunks of debris the size of houses raining down form the sky after the massive detonation of the Spanbroekmolen mine highlighting the awesome destructive power of this industrial weapon of war. Its incredible how camouflaged they can be. Some trenches even had libraries, where soldiers could borrow books to pass the time. Men of the Lancashire Fusiliers on the Western Front. Trench warfare meant that a war that many thought would be over by Christmas, would now be a long and drawn out war. A captured German soldier being interrogated. World War I: Life in the Trenches - Primary Facts Nature really is good medicine. I'll add a link for it onto my hubs about my grandfather and my great-uncle in WWI. (John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields.". For more information, please see our October 28, 1914. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Imperial War Museum image Q667. Voted up and interesting. and our Around 12 feet deep and between 3-5 feet wide, the floor of the trench was made from wooden planks or duckboards. So I got the tin opener in my hand all ready to open this tin of beef when a shell burst and I felt a terrific bang on my right arm which caused me to drop the tin opener in the mud; I never found it again. Gas attacks and flamethrowers often led to painful, agonizing deaths for soldiers, whose bodies were left to pile up in the trenches-turned-graves that they had helped build. The trenches were often full of water, mud, and human waste. A dead British soldier lies at the bottom of a trench, near St. Quentin, France. In At the end of the day, life in the trenches was difficult and dangerous. Each part of a trench would be given different names depending on their purpose. The Trenches of WWI. The science of explosives was perfected, allowing for different types of mines, which could be controlled with incredible accuracy. 1. Their well-constructed trenches soon became an impenetrable barrier that the Allies found impossible to breach. Larger attacks soon began again. Trenches took a mental toll on many soldiers as well. Tenches were holes that were dug into the ground to hide soldiers from enemy fire. Top 15 Things to do Around the Eiffel Tower. "Is it the Styx, you ask? Front Line Trench The front line trenches were generally about 8 feet deep and between 4 and 6 feet wide. The attack was like this. For J Reid, an NCO in the 6th Gordon Highlanders, life in the trenches was exhausting. JamesWorld War 1 Here are some facts about life in the World War 1 trenches. "All the people who actually witnessed the First World War have all passed away," says Stichelbaut. In more advanced cases the feet would begin to swell, blisters and open sores would appear in the skin and if left untreated fungal infection would set in. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to wet and cold conditions in the trenches also caused deadly trench foot and trench fever diseases which were the most rampant on the western front. A typical field kitchen used in The Great War. It was now impossible to flank the enemys lines and the business of attacking over No Mans Land was hazardous in the extreme, so both sides looked to attack from below. What Was Hygiene Like In The Trenches In WW1? - Ranker Something went wrong. Circa 1916. For centuries, the French had been using the chalk that lay below a thin layer of earth for building their towns and villages, leaving large voids deep in the belly of the earth. It is written as a novel, but he wasn't making it up. Early developments A trench system may begin simply as a collection of foxholes hastily dug by troops using their entrenching tools. With much of the surface traces of the war now consumed by the farmers plough, or the relentless march of modernity, the subterranean worlds beneath the old frontlines are some of the last remaining archaeological and anthropological vestiges that can still provide tangible evidence of the soldiers life at war. So some of us would walk about at night and swing the arms to keep warm. For British troops, like Walter Becklake, the Battle of Neuve Chappelle in March 1915 marked the start of a new year of fighting. HubPages is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Royal Engineers, along with their Canadian and Australian counterparts, as well as the German Pioneer battalions, expanded these systems to impressive dimensions that could accommodate vast numbers of troops close to the front. The "Digging in" meant that gaining territory from the enemy would be much more difficult to achieve for the armies because it was almost impossible to move over land without falling prey to a stray bullet or shell. Thank you. Different nationalities approached the business of tunnelling in their own unique ways. The Dig Hill 80 project revealed a network of WWI trenches and underground infrastructure in Wijtschate, Belgium, including this staircase leading to what was once a dugout. Along with the forward trenches that faced the enemy, a complex network of other trenches was also created. And of course the French were a little bit casual because the back area was generally a sort of latrine they used it as a latrine and also they had been very casual in burying their dead. Fighting ground to a stalemate. However, for many soldiers, it was also a time of great comradeship and friendship. Insects were everywhere flies, bees, wasps, horned beetles, worms, ants all adding to the unsanitary conditions. - History Skills Home For Students For Teachers Studying History Historical Knowledge Background Knowledge Chronology Change and Continuity Causes and Consequences Significance Motives and Historical Empathy Researching 1. Both sides of the war used trenches and, over time, these holes grew in depth and length, and eventually became small towns that had their own living Photo and information on rationing were really informative. The underground aspect of the war is one that relatively little is known about, and is in turn often forgotten or marginalised, yet it offers perhaps the truest reflection of life and conflict during the Great War. Source Research 5. At the time, in the common idiom, war was a glorious business, an exciting adventure that offered the chance to become a man, a modern-day knight who would adorn the pages of great books about heroism and the . The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War.Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France.The German advance was halted with the Battle of the Marne.Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a . camaraderie. Voices of the First World War: War in Winter Here, British soldiers occupy a German trench in at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, France during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. There was no 24-hour news coverage or the steady stream of television images from the front that we are so used to seeing today. Machine Gun Nest Loading The machine gun nest was where the machine guns were located. Since the start of the twentieth century, Britain and Germany had been locked in a bitter rivalry to build bigger and better warships. Soldiers may never have gotten used to this combination of smells but they learned to live with them. Its very hard to say how many they got but I think they paid the Germans quite well for any of our men that they shot. Typical army to lecture soldiers on keeping their feet dry and clean - of course they would've, if they could've! A German Mark IV tank known as "Hyacinth" stuck in a trench. An aerial view of the Dig Hill 80 excavation site with the town of Wijtschate in the background. Men slept in dugouts cut into the sides of the trenches and smaller cut-outs were used to store food and equipment. Colossal gravitational waves found for the first time. Part of History (Environment and society) World War One Jump to Zone Rouge World War One Fronts The reward of answering the call for army recruits was the horror of trench warfare with its rats,. Every high school student should read your hub, too. Organise Quotes 6. Did you ever read All Quiet on the Western Front, by Rainer Maria Rilke? Eric Dockett from USA on February 28, 2013: Very interesting Hub. Rotting food left by soldiers in the heat of battle and the smell of the men themselves.
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