What is trench warfare
Trench warfare was a very dangerous way to fight, but was the only way during World War 1. The trenches were where troops could shelter from attack.These were ditches, deep enough to protect soldiers from any types of flying shrapnel (which is a bomb shell). Trench warfare was a type of combat, on the land were troops would fight from trenches facing each other. Trenches were muddy, miserable and dangerous places, because they had diseases from rats and lice. Soldiers in the trenches didn't get much sleep, they would only sleep in the afternoon and maybe get an hour at night. The first trenches dug in World War One were on the Western Front. The front line was 50 yards to a mile from its enemy counterpart, which was guarded by barbed wire and sandbags. The trenches were designed in zig-zag pattern to minimize causalities if the trench was over-run by the enemy.
“Whilst asleep during the night, we were frequently awakened by rats running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim (History Learning Site, 2014).”
- An Australian R.L Venables letter
The effects of trench warfare on the soldiers
During World War 1, soldiers were forced to fight their enemies in trenches. This put them through hell as they had to deal with the death of their brothers, bullets being fired upon them every day, diseases due to unsanitary conditions, the harsh weather and many more (historyrocket.com, 2012). One deadly disease that soldiers encountered was called Trench Foot. It is developed after soldiers spend many hours of the day standing muddy and dirty water. Standing in unsanitary waters for long periods of time causes the feet to turn black and soft. Thus harmful bacteria enter the body and a fungal infection starts to grow. Army Doctors are forced to amputate the soldier’s foot in order to save them from blood poisoning. In fact, by the end of World War 1, 20 000 British soldiers had already had their feet amputated due to Trench Foot (Duffy, 2009), (Ray, 2001). Soldiers fighting on the front line also had to deal with rats that grew to the size of cats, lice that fed on your skin alive and poison gas from the enemy. Rats presented a problem because they fed on the dead remains of soldiers and at the same time, spread diseases such as Rat Bite fever, Lassa fever and lice. One major problem that the soldiers faced whilst in trenches was the weather. In 1916, Australian soldiers experienced a winter like no other. The conditions during the winter were so bad, that the soldier’s eye lids were frozen shut a few hours of sleep and not caring about continuing to live anymore. One soldier that wrote a letter to home describes how harsh living in trenches was like (ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee (Qld) Incorporated, 1998)
Corporal A.G. Thomas wrote, |
Sergeant R.A. McInnes wrote into his journal, |