Trench Warfare

Four Years of Digging In

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ttgw_ww1-hell-in-the-tre
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 What are Trenches?
► Trenches are large ditches that were built all
along the Western and Eastern front of
World War I
► They were where the soldiers were
stationed during battle
► There were different trenches
► They were the following:
The Overall Trench System
 Front Line Trenches
► They were the trenches were the firing lines
closest to enemy lines
► Machine guns were placed at key positions
to rake enemy lines with bullets
A Front Line Trench
 Support Trenches and
Communication Trenches
► Served as command and supply posts
► Communication trenches ran at right angles to the
support trenches
► Sap trenches were used as lookouts.
► They snaked out to specific spots or machine gun
nests situated in no-man’s land
► There were also blind alleys or “false trenches” to
confuse the enemy if the trenches were captured
On Overview of the Trench System
What was it like for the Soldiers?
► Soldiers spent 6 days in the front-line
trenches at a time
► Soldiers then fell back to the support
trenches for another 6 days where they
would be used to transport ammunition and
supplies to the front lines
► They were then sent out of the trench
systems for 12 days to abandoned
farmhouses, barracks or barns to rest
 Physical Conditions
► Soldiers ate, slept and fought in the
trenches
► During the day they repaired the walls
which were 2 metres deep and 2 metres
down
► They were as deep as they could go until
they hit water
► This means that they spent most of their
time standing in water
What are the effects of constant
moisture on the human body?
 Physical Problems
► The soldiers went for weeks without washing their
bodies or changing their clothes
► They were infested with body lice which caused
Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that
began suddenly with severe pain followed by high
fever. Recovery - away from the trenches - took
up to twelve weeks
► Many got trench foot from their feet being
constantly surrounded by water
 Trench Foot
► Feetswelled up to three or four times their
normal size
► They went numb
► When the swelling went down, the pain was
agonizing
► Sometimes gangrene set in which lead to
amputation of feet and legs
► Even small sores got infected
What did Trench Foot Look Like?
 Barbed Wire
► Trenches were lined with barbed wire from
the outside
► It meant that for soldiers to get out of the
trenches, they were sometimes having to
crawl over barbed wire
► What was the physical result of this?
 Pets
► There were various animals that could be found in the
trenches, perhaps the worst of all were the rats
► Rats were a constant companion in the trenches in their
millions they were everywhere, gorging themselves on
human remains (grotesquely disfiguring them by eating
their eyes and liver) they could grow to the size of a cat.
► Men tried to kill them with bullets shovels or anything else
they had at hand, but they were fighting a losing battle as
only 1 pair of rats can produce 900 offspring in a year.
► Some soldiers believed that the rats knew when there was
going to be a heavy bombardment from the enemy lines
because they always seemed to disappear minutes before
an attack.
► Millions of frogs were found in shell holes
covered in water; they were also found in
the base of trenches
► Slugs and horned beetles crowded the sides
of the trench.
 No Man’s Land
► It is a term used for the area of land between two
enemy trenches that neither side wishes to openly
move on or take control of due to fear of being
attacked by the enemy in the process.
► If you were injured or killed in No Man’s Land, you
could not usually be rescued or carried away
► It took days for some men to die and nobody
could do anything to help them
 Something to Consider

What does a
situation like this do
to your humanity?
 Going Over the Top
► Describes the act of a soldier going over the
top of the trench system to rush into the
enemy’s territory
► It was a dangerous action that often got the
soldier killed