In their spare time, soldiers wrote letters and diaries, drew sketches, read books and magazines, pursued hobbies, played cards or gambled. There were also opportunities for more-organised social activities.
in addition, Why did trenches exist?
The terrible casualties sustained in open warfare meant that trench warfare was introduced very quickly. Trenches provided a very efficient way for soldiers to protect themselves against heavy firepower and within four months, soldiers on all fronts had begun digging trenches.
Also, Why did the trenches smell so bad?
Some men disappeared into the mud because it was so thick. The trenches had a horrible smell. This was because of the lack of bathing, the dead bodies, and the overflowing toilets. … They could smell cordite, the lingering odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke, and cooking food.
in the same way What did soldiers eat in the trenches? The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), bread and biscuits. By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips. The main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat.
Where did soldiers sleep in the trenches ww1?
Getting to sleep
When able to rest, soldiers in front line trenches would try and shelter from the elements in dugouts. These varied from deep underground shelters to small hollows in the side of trenches – as shown here.
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How did soldiers use dead bodies in the trenches?
Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. If a trench subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. … They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse.
Do ww1 trenches still exist?
A few of these places are private or public sites with original or reconstructed trenches preserved as a museum or memorial. Nevertheless, there are still remains of trenches to be found in remote parts of the battlefields such as the woods of the Argonne, Verdun and the mountains of the Vosges.
How did they dig the trenches in ww1?
The WWI trenches were built as a system, in a zigzag pattern with many different levels along the lines. … Sometimes the soldiers would simply dig the trenches straight into the ground – a method known as entrenching. Entrenching was fast, but the soldiers were open to enemy fire while they dug.
Why are the trenches so disgusting?
They were actually quite disgusting. There were all sorts of pests living in the trenches including rats, lice, and frogs. … They made the soldiers’ itch horribly and caused a disease called Trench Fever. The weather also contributed to rough conditions in the trenches.
How did soldiers deal with rats in the trenches?
The rats grew bigger and bolder and would even steal food from a soldier’s hand. But for some soldiers the rats became their friends. They captured them and kept them as pets, bringing a brief reprisal from the horror which lay all around.
What did they drink in the trenches?
The beverages provided from the army command were beer, rum, gin and whisky. Especially the ‘barbed wire whiskies’ were rolled out by the barrel. Whiskies like Old Orkney and 9th Hole and later Johnnie Walker were popular among the troops.
Did they eat rats in the trenches?
Millions of tins were thus available for all the rats in France and Belgium in hundreds of miles of trenches. … They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn’t defend himself.” These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men.
Did soldiers eat rats in ww2?
Besides C-Rations, K-Rations were also issued during World War II, but in a more limited number. K-Rations were lighter than C-Rations, and three meals a day netted only 2,830 calories. …
What did soldiers drink in the trenches?
Drink clean water
Drinking water was transported to front line trenches in petrol cans. It was then purified with chemicals. To help disguise the taste, most water was drunk in the form of tea, often carried cold in soldier’s individual water bottles.
Did they have toilets in the trenches?
Soldiers lived in the trenches when fighting during WW1, it was muddy, noisy and pretty basic. They didn’t have toilets so it was probably a bit stinky too.
How did they dig the trenches in WW1?
The WWI trenches were built as a system, in a zigzag pattern with many different levels along the lines. … Sometimes the soldiers would simply dig the trenches straight into the ground – a method known as entrenching. Entrenching was fast, but the soldiers were open to enemy fire while they dug.
What happened to dead soldiers in ww1?
They were often damaged by shellfire, and in 1918 many were over-run first by the advancing enemy and later by the Allies pushing eastwards again. Plots were destroyed as the ground was shelled, and the locations of many graves that had been registered and known about were made uncertain.
Why did they dig trenches in ww1?
Life in the Trenches, 1914-1919. World War I was a war of trenches. After the early war of movement in the late summer of 1914, artillery and machine guns forced the armies on the Western Front to dig trenches to protect themselves. Fighting ground to a stalemate.
Is 1917 a true story?
Is it a true story? 1917 is something of a true story, loosely based on a tale the director’s grandfather – Alfred H. Mendes, who served with the British Army during the First World War – told him as a child.
What happened to all the trenches from ww1?
Originally Answered: What happens to the trenches made during WWI? Most of them are gone, erased by the French governement and local farmers after the war. A lot of farmers died because they refused their agricultural estate to be classified as Zone Rouge.
Who has the best trenches in ww1?
Indeed the Germans had the best trenches. In the Somme offensive the Brits fired millions of shells on the trenches. Then the artillery stopped and the infantry advanced.
What made life in the trenches pure misery?
In this type of warfare, soldiers fought each other from trenches. And armies traded huge losses of human life for pitifully small land gains. Life in the trenches was pure misery. … Our blinded, wounded, crawling, and shouting soldiers kept falling on top of us and died splashing us with blood.
What made life in the trenches misery?
Trench life involved long periods of boredom mixed with brief periods of terror. The threat of death kept soldiers constantly on edge, while poor living conditions and a lack of sleep wore away at their health and stamina.
What diseases killed soldiers in WW1?
Among the diseases and viruses that were most prevalent were influenza, typhoid, trench foot and trench fever.
Why do soldiers drink rum?
They have to protect our land and borders even in coldest of regions where it is very hard to survive let alone standing tall and providing safety to others. Liquor helps them to stay warm and survive in these conditions So, we can say that it’s almost their basic necessity.
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