Life in the Trenches.
“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.”
(R L Venables)
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. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to
have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more
day in that trench and it may have been too late.”
(Harry Roberts)
“The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a multitude of
swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the trenches and strange
beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled along dry ledges and invaded the
dugouts, in search of the lice that infested them.”
(unknown journalist)
“To get a ‘cushy’ one is all the old hands think about. A bloke in the Camerons
wanted a ‘cushy’ bad! Fed up and far from home he was. He puts his finger over
the top and gets his trigger finger taken off and two more besides. “I’m off to
bonny Scotland!” he says laughing. But on the way down to the dressing station,
he forgets to stoop low where an old sniper is working. He gets it through the
head.”
(Robert Graves)
“We
slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our
caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had
to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck
to us. “
(Elizabeth
de T’Serclaes– a nurse on the front line)
“No 1……2 Private A B; the Battalion (Pioneers) South Staffordshire Regiment was
tried by FGCM on the following charges: “Misbehaving in such a manner as to show
cowardice”. The accused, when proceeding with a party for work in the trenches,
ran away owing to the bursting of a shell and did not rejoin the party. The
sentence of the court was to suffer death by being shot."
"We
must looked out for our bread. The rats have become much more numerous lately
because the trenches are no longer in good condition. The rats here are
particularly repulsive, they are so fat - the kind we call corpse-rats. They
have shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating to see their long, nude
tails."
(Erich Maria Remarque)
These are some of the notes written by actual people who were in the trenches and that fought during the war. As you can tell that it wasn't very pleasent staying in the trenches and as long as they were in there, in was brutal for them. In all do time they developed a reason as to why the trenches had these affect.The art of war aims to impose so much stress on the enemy soldiers that they lose their will to fight. Both sides try to do this and at times accept severe stress themselves in order to inflict greater stress on the enemy. To win, combat stress must be controlled, to
overcome fear in the face of battle.
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.”
(R L Venables)
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. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to
have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more
day in that trench and it may have been too late.”
(Harry Roberts)
“The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a multitude of
swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the trenches and strange
beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled along dry ledges and invaded the
dugouts, in search of the lice that infested them.”
(unknown journalist)
“To get a ‘cushy’ one is all the old hands think about. A bloke in the Camerons
wanted a ‘cushy’ bad! Fed up and far from home he was. He puts his finger over
the top and gets his trigger finger taken off and two more besides. “I’m off to
bonny Scotland!” he says laughing. But on the way down to the dressing station,
he forgets to stoop low where an old sniper is working. He gets it through the
head.”
(Robert Graves)
“We
slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our
caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had
to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck
to us. “
(Elizabeth
de T’Serclaes– a nurse on the front line)
“No 1……2 Private A B; the Battalion (Pioneers) South Staffordshire Regiment was
tried by FGCM on the following charges: “Misbehaving in such a manner as to show
cowardice”. The accused, when proceeding with a party for work in the trenches,
ran away owing to the bursting of a shell and did not rejoin the party. The
sentence of the court was to suffer death by being shot."
"We
must looked out for our bread. The rats have become much more numerous lately
because the trenches are no longer in good condition. The rats here are
particularly repulsive, they are so fat - the kind we call corpse-rats. They
have shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating to see their long, nude
tails."
(Erich Maria Remarque)
These are some of the notes written by actual people who were in the trenches and that fought during the war. As you can tell that it wasn't very pleasent staying in the trenches and as long as they were in there, in was brutal for them. In all do time they developed a reason as to why the trenches had these affect.The art of war aims to impose so much stress on the enemy soldiers that they lose their will to fight. Both sides try to do this and at times accept severe stress themselves in order to inflict greater stress on the enemy. To win, combat stress must be controlled, to
overcome fear in the face of battle.