In the trenches there were very peculiar problems that the troops had to take care of. The first was a rat infestation; there were rats in the trenches that eat the dead bodies and even crawled on the troops when they were sleeping. Some of these rats were the size of cats. There were millions of them in the trenches they would reproduce offspring at amazing rates sometimes 900 a year. They would contaminate food and were a big problem. Troops dealt with the rats by shooting them or just clubbing them to death.
Other problems were lice; they were a never ending problem to the troops and breaded everywhere. To get rid of them the troops would pick them of other people heads and clothes this was known as ‘chatting’. Lice would also give the troops a fever it was known as ‘trench fever’. Frogs also scattered around the trenches and also were a problem. The worse of the problems was probably the smell of rotten bodies, in the trenches there would be thousands of dead who have rotted away and this brought very foul smells in the trench.
In the trenches there had to be some kind of order there was rotary systems in the duties that had to be carried out and also in the different trenches. There were many different trenches and the troops cycled through them, firstly a troop would go into a support trench then into the front line and then into a communication trench and back over again, troops would spend months in each trench depending on how many troops there were. In a year a troop would get to weeks leave. The trenches were in a zigzag shape this made it hard for troops to walk around the trench, but the advantage of this was that if the trench was taken over the opposition could not kill everyone in a line they had to be wary of what was round the corner.
There was also a routine for chores. A commander would assign each man with a chore to do for that day or that week. Some of the chores were; the refilling of sandbags, the repair of the trench floor, the repair of trench itself and the drainage. If a troop was injured or was unable to do a chore they could get out of doing these chores but the sergeants were strict about doing the chores. The chores were hard to do while there was shells being fired and especially when it was raining. After a troop had finished it’s chore for that day the rest of the day was spent fighting or was leisure time for the troops.
To keep the moral up in the trenches there were little entertainment shows for people to sing and entertain. Also letter’s could be sent to the troops from love one’s.
In the trenches there was also another daily routine to complete and that was at dawn, for an hour the troops had to go to the fire step (the highest part of the trench) and guard the trench from any possible attacks. After the hour was up the men would get rum and breakfast, the troops were also ordered to clean there rifle. In stalemate the oppositions sometimes shot a few shells the other side just to show that they were still and had no left.
Some men were sent into no man’s land aswell to repair the barbed wire or put more barbed wire out to keep the opposition out. Also to collect and bring back dead bodies; this was one of the most dangerous tasks to do because the snipers could catch sight of you and just shoot you down. On some occasions men would meet in no man’s land they would either run away or fight to kill on another.
There was more than fighting in the trenches as I have showed all these routines and chores had to be done and it made it even more difficult when the troops were being fired and shells are firing all over the trenches.
When actually did have to fight the troops had to fight in the trenches and in ‘No mans land’. The sergeants called it ‘going over the top’ when the troops had to get out of the trenches and fight. There would be heavy artillery fired into ‘No mans land’ to clear the way and then the troops would run through to the opposite side trying to kill and many as they could most people got killed when they had to go and fight in ‘No mans land’.