Describe The Conditions Faced By the British Troops on The Western Front.

Authors Avatar

Rob Ashley

Describe The Conditions Faced By the British Troops on The Western Front

      When the Allied forces declared war on Germany on the 4th of August 1914, the aim was to quickly defeat Germany and swiftly end the war so it would be “all over by Christmas”. Instead it became a war of attrition with troops going “over the top” into no man’s land.

      After the failure of Plan 17 and the Schleiffen Plan, the war stagnated and this led to trench warfare. However the Germans had already taken a large amount of land and were happy to consolidate what they had won. This meant that the Germans held the higher land and could build trenches; made of concrete, in the ground, whereas the British wanted to regain the land the Germans had won. The Allies wanted to move forward quickly and the officers therefore decided to use this as an incentive. They encouraged the privates to want to attack the Germans so they could leave their poorly built trenches. These trenches were on lower ground, such as in Picardy, so all the water drained off into their trenches, which bogged them down in so much mud, that people even drowned in it.

Join now!

      These appalling conditions led to disease sweeping through the trenches on the Western front. “Trench foot” was thus a huge problem. Over 74,000 soldiers suffered from “trench foot” but another big problem was infestations of lice, which drove the soldiers, who suffered from it, to insanity. Two million soldiers died in combat but three and a half million died from infection, maybe because antibiotics, such as penicillin, were in their infancy. However these problems were only suffered by the lower ranks, not officers or NCOs, who were only in that position because of their background, most of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay