Describe the conditions that soldiers experienced on the Western Front in the years 1915-1917.

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History Coursework

World War One

  1. Describe the conditions that soldiers experienced on the Western Front in the years 1915-1917.

The soldiers on the Western Front stayed mostly in the trenches when there was no fighting during the years 1915-1917. The trenches were developed in December 1914. These were dug to protect them and it also stopped the other side from advancing. Trenches were dug from Switzerland up to the Channel.

The conditions that they had to live through were very bad, the food they ate wasn’t much good, there was a lack of hygiene and many soldiers caught diseases. About a million more soldiers died with disease than the amount of soldiers that died during battle. This is how difficult life was in the trenches. Soldiers feared everyday what would happen to them.

There were many different trenches. The plan of a trench system started with a short trench, which led to the small post where either one or two soldiers listened out quietly for any signs o f movement from the enemy. The small post was in No Man’s Land. Thereafter came the front-line firing trenches. From here soldiers would shoot at the enemy. In a front-line trench, there would be a dugout, which would be about 21/2 metres in height. There would be duckboards, a fire step to help the soldier get high enough to shoot at the enemy, ammunition shelves to keep extra ammunition in case they ran out. The front-line trench would be surrounded from the top with sandbags and barbed wire to make it difficult for the enemy to get into their trench. After the front-line trench came the support trenches and dugouts. These were more comfortable than the front-line as it had kitchens and lavatories. Further behind this came the reserve trenches. In the reserve trenches were the blacksmiths, tailors and cobblers, field hospitals, battalion headquarters. Also in the reserve trenches were the army commanders. To get to each trench (e.g. from front-line to support trench) there were communication trenches. These trenches allowed for soldiers to move between trenches without being seen by the enemy. Messages, orders etc were sent through these trenches. The place in between the two enemies trenches was called No Man’s Land. In No Man’s Land there were many shell holes and abandoned equipment, unexploded shells and many rotting bodies.

        Soldiers were supposed to stay in the front-line trenches for four days, then they would have to spend four days in the support trenches, eight days in the reserve trenches and then finally they got fourteen days of resting. If there was a battle taking place then all of the soldiers would have to stay put and fight. Sometimes, soldiers did night raids on the enemy. Men with blackened faces crawled through the mud, filth and shell holes trying to spot enemy activity. All of the men had to back before dawn. Everyone ate breakfast except for the sentries who kept a careful watch on the enemy. The orderly officer checked the trenches and gave the days jobs. A third were given sentry duty, another third had to take up rations to the front-line up the communication trenches. The rest worked repairing things. They did jobs like digging, filling sandbags, strengthening the wire and resetting the duckboards. Soldiers were allowed to send postcards home. Soldiers in the front-line could only send field postcards, but soldiers further back could send letters, which were censored by the authorities.

The general conditions that the soldiers faced was that it was very cold. No Man’s Land was very muddy. There was a sea of mud there. Soldiers even drowned in it. They could not change for about a week. The mud filled up the soldiers’ boots and socks. They found it very hard to survive in these conditions.

The food the soldiers ate was repetitive; it was boring and not very nice. They didn’t get hot food very often. They ate bully beef, hard biscuits, bread, margarine and jam. Occasionally soldiers got to eat some luxurious food such as ‘bung’ (cheese), ‘bakers’ (sausage), bacon, cake and other food sent from soldiers’ family. Soldiers at the front-line were given a daily ration of rum. This was given to warm them up and to help them boost their morale.

        There was a very big lack of hygiene in the trenches. Latrines (toilets) were pits dug into the ground, leading off the main trenches. They were about one and half metres deep. A plank of wood was used to cover the ground. Just before the pit became full, it was filled in and a new one was dug. Due to the lack of hygiene lice’s were on soldiers’ bodies. One soldier counted 103 lice’s on his body. The lice’s sucked on their blood. There were also rats, which were attracted by left over food. Flies were also attracted to the trenches by the horses manure. All of these carried diseases. Many soldiers caught diseases. Soldiers scratched lice bites with their dirty fingers. Ulcers and boils became common due to this. Soldiers also had bronchitis trench fever, which was again caused by lice; soldiers also quite often caught colds. The hospital list shows that many soldiers had tuberculosis, pneumonia etc.

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        Many soldiers couldn’t cope with all the experiences they faced during the war. Some soldiers ran away due to their experiences, they were afraid of thinking about death. If the soldiers were caught running away they were shot. Some soldiers ran away because they had shell shock. There were some soldiers who feared death a lot; they couldn’t cope with hearing gunshots and seeing people die all the time. These soldiers had shell shock. Shell shock is a psychological condition. The symptoms of shell shock are shaking, shivering and screaming.

        There were stretcher parties that searched in the dark ...

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