When soldiers got hurt, which they often did, there would have been a huge number of casualties. This could have caused abit of stress in the trenches as infections might have spread and made more casualties were formed.
Adding to this point, when it came to weapons, the trenches were not a good protection. Gases could easily run into the trenches harming most soldiers. There was hardly anything to do about it because if they got out of their trenches they would obviously be shot down.
Secondly, the soldiers themselves weren’t all that happy most of the time. They tended to get very bored when they weren’t fighting. All they could do was sit there and wait. Also they usually go dreadfully hungry. There wasn’t much food to live on and whatever they had, it had to be shared out between all of them. This could have made them feel very agitated. When the soldiers got time to sleep, they sometimes had bad dreams and nightmares. This made them scared and worried about the war. Sometimes the dreams were bad things happening to the soldiers’ family. This also made the soldier feel panicked, as they hadn’t seen their family for a long time.
Being a soldier wasn’t the best job in the world either. Each soldier must have seen or experienced something gruelling that they didn’t really want to see. This caused bad memories for them making them feel insecure that something that bad is possible to happen to them. This made them abit nervous about staying tin the trenches as people have died in them, they have been gassed down in them, and they have been shot dead or badly wounded in them.
Thirdly, have you ever read and article or a diary that a man from the war had written, telling you that the war was great and he enjoyed it? Have you believed every word you have read? Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that what you are reading is in fact only one mans opinion? Whereas, if you read another soldiers source, then his opinion could be totally different. He could be saying that the war was horrible, they didn’t get and sleep and he never wants to do it again. Then who would you believe, what source would you trust now. This is what the poem ‘ Dulce Et Decorum Est’ does. It is biased since it only uses one man’s opinion towards the trenches. What the author of this poem is trying to express is that the whole war was terrible and there was no good bites or fun involved. That’s is certainly not true, because during Christmas, the different sides of each army came together and played football with each other. This proves that they did have some fun and it wasn’t all fighting and death.
Overall, what was life like in the trenches? Well I think it was rough at times for the soldiers but they could have got over that and they were allowed to have some fun. Day after day was not just death but it was calm and peaceful at times. Soldiers did get to have some sleep and they did get a fair amount of food to eat. So in general I think life in the trenches was balanced and not how most people make it out to be like.