Date post: | 05-Jan-2016 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | britton-berry |
View: | 215 times |
Download: | 2 times |
Trench Warfare
Life in the TrenchesPests and Pain
• Rats and lice tormented troops day and night
• Rats were oversized from feeding off the corpses and rations.
• Lice would spread a painful disease called trench fever.
• Trench foot caused gangrene and resulted in amputation.
Threat of Death
• Soldiers were under constant threat of attack.
• They would face hours of shelling and were always at risk of snipers.
• Many inexperienced men could not resist peaking over the top resulting in their death.
Trench Routine
Stand to at dawn
• Every dawn, soldiers would stand on guard at the front trench.
• This was to most likely time for an attack as there was reduced visibility.
• After stand to they would go through inspections, breakfast, and have their daily ration of rum.
Day to Day
• During the day they would
• clean latrines
• Repair duck boards
• Refill sandbags
• Write letters, gamble
Making Use of Shell Hole
Repairing Trenches
Night time
• During the night they would venture into no mans land to
• Repair barbed wire
• Dig new trenches
• Patrol for enemies
• Conduct raids on trenches.
Threat of Death “Shell Shock”
• Troops were under constant threat of death from enemy snipers and shelling.
• This constant stress lead to Shell Shock.
• This caused constant crying, loss of speech, or paralysis.
• Doctors now believe it was a result of physical injury to the brain from shell explosions.
“Wastage”
• This was death that occurred outside of formal combat.
• Most infantry units had 800 men and 80 would die a month.
• Usually by snipers or artillery shells.
Tending to a grave
Penalties and Discipline
• The purpose of military law is to ensure cohesion and victory.
• Violators had to be made an example of in order to discourage others from breaking the law.
• Desertion, leaving one’s post, drunkenness, and cowardice were the most common.
Penalties and Discipline
• Imprisonment, fines, loss of rank were common.
• Field punishment 1 = extra labour duties and attached to a fixed object for 2 hours a day. Nicknamed crucifixion.
• Field punishment 2 = just lose privileges.
Field Punishment 1
Trench Culture
• Slang was invented to make war seem less serious.
• Stray – sniper bullets
• Whiz bangers – shell fragments
• Soft work – less dangerous work
• Potato mashers - grenades
Tin Hat
• Known in official parlance as “Helmet, shrapnel, steel” ; is used for
• washing in, • cooking • baling out the trench• drawing loose rations, such as tea or sugar; and• The most useful article of equipment issued to
the soldier. • occasionally as protection for the head during
bombardments.
Trench Culture
• Troops created Newspapers, cartoons
• Troops had pets and troop mascots, many were left over from the enemy.
• One famous one was a bear cub called Winnie, inspired Winnie the Pooh.
“Keep your head still or I may cut off your ear”
Writing Home
Your Assignment• You are a WW1 soldier and are writing
home. Your letter will include the following topics.
• Life in the trenches, pest etc
• Threat of death
• Slang
• Pets
• Punishments
• Day to day activities.