Life In The Trenches

1
Life In The Trenches

• By Kelly Lam
• Anita Mohan
• U4A

2
Introduction
3
The Daily Grind

• Very laborious
• Soldiers spent 60 of time away from the front
  lineso had easy access to alcohol and
  cigarettes.
• Comfortable surroundingslived in farm houses,
  taken over by army.
• Leisure timeorganised football matches.
• Loyalty and friendshipsoldiers made many
  friends.
• Soldiers lived happily and fought as a TEAM.

4
Trench Systems
Britain's
5

• RIFLE
• main weapon used in trenches

• ARTILLERY
• Killed more people than any other weapon between
  1914-18
• destroy barbed wire defences/machine gun
  positions.

• TORPEDOES
• used by submarines
• Germans used torpedoes to blow up
• supplies from America to Britain.

New Weaponry

• GAS
• If the wind is in the wrong direction it could
  end up killing your own troops rather than the
  enemy
• The German army were the first to use chlorine
  gas

6
Zeppelins/ Planes

• gathered valuable information about the enemy
• used to drop bombs over the enemy
• planes were armed with machine guns (in 1915)
• pilots took pistols with them and shot at each
  other in the air
• British inventors had also devised effective
  bomb-sights that allowed more accurate attacks

7
Life In the Trenches

• As many as 100,000 soldiers at a time were housed
  at the camp.
• Men might have different experiences of life on
  the Western Front depending on their rank and
  role.

• Officer
• Lead night patrols and organised the men.
• treated better than ordinary soldiers.
• they had small 'dug-outs' in trenches where they
  would eat and sleep.

• Soldiers
• All soldiers followed a basic routine shaped by
  'stand-to' at dawn and dusk, when poor visibility
  made enemy attacks more likely.
• The constant threat of enemy snipers, poison gas,
  shells and machine-gun fire there was the
  difficulty of getting hot food to the front lines.

8
Living Conditions in the trenches

• The type and nature of the trench positions
  varied a lot, depending on
• the local conditions
• the time of year and weather
• different theatres of war
• different sectors within a theatre

• In the areas by rivers (River Somme)
• ground is chalky/easily dug.
• trench sides will crumble easily after rain,
  would be built up with wood/sandbags

9
Living Conditions

• Vermin was numerous disease was spread
• by troops
• by the maggots
• flies that thrived on the nearby remains of
  decomposing human and animal corpses.
• Troops were also subjected to the weather the
  winter of 1916-1917 in France and Flanders was
  the coldest in living memory of soldier Tommy
  Smith.
• Men suffered from
• Exposure
• frostbite
• trench foot
• and many diseases brought on or made worse by
  living in such a way.

10
Parts of the trenches

• Front Line-
• facing the enemy
• not straight
• Follows natural features allowing good defence
• dug in sections rather than a straight line
• Why? if a shell explodes inside one of these
  'bays' or an enemy gets into one, only that
  section is affected.

• No man's land.
• The space between the two opposing lines was
  called
• trench positions became formidable fortresses
  with barbed wire belts

• Support line
• Contained 'dugouts'
• For men to squeeze in for shelter, or for a
  telephone position for a signaler
• The distance between the two lines varied from as
  little as 30 yards

11
an official infantry training manual of
March 1916- a typical but very stylised trench
layout
12
Food and Alcohol in the Trenches

• British soldiers were given 10 ounces of meat and
  8 ounces of vegetables a day
• Each British division (20,000 men) received 300
  gallons of rum issued during very cold weather .
• The French and German armies were more generous
  and supplied their soldiers with daily amounts of
  wine and brandy.
• Later troops not in the front-line only received
  meat on nine out of every thirty days.
• The main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps
  of horsemeat in 1916.

13
Soldiers Experience-showing their emotions

• Part of a German Poem Translation
• The enemy and threatens
• fear us yet so more, we
• German it no longer.
• The storm breaks loose!
• The mine crashes!
• The pioneer equally
• forwards makes.
• Up to the enemy, he
• makes himself ran and
• ignites then the hand
• garnets on.

• Part of an English Soldiers Song
• When the Boche has done your chum in,
• And the sergeant's done the rum in,
• And there ain't no rations comin',
• Carry on.
• When the world is red and reeking,
• And the shrapnel shells are shrieking,
• And your blood is slowly leaking,
• Carry on.
• When the broken battered trenches,
• Are like the bloody butchers' benches,
• And the air is thick with stenches,
• Carry on.

14
Tactics- British

• Britain had real problems in supplying ammunition
• The USA supplied machines for making weapons
• Enough enemy machine guns

15
Weapons- troops reactions

• Terrified of them
• Men watched their fellows being blown apart or
  dreadfully wounded by shrapnel.
• Generals ordered artillery to bombard enemy
  trenches for hours before sending their own
  troops 'over the top' to attack.