TRENCH%20WARFARE

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TRENCH WARFARE
Life in the Trenches
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TABLE OF CONTENTS...

• Creating the trenches
• - How they looked
• - Inside the trench
• - Tools used
• Dangers in the trenches
• What the trenches were like the worst part of
  trench life etc.
• How the soldiers died in the trenchessnipers,
  hunger etc.
• The diseases and problems within the trenches
  lice, rats etc.
• Days in the trenches
• Time spent in the trenches
• Duties in the trenches
• Food/ Food supplies

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How they Looked
Trench formation
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(No Transcript)
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Trench Construction diagramfrom 1914 British
Army Manual
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Aerial View of Trench Systems
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Inside the Trenches

• Fire-step
• Duckboards
• Dugouts/funk holes
• Latrines

Inside the trenches...
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Building it

• Entrenching tool (early spade/shovel)
• Song --gt

O,O,O its a lovely war! What do we want with
eggs and ham? When we have plum and apple
jam Form fours, right turn How shall we spend the
money we earn? O,O,O its a lovely war!
The Entrenching tool
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Weapons of Trench Warfare
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The Machine Gun
The Machine Gun

• The Machine Gun (GATLIN GUN) efficient warfare.
• It was a way of keeping the other army in their
  trench.
• Also used in combo with barbed wire to funnel
  soldiers
• Once funneled into a specific area, soldiers
  could be killed
• en masse

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Barbed Wire
Barbed wire was used to slow down advancing
troops. The barbed wire was also used to force
soldiers to charge through certain openings in
the fence.
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Artillery
Artillery

• A barrage is a term used to describe extensive
  artillery fire against enemy positions.
• A light barrage 6-7 per 10mins.
• A moderate barrage 30 shells per min.
• A heavy barrage 50-60 shells per min.

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Poison Gas!

• Chlorine Mustard Gas were used
• Chlorine Gas inhaled to be deadly (at Ypres
  1914)
• Mustard gas was the more effective weapon (1917)
• It was fired into the trenches in shells.
• Colorless almost odorless
• Took 12 hours to take effect.
• Effects include blistering skin, vomiting,
• sore eyes, internal and external bleeding.
• Death can take up to 5 weeks.
• More severe than Chlorine Gas due to the need to
  cover the entire body

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What the Trenches were Like

• The trenches were filled with water
• Constant mud
• Duckboards
• Latrines
• Trench grounds in winter and autumn
• Dead bodies

The amount of water and mud in the trenches
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How the Soldiers Died
Soldiers picking up bodies from No Mans Land

• Falling off duckboards and into the mud
• Buried alive
• Suicide
• Enemy snipers
• Diseases
• Lack of food

Trench walls collapsed
Dead soldiers on the ground
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TRENCH FOOT!!!!
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Mrs. Helmers Trench Foot
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The Diseases and Problems

• Trench foot
• The pyrrexhia or trench fever
• Lice
• Rats
• Dysentery

Soldiers sick from a diseases
Soldiers sick while in their trenches
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Rat Infestation

• Millions of rats infested trenches. 
• The brown rat was especially feared. 
• Gorging themselves on human remains (grotesquely
  disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver)
  they could grow to the size of a cat.
• A single rat couple could produce up to 900
  offspring in a year, spreading infection and
  contaminating food. 

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Frogs, lice and worse

• Lice caused intense itching
• Even when washed, eggs remained everywhere
• Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful
  disease that began suddenly with severe pain
  followed by high fever. 
•  Many men chose to shave their heads entirely to
  avoid nits.
• Frogs by the score were found in shell holes

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Time spent in the trenches

• Of a 32 Day period 8 days in a front line
  trench, 8 days in a reserve trench and 16 days
  away from the front, in a small town or village
  nearby.
• A British/Canadian soldiers year could be divided
  as 15 front line, 10 support line, 30
  reserve line, 20 rest, and 25 other. (
  hospital, traveling, leave etc.)
• Everything could be changed if theres and
  offensive attack. Soldiers could spend up to 6
  weeks in the front line trenches before they
  could take a break.
• Time in the trenches alternated with long periods
  of boredom, and short periods of fear.
• Soldiers quiet time

Soldiers during there rest period.
Soldiers looking over there trench.
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Duties in the Trenches

• Soldiers had to replace the barbed wire, repair
  the flooded trenches, and clean the latrines.
  These duties were all called fatigues
• The maintenance and expansion of the barbed wire
  fences and the trenches was done at dark, when it
  was harder to be detected.
• The work was done at night Most of their
  work was done at night when patrols were sent out
  to observe and check out on the enemy trenches,
  and the repair of their own front line and
  gather of create/prepare other defenses.
• On breaks from fighting in the trenches, the
  soldiers were assigned different duties such as
  moving supplies or helping to repair things.

Soldiers switching from line to line.
Soldiers working with there trenches
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THE END!