2. Life in the Trenches
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9iR0x
JW-Fk&feature=related
3. Diary Entry
• A diary entry written by Lieutenant Philip
Brown details the harsh conditions of the
trenches
• Soldiers take turns being on and off duty
• Duty begins with the order “Stand To” and
ends with “Stand down”
• Many soldiers sleep in the narrow
trenches while off duty, and while on duty
they stand in small rows with bayonets
4. • The trenches consisted of 2 main parts:
the front line with firing bays, and the
support trench further back, which was
connected to a communications trench
• Rats, mice and lice are commonly found in
the trenches
5. Poetry
• Sigfried Sassoon, a decorated soldier and war
poet during WW1, wrote a poem about the
trenches called The Rear Guard
• It shows just how bad the conditions of the trench
were, with soldiers cursing and acting violently
(„”God blast your neck!”‟, „Savage, he kicked a soft,
unanswering heap‟.) and the unsanitary, hellish
living conditions of the trenches („Fists of fingers
clutched a blackening wound‟, „He climbed
through darkness to the twilight air, Unloading hell
behind him step by step‟.)
6. Rats
• one pair of rats could produce 880 offspring in
a year
• Some the size of cats
• Fed off decomposing bodies
• Carried disease
7. Lice
• Everywhere in the trenches
• Immovable from uniforms
• Lice eggs hatched easily
• Carried pyrrexhia, or trench fever
8. Trench Foot
• caused by cold, wet, unsanitary conditions
• Feet would go numb, skin would turn blue
or red, and then could go gangrenous
• Soldiers needed to dry feet, change socks,
cover feet with grease from whale-oil
9. Works Cited
• 1914, military tensions, and more than 100 countries would be involved in the conflict.. "Wo
rld War I: Trench Warfare — Soldiers Picking Lice from Clothes — History.com Photo Galle
ries." History.com — History Made Every Day — American & World History. N.p., n.d. Web.
4 Nov. 2011. <http://www.history.com/photos/world-war-i-trench-warfare/photo11>.
• "BBC - History - World Wars: World War One Movies." BBC - Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 4
Nov. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/launch_ani_wwone_movies.sht
ml>.
• "First World War.com - Feature Articles - Life in the Trenches." First World War.com - A Mult
imedia History of World War One. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2011. <http://www.firstworldwar.co
m/features/trenchlife.htm>.
• "Photos of the Great War - archive of World War I pictures." De EersteWereldoorlog 1914 -
1918. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2011. <http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/warpictures/trenches/>
.
• "Trench Foot." Spartacus Educational. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2011. <http://www.spartacus.
schoolnet.co.uk/FWWfoot.htm>.
• "Trench Rats." Spartacus Educational. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2011. <http://www.spartacus.
schoolnet.co.uk/FWWrats.htm>.
