Life+in+the+Trenches

__**Life in the trenches by halle newson**__ media type="youtube" key="7d7B4cBt_Qg" height="390" width="480" align="center"

__**Awful living conditions**__

Unfortunately life in the trenches was horrid. Awful smells went throughout the trench from latrines, dead bodies, and rotten food. Soldiers would have to stand in the hot trenches surrounded by the dead and body fluids for long periods of time. Soldiers would not bathe for long periods of time, so unwashed bodies was another thing that soldiers would have to live with. Lice infested the seams of dirty uniforms. They would spread throughout the trenches because soldiers would miss some of the lice eggs that were in the seams and they would keep being recycled over and over again. Frogs, slugs, and horned beetles would also infest the bottoms of the trenches. __**Food**__

Soldiers in trenches ate surprisingly well. They were eating better than some of their families back home were. **British rations-** twenty ounces of bread, sixteen ounces of flour, or four ounces of oatmeal instead of bread. Three ounces of cheese. 5/8 ounces of tea. Four ounces of jam or four ounces of dried fruit. A half of an ounce of salt.1/36 ounce of pepper. 1/20 ounce of mustard. Eight ounces of fresh vegetables or 1/10 gill lime if vegetables was not available. ½ gill of rum or 1 pint of porter. Twenty ounces of tobacco. An optional 1/3 ounces of chocolate. Four ounces of butter/margarine and two ounces of dried vegetables. **German rations-** twenty and a half ounces of bread, or seventeen and a half of field biscuits, or fourteen ounces of egg biscuit. Fifty three ounces of potatoes. Four and a half ounces of fresh vegetables and two ounces of dried vegetables. Both the British and the German soldiers would all get meat rations when the field kitchens could bring it to them.

__**Trench cycle**__

In the trench, the soldiers would go through what was called a cycle. They would have to serve in the front lines, then in the support lines, followed by the reserve lines. Then they would spend some time in rest. The time spent in each station would vary. They may spend a large amount of time in one post, and then only a little bit of time in another. It all depended on how many soldiers were needed at each post.

__**Chores**__

Soldiers were given a certain amount of chores each day. Chores might include refilling sandbags, digging latrines, fixing parts of the trench that may have collapsed, fixing the floorboards that were on the bottom of the trenches, or pump water that may have filled in the trenches. Men would use pumping equipment to get the water out.

__**Trench rats**__

Millions of rats would infest the trenches. The brown rat was more feared by the men than the black rat. The rats would eat the dead soldiers as well as nibble on living soldiers at night. The rats could grow to the size of a house cat. Men would try and use guns, clubs, and bayonets against the rats. Unfortunately a single rat could produce up to 900 offspring so the numbers would just keep growing. They would help spread disease and infection throughout the trenches as well as contaminate food.

__**Death**__

During the war, people would die randomly throughout the trenches. They may have been standing up, or laying inside the trenches, and would die from being shot by the constant firing from the enemy side. Many newcomers to the trench would die on the first day by peering over the top of the trench and being shot by enemy snipers. The deaths in the trenches were said to be 1/3 of all deaths in world war one. Another major cause of death was diseases caused from unsanitary living conditions.

__**Disease**__

Disease was a problem in trenches. Sickness would quickly spread through the trenches. Trench foot was one major condition that happened inside trenches. Soldiers would get trench foot in the form of an infection that was caused by wet, cold feet, in unsanitary living conditions. When soldiers got trench foot, a majority would have to get toes, and whole feet amputated. Trench fever was another disease that would affect soldiers. Trench fever was caused by lice and would begin with severe pain followed by a high fever. Recovery time could last up to 12 weeks in the trenches.

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_http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm __[|__http://hubpages.com/hub/World-War-1-Trench-Living__]__ __[|__http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtrench.htm__]__ __[|__http://techcenter.davidson.k12.nc.us/group9/trenchwar.htm__]__ __[|_http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A21605979__]__ [] [] __