By Miss Boughey, Mr. Qualls and Ms. Rachwitz

The British government wanted to encourage men to enlist for war. They said the war would be safe, hardly any fighting, a good lark and over by Christmas. They used advertising posters to encourage this idea! A picture of soldiers going ‘Over the Top’

The reality of ‘going over the top’ was very different!

The Trenches What is in a Trench? Barbed wire: to make running at the Trench difficult. Sandbagged parapet: to stop the trench collapsing. Parados: to stop ‘shrapnel’ getting into the trench. Fire step: to shoot from. Duck Boards: stopped the bottom of the trench getting very muddy and slippery.

Why the Trenches stayed Barbed wire ► ► This was difficult to cut. Shelling usually only tangled it up. It spread men out in a line. Machine guns ► ► These mowed down men with intersecting crossfire. Gas ► ► This was very effective in slowing down heavily-laden attackers. It was not so effective against troops in trenches. Shells ► ► The best trenches saved soldiers from all but a direct hit. Shells churned up the ground, destroyed drainage systems and made attack very difficult. Lack of secrecy ► ► The enemy could easily see when extra supplies were brought up for an attack. No Man's Land ► ► This was very difficult to cross because of the belts of barbed wire, shell holes and very swampy conditions when it rained.

Why the Trenches stayed Railway ► ► These could rush reinforcements to a threatened spot very quickly. Aero planes were not powerful enough then to delay rail traffic by any great amount. Attack at walking pace ► ► Men could only advance at walking pace. Lack of experience ► ► Generals had never fought this way before and could not think of ways of breaking through the trenches Zigzagging Trenches ► ► These were to stop enemy artillery destroying a whole line of trench and to prevent successful attackers being able to fire along a long length of a trench. Communication trenches ► ► These joined lines of trenches. Blind Alleys ► ► These led nowhere and they were built to confuse and slow down the enemy in the event of a successful attack. Forward positions ► ► These were built for miners and snipers. Underground 'Saps" ► ► These were tunnels driven under enemy trenches so that explosives could be placed under them and detonated.

Soldiers were expected to carry all of their equipment with them at all times. They were supposed to keep it clean and in good condition – they were British after all.

How the uniform and equipment changed after just three weeks in the trenches…

Standard Equipment

Posters always showed men ready and willing to fight. They never showed the boredom of the trenches or actual fighting taking place. Why do you think the government showed no fighting?

No smiling and relaxed faces… No clean uniforms… Their equipment is scattered everywhere… Boredom and sleep are obvious…

Weapons

Weapons During WWI, the soldiers in the trenches used a wide variety of weapons, these included: ♦ Rifles and pistols ♦ Machine guns ♦ Artillery ♦ Bayonets ♦ Torpedoes ♦ Flame throwers ♦ Mustard and chlorine gases and ♦ Smokeless gunpowder.

Chlorine Gas This war was also the first to use chlorine and mustard gas. French soldiers had not come across this before and assumed that it was a smoke screen. It has a distinctive smell – a mixture of pepper and pineapple – and they only realized they were being gassed when they started to have chest pains and a burning sensation in their throats! Death is painful – you suffocate! The weather had to be just right.

Mustard Gas Mustard gas was the most deadly biological weapon that was used in the trenches. It was odorless and took 12 hours to take effect! It was also very powerful, only small amounts needed to be added to shells to be effective and it remained active for several weeks when it landed in the soil! The nastiest thing about mustard gas is that it made the skin blister, the eyes sore and the victim would start to vomit. It would cause internal and external bleeding, and would target the lungs. It could take up to 5 weeks to die!

The soldiers had very little decent food, and what food they had was often attacked by rats. These rats were the size of small rabbits and badgers because they had fed on the decomposing bodies of dead soldiers.

Lice ► ► Men in the trenches suffered from lice. One soldier writing after the war described ► ► them as "pale fawn in color, and they left blotchy red bite marks all over the body." ► ► They also created a sour; stale smell. Various methods were used to remove the lice. ► ► As well as causing frenzied scratching, lice also carried disease.

Lice Private George Coppard, With A Machine Gun to Cambrai (1969) A full day's rest allowed us to clean up a bit, and to launch a full scale attack on lice. I sat in a quiet corner of a barn for two hours delousing myself as best I could. We were all at it, for none of us escaped their vile attentions. The things lay in the seams of trousers, in the deep furrows of long thick woolly pants, and seemed impregnable in their deep entrenchments. A lighted candle applied where they were thickest made them pop like Chinese crackers. After a session of this, my face would be covered with small blood spots from extra big fellows which had Popped too vigorously. Lice hunting was called 'chatting'. In parcels from home it was usual to receive a tin of supposedly death-dealing powder or pomade, but the lice thrived on the stuff.

Lice Private Stuart Dolden wrote about his experiences in the trenches after the war. We had to sleep fully dressed, of course, this was very uncomfortable with the pressure of ammunition on one's chest restricted breathing; furthermore, when a little warmth was obtained the vermin used to get busy, and for some unexplained reason they always seemed to get lively in the portion of one's back, that lay underneath the belt and was the most inaccessible spot. The only way to obtain relief was to get out of the dugout, put a rifle Barrel between the belt and rub up and down like a donkey at a gatepost. This stopped it for a bit, but as soon as one got back into the dugout, and was getting reasonably warm so would the little brutes get going again