1. The battlefields of WWI
Life in the trenches for ordinary soldiers

2. Mass Devastation

3. open and I was blinded and half-choked with its contents.
This is an entry in the diary of Harold Saunders, a soldier during World War One. He describes trench life as he knows it.
“When I made my debut in the line I had a cheerful conviction that nothing would hit me.  And I remember standing on the fire-step for the first time and saying to myself exultantly: "You're in it at last! You're in it! The greatest thing that's ever happened!"
Lice and wind-up came into my life about the same time.  At stand-to one morning a flight of whizz-bangs skimmed the top of the trench.  The man next to me went down with a scream and half his face gone.  The sand-bag in front of me was ripped open and I was blinded and half-choked with its contents.”
open and I was blinded and half-choked with its contents.

4. “When I made my debut in the line I had a cheerful conviction that nothing would hit me.  And I remember standing on the fire-step for the first time and saying to myself exultantly: "You're in it at last! You're in it! The greatest thing that's ever happened!
“Lice and wind-up came into my life about the same time.  At stand-to one morning a flight of whizz-bangs skimmed the top of the trench.  The man next to me went down with a scream and half his face gone.  The sand-bag in front of me was ripped open and I was blinded and half-choked with its contents.”

5. Freezing Winters

7. 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 because they had fed on the decomposing bodies of dead soldiers.

8. Trench Foot

9. Original film footage Life in the trenches
Dan Snow BBC video on Why Trenches

11. How the trenches kept men safe
Top - Patient at a Red Cross dressing station; Bottom - Two British soldiers outside their dugout. Photos courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library.
There were many parts of the trench system that helped a soldier survive.
Dressing Stations
Provided immediate medical treatment to the seriously injured, who were then moved back behind the lines. On the Western Front, more than 92% of the wounded men who were evacuated to British medical units, survived.
Shelters
Thousands of ‘dugouts’ built into the trench walls provided protection from bad weather and enemy shell-fire.
Firing Trench
This 7 foot deep ditch at the front of the system provided cover for the most exposed troops. Dug in clever ‘zigzag’ sections to minimise damage, only a small area would be affected if it was attacked by enemy forces or hit by a shell.
Support Trench
Dug 200 to 500 yards behind the main firing trench, the support trench was a valuable second line of defence.
Reserve Trench
Further back, several hundred yards behind the support trench, the reserve trenches stored supplies and offered a little more comfort to troops en route to the front.
Communication Trenches
Connecting the entire network, a lattice of communication trenches enabled soldiers to travel quickly; keeping the army, its supplies, its reinforcements – and its casualties – on the move.
But if British soldiers spent only just over half their time in the trenches, where were they the rest of the time?

13. Trench Construction diagram from 1914 British Army Manual

14. Aerial View of Trenches in WWI

16. PHOTOS OF THE TRENCHES Photos of the Trenches
German soldiers in Trenches at Ypres
British soldiers digging trenches with gas masks on
French soldiers in their trenches
British boys playing at being soldiers in the trenches
French soldiers shooting at the Germans over their own dead
A bomb bursting in a British trench
Canadian soldiers in their trench
Serbians receiving their rations in the trench

17. The intensity of World War I trench warfare meant about 10% of the
fighting soldiers were killed.

19. Medical services were primitive and life-saving antibiotics had not yet been
discovered. Relatively minor injuries could prove fatal through onset of
infection and gangrene. The Germans recorded that 12% of leg wounds and
23% of arm wounds resulted in death, mainly through infection.

20. Diseases in the Trenches
TRENCH FEVER
Diseases in the Trenches
Two diseases were extremely prevalent in the trenches. The first was trench fever. Symptoms of this included headaches, skin rashes such as the one in the picture, inflamed eyes and leg pains. Although not a very serious illness with a recovery period of five or six days, this proved to be the chief illness in the trenches. It was not until 1918 that it was discovered to be caused by lice.
The other was trench foot. Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and unsanitary conditions. In the trenches men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Trench foot was a particular problem during the early stages of the war.
The only remedy for trench foot was for the soldiers to dry their feet and change their socks several times a day. By the end of 1915 British soldiers in the trenches had to have three pairs of socks with them and were under orders to change their socks at least twice a day. As well as drying their feet, soldiers were told to cover their feet with grease made from whale-oil. It has been estimated that a battalion at the front would use ten gallons of whale-oil every day.
TRENCH FOOT

21. Sanitary conditions in the trenches were quite poor, and common infections
included dysentery, typhus, and cholera. Many soldiers suffered from parasites
and related infections. Poor hygiene also led to fungal conditions, such as
trench mouth and trench foot.

22. Rats and Lice Two types – black and brown
Soldiers made games of killing them
Lice were an even worse problem
There two types of rat in the trenches – the black rat and the brown rat. The brown rat was especially dangerous, being the one that could carry disease. These rats however were no normal rats – feasting themselves on the remains of the dead soldiers they grew to the size of cats.
When bored, soldiers made games out of hunting them down and killing them using their guns or bayonets. This was pointless however – one rat couple can produce 900 offspring.
Nits and lice were an even worse problem in the trenches. Every single soldier was infested with them. It sounds disgusting now, but in the trenches it was quite normal to hang a soldier upside down and whack them with a hard-backed book or something similar; and seeing the little black insects fall in showers out of their hair.

23. Body Lice

24. For British and Dominion troops serving on the Western Front, the proportion
of troops killed was 12%, while the total proportion of troops who became
casualties (killed or wounded) was 56%.

26. What Else? Novice Death The Trench Cycle
“Stand To” and “The Morning Hate”
The Breakfast Truce
Inspection and Chores
Patrolling No Man’s Land
What Else ruled the lives of those soldiers in the trenches?
Novice Death – Novice Death was the name for the death that occurred to many young men on their first day in the trenches. Not knowing where the weak spots were in the trench caused many to be smothered by collapsing soil. Perhaps the worst cases of novice death were when natural curiosity caused new men to look over the top of the trench into No Man’s Land and were killed by a precisely aimed German sniper bullet.
The Trench Cycle – Each battalion would have to go through this trench cycle. Typically, the group of soldiers would spend a certain amount of time at the front, then move to support, then to reserve, and then have a short period of well-earned rest before the cycle started up again. However, this varied from battalion to battalion. If they were doing well and gaining ground, a battalion might be ordered to stay on the front line for much longer than they were supposed to.
Stand To and The Morning Hate – One hour before dawn, all of the soldiers were woken up and registered. They stood with their guns over the trenches, guarding against a dawn attack. Even though both sides knew that the other was guarded against raids or attacks timed at dawn, many were actually carried out at this time. As the tension built in the early hours and the sun rose, stand to would be accompanied by The Morning Hate. Both sides would often relieve the tension of the early hours with machine gun fire, shelling and small arms fire, directed into the mist to their front: this made doubly sure of safety at dawn.
The Breakfast Truce – While breakfast was served and eaten, both sides adopted an unofficial truce. The truce often extended to the wagons delivering the food to the trenches. Inevitable, a senior officer of the battalion would learn of the truce after a few weeks and stamp it out but despite this, the breakfast truce prevailed throughout the war.
Inspection and Chores - With breakfast over the men would be inspected by either the company or platoon commander.  Once this had been completed NCOs would assign daily chores to each man (except those who had been excused duty for a variety of reasons). Daily chores included the refilling of sandbags, the repair of duckboards on the floor of the trenches and the draining of the trenches, which would often become waterlogged after rain.
Patrolling No Man’s Land - Patrols would often be sent out into No Mans Land.  Some men would be tasked with repairing or adding barbed wire to the front line.  Others however would go out to assigned listening posts, hoping to pick up valuable information from the enemy lines.

28. First used by the French
GAS
Country
Casualties
Deaths
ITALY
60,000
4,627
USA
72,807
1,462
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
100,000
3,000
BRITISH EMPIRE
188,706
8,109
FRANCE
190,000
8,000
GERMANY
200,000
9,000
RUSSIA
419,340
56,000
OTHER
10,000
1,000
First used by the French
Second Battle of Ypres
GAS
Although it is true that the French were the first to use gas in the war, they did not use poison gas. They used tear gas, a gas which blinded men for a short period of time.
The Germans were the first to use poison gas. They introduced it at the Second Battle of Ypres, with devastating consequences. The effects of the poison gas were severe. Within seconds of inhalation it destroys your respiratory organs, bringing on choking attacks which eventually kill you.

29. Soldiers returning from battle with Mustard and Chlorine gas wounds
As we gazed in the direction of the bombardment, where our line joined the French, six miles away, we could see in the failing light the flash of shrapnel with here and there the light of a rocket.  But more curious than anything was a low cloud of yellow-grey smoke or vapour, and, underlying everything, a dull confused murmuring.
Plainly something terrible was happening.  What was it?  Officers, and Staff officers too, stood gazing at the scene, awestruck and dumbfounded; for in the northerly breeze there came a pungent nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes smart. 
We were now in the area of the ill-fated French Colonial Corps.  Ambulances were everywhere, and the village of Brielen, through which we passed, was choked with wounded and gassed men.  We were very mystified about this gas, and had no protection whatever against it.
One man came stumbling through our lines.  An officer of ours held him up with levelled revolver, "What's the matter, you bloody lot of cowards?" says he.  The man was frothing at the mouth, his eyes started from their sockets, and he fell writhing at the officer's feet. Within seconds, he was dead.”

30. DIARY ENTRY of Anthony Hossack on THE FIRST GAS ATTACK
“As we gazed in the direction of the bombardment, where our line joined the French, six miles away, we could see in the failing light the flash of shrapnel with here and there the light of a rocket.  But more curious than anything was a low cloud of yellow-grey smoke or vapour, and, underlying everything, a dull confused murmuring.
Plainly something terrible was happening.  What was it?  Officers, and Staff officers too, stood gazing at the scene, awestruck and dumbfounded; for in the northerly breeze there came a pungent nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes smart. 
We were now in the area of the ill-fated French Colonial Corps.  Ambulances were everywhere, and the village of Brielen, through which we passed, was choked with wounded and gassed men.  We were very mystified about this gas, and had no protection whatever against it.
One man came stumbling through our lines.  An officer of ours held him up with levelled revolver, "What's the matter, you bloody lot of cowards?" says he.  The man was frothing at the mouth, his eyes started from their sockets, and he fell writhing at the officer's feet. Within seconds, he was dead.”

31. There is no way that we will ever able to understand what life in the trenches was like. It doesn’t matter how many diaries, or letters we read or how many photos we look at – we will never comprehend what this hell on earth was like.
To conclude, I would like to show you a short video of the trenches. It starts with British soldiers being recruited. It goes on with marching soldiers, then to soldiers digging trenches quickly before a battle. The next clip shows Brits receiving their rations in the trenches, and the last shows them frantically pumping water from their trench as their friends lie dying. The music playing in the background is a track called ‘Pack up Your Troubles’, a song popularly sung by the soldiers.

32. Dan Snow Video on the breaking the deadlock from the trenches.