The first World War was one of the deadliest conflicts in the history of the human race, in which over 40 million military men and civilians died. The life of a trench soldier was a living hell. They endured disease, hunger, rats, horrific smells, corpses everywhere.
And most importantly, they had to come to terms with the reality that they could die at any moment. Today we're going to find out what it was like to be a World War I trench soldier. But before we do, be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel.
And let us know what historical events you would like to hear about. Now, on to the trenches. From October, 1914, to March, 1918, British, French, German, Russian, and Ottoman forces fought in trenches, an interconnected series of muddy paths dug about seven feet deep and six feet wide into the ground at the front lines the battlegrounds.
While the trenches gave soldiers cover and protection from enemy fire, they also, ironically, were the cause of many deaths due to their sewer-like conditions. When you hear about the trenches of World War I, you might envision a bunch of crudely dug walkways. But these trenches had a purposeful, strategic design.
The Allies and the Central Powers designed their trenches as a defense mechanism. Aggressive, heavy weapons forced both sides to hunker down. So trenches became a way to hold a line without making soldiers vulnerable.
The trenches were also dug in zigzags and curves, which created corners and corridors, giving soldiers better vantage points and hiding spots. Those zigzag patterns kept infiltrating enemies from jumping into the trench and wiping out everyone in sight. And these trenches all served a different purpose.
Some trenches served as holding corrals for troops on R&R. Some trenches were for supply storage. And other trenches were for waste.
Something about being covered in soupy mud is fun. People pay good money to get slathered in organic mud at fancy day spas in the name of healthier skin. But during World War I, prolonged exposure to flooded, muddy trenches could cause trench foot.
You could lose your toes-- or worse, your feet. Trench foot was so rampant and commonplace, it impacted roughly 75,000 British soldiers alone. It was also discovered in World War I that soldiers gave each other regular foot inspections.
The men would be paired up in twos, and each partner made responsible for the feet of the other. And they would generally apply whale oil in an effort to prevent trench foot, that could happen under all cold, wet conditions. As a matter of fact, some concertgoers were reported to have developed trench foot at the Glastonbury Festivals, the Leeds Festivals, and Download Festivals as a result of the consistent cold, wet, and muddy conditions at those events.
Even though advanced medical techniques meant that doctors were better equipped to manage the health of soldiers in World War I than they had been in previous conflicts, it was still common for soldiers to simply get sick and die. The cold, damp, and unsanitary conditions in the trenches did nothing to fortify soldiers. And the unforgiving elements made them prone to illness.
Lice circulated in the trenches and spread maladies like trench fever. And it wasn't uncommon for soldiers to wake up finding rats eating their rations-- or them. Yes, the rats were so bold they'd take bites out of sleeping soldiers.
And let's not forget that the trenches were the breeding ground for one of the deadliest outbreaks in history, the influenza pandemic of 1918. Due to World War I, soldiers' already low immune systems, weakened by malnourishment as well as the stresses of combat and chemical attacks, their susceptibility to the disease was imminent. World War I changed on April 22, 1915, when German forces shocked Allied soldiers along the Western Front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium.
The United States, which entered World War I in 1917, also developed and used chemical weapons. Future President Harry S. Truman was the captain of a US field artillery unit that fired poison gas against the Germans in 1918.
All in, approximately 100,000 tons of chemical weapons were used in World War I, injuring around 500,000 troops and killing nearly 30,000 men, including 2,000 Americans. Gas attacks were terrifying. It was a new level of warfare that no one was expecting.
A gas attack could severely injure or end anyone unlucky enough to come into proximity with it. It also could depend on how the breeze was blowing at that particular time. Soldiers weren't in the trenches 24/7 for months on end.
Soldiers actually only spent between one and seven days at a time in the trenches, in close reserve, and at rest. This process limited the amount of time a soldier spent in the bleak trenches. And the rotation was incredibly important in managing their stress.
"Rest" could be a misnomer, though. If regiments were understaffed, soldiers were usually recruited to expand and repair the trenches. On the other end of the spectrum, some soldiers also took advantage of their time away from the trenches by visiting brothels.
By 1918, 1 million French soldiers had been treated for STIs. Front-line soldiers, who were forced to confront death and violence for days on end, naturally developed damaging psychological wounds. The high-stress climate of the trench warfare led to extreme anxiety and panic attacks, though medical and military officials used terms like "shell shock" to describe what was happening, which is now what we call post-traumatic stress disorder.
Many soldiers who had shell shock were sent to convalescent homes to recuperate. As a matter of fact, the term "shell shocked" was coined during World War I. Some soldiers that suffered from the condition were put on trial, and even executed for military crimes, including desertion and cowardice.
Think about it. 266 British soldiers were executed for desertion, 18 for cowardice, seven for quitting a post without authority, five for disobedience to a lawful command, and two for casting away arms, all because no one knew how to handle PTSD. Trench food was a big thing during World War I.
Naturally, it was horrible. But it was important to keep the troops going. The British Army alone employed 300,000 field workers to cook and supply the food.
The men's diet was made up of small rations of boiled beef, bacon, vegetables, and bread, although it could take up to eight days for the bread to reach the trenches. And by then, it was stale. But crafty soldiers solved the stale bread dilemma on their own by tearing the hard loaves up, adding potatoes, onions, raisins, or whatever else was available, and boiling the mixture in a sandbag.
By the winter of 1916, flour was in such short supply the bread was being made with dried, ground turnips. And the main meal was now a pea soup with a few lumps of horse meat. Soldiers may have had to deal with crappy food.
But the one thing they had to look forward to was the alcohol they received that provided liquid courage for the men in the trenches. Even though millions of people perished and it seemed like there was a new battle every day, a soldier's life in the trenches was often spent sitting around, doing nothing but waiting around for the next volley of gunfire. It seems like it would be impossible to get bored when you're surrounded by the enemy.
But boredom was the most common state of being. And officials and officers knew this. They were worried that soldiers with nothing to do would just get into trouble.
So the British military pushed them to be creative as a way to raise morale. One of the most memorable British artifacts to come from the sheer boredom that came with trench life was producing a trench magazine. The Wipers Times was one such magazine that soldiers printed.
English soldiers stationed near Ypres-- which they mispronounced as "wipers"-- in Belgium found an old printing press and put it to good use by publishing their own magazine and circulating it in the trenches. The magazine didn't report on the hard news of the war, though. It was filled with poems, essays and jokes, and lampoons of the war they were fighting.
The tone was dark, humorous, and, at times, touching, like a cross between The Onion and a high school newspaper. As bad as World War I was, the first Christmas of World War I, in 1914, brought forth a spirit of humanity and unity that stood in stark contrast to life in the trenches. On Christmas Eve, a chorus of carols from both British and German trenches resulted in a tentative truce for the holiday.
Soldiers from opposite sides of No Man's Land emerged from their trenches and met, bringing goodwill and makeshift gifts. It was odd to see French, German, and British soldiers crossing trenches into No Man's Land to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. But there they were-- bartering for cigarettes, playing football against each other, and exchanging food and souvenirs.
Unfortunately, the peace did not last long. Fighting resumed the next day. And the goodwill hardened again into animosity.
The following year, a few units arranged ceasefires to congregate and retrieve the dead bodies of their fellow soldiers shot down in No Man's Land. But the truces weren't nearly as widespread as in 1914, due in part to orders from those in high command of both sides prohibiting truces. One of the most interesting and surprising World War I legacies was its effect on language.
The blending of soldiers' nationalities, languages, dialects, accents, and social backgrounds of the trenches produced an unusual glossary of military slang. For example, British soldiers called enemy grenades "potato mashers," and used the phrase "storm troopers" to describe soldiers that performed risky, lightning-fast attacks. The term "basket case" was another bit of slang that originated during World War I.
"Basket cases" were injured soldiers who were carried out of the trenches in long, casket-shaped baskets because of their lost limbs. "Cooties" is a word that came into play in 1915 from the coot, a type of duck known for being infested with lice and other parasites. So would you want to be a trench soldier in World War I?
Let us know in the comments below. And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos from our weird history.
