PRESS HERALD
Wednesday, September 8, 1918
6 Feet Underground but Still Alive
By Adona Umeri Soldiers lined up at the Italian front in the trenches prepared to take charge towards their enemies (from google images) During this difficult time at war, soldiers have had to spend the last four years of their lives in between narrow walls called trenches. Not only do these soldiers face the extremities of battles, but they also have to survive in these narrow spaces. For these courageous men, living in these trenches meant living in fear. As the war has been mentioned that it is coming to an end, soldiers still have to keep up with their daily routines in the trenches to survive.
There are many difficulties as to living in trenches. Firstly,
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Other problems that occur are lice infestation, trench fever, trench mouth, trench foot, and shell shock. Lice spreads into soldier’s clothing and within a few hours, their eggs hatch. Therefore, many soldiers shave their head to avoid lice. A photograph of Italian soldiers on the Albanian Front shaving each other’s heads to prevent lice infestation (from google images). This year, lice have been recognized to be the main cause of Trench Fever, a disease that consists of severe pain and high fevers. Another medical condition called trench foot is a fungal infection of the feet. I viewed a soldier who stood in cold, wet conditions that infected his feet. The conditions can include water levels up to waist height or very cold weather that can cause frostbite. Some cases resulted in amputation of the feet. I didn’t observe this since conditions are more stable now than they were four years ago. Trench mouth comes from the improper care of gums, which affect soldiers because of their unsanitary environments. Lastly, shell shock, an illness soldiers have is caused by the stress of battles. More issues include those that are war-related, which will be discussed later on.
The daily life of a soldier consists of being awoken by the officers or sergeants to prepare for attacks that occur at dawn. They “stand-to” and guard the trenches. This routine is named the ‘morning hate’. Firing weapons calm the nerves of the soldiers. The soldiers who
It was poorly constructed, polluted with human excrement and contained pools of water. Buried about a foot deep, hundreds of Germans and French lied in the trench since last October. Mud was my best friend, and sleep was interrupted by the booming of German shells. There was infection everywhere. Men were blown or shot to pieces, and their bodily fluids fed the rats. Those malicious critters were immense, crawling on and eating the decaying bodies. Some of the men had gotten a nasty disease that ate away at their feet. Trench foot, they called it. Unless we could dry our feet, our feet began to rot. Making up the majority of our diets were stale bread. With no appetite, I starved for most days. And containing no proper washrooms, we had areas in the trench where we relieved ourselves. Oh how the banging never ceased for sixty seconds! Some men were terrified of fighting, mama. Their minds went crooked, and their bodies twitched and trembled constantly. They wouldn't fight, or listen to orders. Most of them were executed, unless they had an injury that could send them home. Mama, Riley was shot in the heart yesterday. But, he died grateful. "It's an end to those shells, bombs, rats, lice and mud," he spoke his last
Artillery blaze was an melancholia strategie in ww1 by bombing day afterwards day the men in the trenches acquainted the cavernous of the arena and mud aerial if the battlefront stops the men alpha to feel the affliction every day you are affair if will they be austere this charge to be remembered with the abhorrence adversary ammunition with men dying every
The grim reality of living in muddy, rat-infested trenches epitomizes the brutal and prolonged nature of this new form of combat. Soldiers endured constant peril from enemy fire, disease, malnutrition, and psychological trauma, locked in a deadly stalemate that exacted a heavy toll on both sides. In the document packet, document 4 talks about how trench warfare got very severe and how the introduction of new machinery changed warfare too when gasses were made and added into the fight. Its effect on the French was a violent nausea and faintness, followed by an utter collapse. It is believed that the Germans, who charged in behind the vapor, met no resistance at all, the French at their front being virtually paralyzed” This shows how trench warfare got extreme and soldiers were left injured in many ways if not
The diseases that most affected the soldiers,while they were fighting for a cause in the trenches were,Trench Foot,The Trench Influenza and Shell Shock.
However trench warfare brought problem with it, when it rained the trenches would fill will water, the men would be standing in cold muddy water sometimes up to their waist for days, this would case trench foot. Trench foot was an infection of the feet that would make swell up and it was very painful, most men had their feet
In “The Things They Carried”, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, Kool-Aid packs, C rations, and two to three canteens of water were the essentials for everyday life. “Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake.” (O’Brien 95) The extra rations that Henry Dobbins carried could have been the extra motivation for him to stay healthy through the war. Good hygiene was a must during war. Jensen carried toothbrush, floss and trial size shampoos. He also used three pairs of socks and foot powder. He was determined to be protected from trench foot. History keeps reminding us over and over how important good hygiene is for our health. During the civil war many men died of infections for, high gene was not number one priority in fact solider didn’t shower in weeks or even months. In WWI the soldiers suffered from trench foot over 20,000 casualties resulting from trench foot were reputed to have been suffered by the British Army alone during the close of 1914. The symptoms of trench foot are when the feet become numb, swollen and turn red. Blisters and sores soon appear and the feet turn blue, then the sores get infected with fungi. In World War II Dysentery occurred it is caused by a bacterial or protozoan infection or infestation of parasitic worms, Symptoms of dysentery include frequent passage of feces and, in some cases, vomiting
Struggles of the Soldier War takes a toll on the mind, body, and soul. Throughout history, the soldier has struggled to push through the barriers war provides. There are records of the soldier’s insanity and suffering dating back to World War I, shown in All Quiet on the Western Front. His comrades are the only ones that understand what he is dealing with, and the soldier feels isolated when surrounded by civilians. It is difficult to survive mentally because of the horrific things the soldier deals with, which often cause the soldier to develop mental disorders.
I am sitting here in my trench with my fellow brothers. We are soaked from head to toe with mud all over us. I haven’t had a change in socks in weeks and I have seen men around me get trench foot. Trench foot is something I have seen and I never want to experience if we don’t have to. The lice have been spreading from man to man very quickly. At first the lice really bothered us but now it is just a part of our lives in these trenches. We have to be careful with our rations because the rats that have grown to the size of Oscar, so we have to keep our rations in a safe place
The area around the trench would be a barren wasteland, with nothing but mud and destroyed buildings and trees. Days for the soldiers would normally be structured in the same way, they would wake up (this depended on them actually getting sleep) and stand to, this meant that they would prepare for enemy fire or attack because this is when most of the fighting would start. They would have to do this at around five am in the morning before the sun
After it rained all of that water ahead to go somewhere so all of the rain was in the trenches which made it muddy and difficult to walk. The food was also very awful and content of canned food. That is if you could even get some because the rations were so low and the rats would eat some of it. There was also a lot of desire to hurt yourself, because it was like living in a nightmare with artillery shooting you all day. So the soldiers thought this would be the easiest way out, but that wasn't the case. The soldiers would shoot themselves in the foot or hand, hoping to get sent home but often times the officer would just shoot them even though they were on the same
In trench warfare, the two sides fighting each other dig trenches in a battlefield to stop the enemy from advancing. According to Document 4, one difficulty faced by soldiers serving in the trenches during World War I was that the soldiers would get trench foot. The illustration on Document 4 shows a couple of soldiers being inspected for any signs of Trench Foot. Trench foot is a medical condition caused by prolonged exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, and cold conditions. The soldiers got this condition because the men had stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove their wet socks and shoes/boots. During the first World War this was the most common to happen to the
We’ve been fighting in very skinny trenches, just enough room for two men to squeeze by each other. There was a wall made of sandbags in front of each trench, which are more or less bullet proof, but give little protection from shell fire. The trench was between six and seven feet from top to bottom and the bottom is not more than four feet wide. Along the front there is a small ledge where someone stands in order to fire over the sandbag and cut into the rear of the trench are their dugouts. The men in the trenches are told to keep up a more or less continuous fire on the German lines and also to be ready to resist any attack that may be made. Every man must stand by all night every night, no one is allowed to sleep or to be in the dug outs. During the day one of three men must be on duty,
War in the trenches is described in an apocalyptic, horrific terms, usually there were three parallel lines of trenches, a front- line trench was of major importance guarded by tangled lines of barbed wire, typically only occupied in force during stand to attention at dawn and dusk , located 50 yards to a mile from its enemy counterpart, a support trench line to which the garrison would draw when the front trench was bombarded, located several hundred yards back, and several hundred yards behind that a reserve trench line where
The trenches were quite a terrifying place to be, the conditions were immense, unhygienic and brutal. The trenches were a key defence strategy implemented by the British and the Germans. For 4 years in the First World War the two sides inflicted onslaught upon each other ruthlessly on an industrial scale. The trenches were demoralising, horrifying and left strong men traumatized. Many men suffered and had to stand the strain of many unbearable illnesses both physical and mental; trench foot, trench fever, paranoia, pneumonia etc. There was “shell-shock” a term given to men who lost their wits. Some men got severe depression and also some soldiers got so fed up of life in the trenches which
Private Charles William Clark, also of Owston Ferry, was invalided home suffering from trench foot. In severe cases, this affliction turned the feet blue; they would go numb and then burn as if touched by fire. When the nerves died, gangrene set in, leaving amputation of the toes or even the whole foot as the only solution. Thankful, by this time, trench foot had become an increasingly rare complaint as platoon commanders were made responsible for controlling the conditions that could lead to its spread. They were charged with initiating better methods for draining away water and setting up regular inspections of soldiers’ feet. This, along with remedies such as rubbing whale oil into the feet every four hours, had reduced significantly the number of cases reported, so it is seems Private Clark was unlucky, careless or had a commanding officer who neglected his duty!