What were the worst conditions soldiers in WWI went through?

Disease and 'shell shock' were rampant in the trenches.

With soldiers fighting in close proximity in the trenches, usually in unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever were common and spread rapidly.

What was the worst condition in the trenches?

But the majority of loss of life can be attributed to famine and disease – horrific conditions meant fevers, parasites and infections were rife on the frontline and ripped through the troops in the trenches. Among the diseases and viruses that were most prevalent were influenza, typhoid, trench foot and trench fever.

What were the conditions of the soldiers in ww1?

Trench life involved long periods of boredom mixed with brief periods of terror. The threat of death kept soldiers constantly on edge, while poor living conditions and a lack of sleep wore away at their health and stamina.

What were some of the conditions soldiers faced while in the trenches?

On the Western Front, the war was fought by soldiers in trenches. Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. They were very muddy, uncomfortable and the toilets overflowed. These conditions caused some soldiers to develop medical problems such as trench foot.

What was the worst thing about the trenches in ww1?

Life in the trenches was very difficult because they were dirty and flooded in bad weather. Many of the trenches also had pests living in them, including rats, lice, and frogs. Rats in particular were a problem and ate soldier's food as well as the actual soldiers while they slept.

What It Was Like To Be a Trench Soldier in WWI

What was the worst part about fighting in the trenches?

Disease and 'shell shock' were rampant in the trenches.

With soldiers fighting in close proximity in the trenches, usually in unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever were common and spread rapidly.

What were the worst aspects of trench warfare?

Exposed to the elements, trenches filled with water and became muddy quagmires. One of the worst fears of the common Western Front soldier was 'trench foot': gangrene of the feet and toes, caused by constant immersion in water. Trench soldiers also contended with ticks, lice, rats, flies and mosquitos.

How did trenches affect soldiers?

Even during lulls in the fighting, death occurred almost daily in the trenches due to a sniper's bullet or the unsanitary living conditions which resulted in many diseases such as dysentery, typhus and cholera. Other diseases caused by the poor conditions were trench mouth and trench foot*.

What were the dangers of ww1?

DANGERS OF THE WORLD WAR I TRENCHES

​Life in the trenches of World War I was dangerous for many reasons. The more obvious dangers included enemy fire, poisonous gas attacks and artillery shelling. For instance, soldiers in World War I had to be on the watch for enemy sniper fire from across No Man's Land.

Did soldiers in ww1 eat rats?

With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps. The rats grew bigger and bolder and would even steal food from a soldier's hand. But for some soldiers the rats became their friends. They captured them and kept them as pets, bringing a brief reprisal from the horror which lay all around.

How do soldiers pee?

“Piss pipes”

These public urinals are constructed from large pipes that are halfway buried. This way, all the human pee collects several feet underground instead of pooling on the surface.

How did ww1 affect soldiers?

The trench experience involved the terror of mud, slime and disease and the constant threat of shellfire. Heavy artillery and new weapons such as poison gas threatened death from afar; but hand to hand combat with clubs and knives killed many during the grisly business of trench raids.

Why was ww1 so brutal?

The loss of life was greater than in any previous war in history, in part because militaries were using new technologies, including tanks, airplanes, submarines, machine guns, modern artillery, flamethrowers, and poison gas.

What was the worst disease in ww1?

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic. The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history.

Does shell shock still exist?

The term shell shock is still used by the United States' Department of Veterans Affairs to describe certain parts of PTSD, but mostly it has entered into memory, and it is often identified as the signature injury of the War.

What were the most common injuries in ww1?

Generally there were four kinds of cases: gas injuries, shell shock, diseases, and wounds. World War I was the first conflict to see the use of deadly gases as a weapon. Gas burned skin and irritated noses, throats, and lungs. It could cause death or paralysis within minutes, killing by asphyxiation.

What were the living conditions in the trenches in ww1?

Many of the soldiers were surrounded by dead bodies, blood and were with many soldiers in a compressed area making them prone to diseases and infections. Some of them include: lice, body lice, Trench Foot, trench fever, Spanish flu, burns and blindness from mustard gas and shell shock.

What was the most common cause of death in ww1?

The casualties suffered by the participants in World War I dwarfed those of previous wars: some 8,500,000 soldiers died as a result of wounds and/or disease. The greatest number of casualties and wounds were inflicted by artillery, followed by small arms, and then by poison gas.

Was ww1 the most brutal war?

The most lethal war in human history is almost certainly World War II. Other wars may have been more lethal but lack credible records. Sixty to eighty million people died between 1939 and 1945. Twenty one to twenty five million of the deaths were military, the remainder civilian.

What did the trenches smell like?

The stink of war

Then there was the smell. Stinking mud mingled with rotting corpses, lingering gas, open latrines, wet clothes and unwashed bodies to produce an overpowering stench. The main latrines were located behind the lines, but front-line soldiers had to dig small waste pits in their own trenches.

How did soldiers go to the toilet in ww1?

These latrines were trench toilets. They were usually pits dug into the ground between 1.2 metres and 1.5 metres deep. Two people who were called sanitary personnel had the job of keeping the latrines in good condition for each company.

What problems did returning soldiers face after World war 1?

Returning veterans from World War I suffered unemployment, serious mental illnesses—including trauma, "shell shock" or PTSD, grief, anxiety disorders, and depression—as well as physical injuries, such as amputations, paraplegia, lung problems, and blindness.

Which factor made it most difficult for soldiers?

Which factor made it most difficult for soldiers to cross the area between the trenches? The land was too wide to be crossed. The land was not claimed by either side, so access to it was impossible.

What were the disadvantages of trenches?

Trenches were easy to make, easy to defend, cheap to build, and don't need lots of men to defend them. Unfortunately trenches are wet, cold, and hard to get in an out of without being seen by the enemy. They were also very dirty and unhygienic because there was no running water or flushing toilets.

What was it like for soldiers to go over the top in ww1?

Men ordered to attack – or 'go over the top' – had to climb out of their trenches, carrying their weapons and heavy equipment, and move through the enemy's 'field of fire' over complex networks of barbed wire, keeping low to the ground for safety.