Menu Close

Which country had the most comfortable trenches?

Which country had the most comfortable trenches?

Indeed the Germans had the best trenches. In the Somme offensive the Brits fired millions of shells on the trenches.

What area in the trenches was safest?

In the relative protection of a trench, a soldier’s most vulnerable area was his head. The British steel helmet, shown here, was designed to offer increased protection from shrapnel and other projectiles falling from above. Although not impenetrable, the helmets reduced head injuries by 75 per cent.

What would you feel in the 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. In the middle was no man’s land, which soldiers crossed to attack the other side.

Where did people in trenches sleep?

dugouts
6. Getting to sleep. When able to rest, soldiers in front line trenches would try and shelter from the elements in dugouts. These varied from deep underground shelters to small hollows in the side of trenches – as shown here.

How did they dig the trenches in ww1?

Most trenches were between 1-2 metres wide and 3 metres deep. Trenches weren’t dug in straight lines. The WWI trenches were built as a system, in a zigzag pattern with many different levels along the lines. Sometimes the soldiers would simply dig the trenches straight into the ground – a method known as entrenching.

Why did they build trenches in ww1?

World War I was a war of trenches. After the early war of movement in the late summer of 1914, artillery and machine guns forced the armies on the Western Front to dig trenches to protect themselves. Fighting ground to a stalemate.

Why are the trenches so disgusting?

They were actually quite disgusting. There were all sorts of pests living in the trenches including rats, lice, and frogs. The rats were everywhere and got into the soldiers’ food and ate just about everything, including sleeping soldiers. Rain caused the trenches to flood and get muddy.

Did they have toilets in the trenches?

Soldiers lived in the trenches when fighting during WW1, it was muddy, noisy and pretty basic. They didn’t have toilets so it was probably a bit stinky too.

Why did the trenches smell so bad?

Some men disappeared into the mud because it was so thick. The trenches had a horrible smell. This was because of the lack of bathing, the dead bodies, and the overflowing toilets. They could smell cordite, the lingering odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke, and cooking food.

What did the trenches smell like?

Answer: The smell in the trenches can only be imagined: rotting bodies, gunpowder, rats, human and other excrement and urine, as well as the damp smell of rotting clothes, oil, and many other smells mixed into one foul cesspit of a smell.

Did they eat rats in the trenches?

This image shows Canadian troops engaged in a rat hunt at Ploegsteert Wood near Ypres during March 1916. Trench conditions were ideal for rats. There was plenty of food, water and shelter. With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps.

Do ww1 trenches still exist?

Trench Remains The chalky horizontal line on the ploughed field is evidence of a former trench line. Nevertheless, there are still remains of trenches to be found in remote parts of the battlefields such as the woods of the Argonne, Verdun and the mountains of the Vosges.