Importance Of Daily Life In The Trenches

There were certain items or supplies that each soldier needed to possess that aided in their survival. Other items were discretionary or optional, not entirely important for the

World War I was known for its very slow-paced battle and the stage of stalemate. After advancing from Germany on France, battle turned into trench warfare. Trench Warfare is a defensive strategy in a field where the army stays in rows of trenches that were placed along the Western Front during the war. The use of trenches during the Great War was a very significant tactic during battle, by making soldiers hidden but exposed just enough to be able to attack the enemy. On a daily basis, life in the trenches was very scary and filled with horror. Death was upon the soldiers even if there was nobody attacking them. There was a continuous shell fire that would randomly take the lives of many. Some men died on their first day in the trenches, and very few were lucky to make it out unharmed. Shell fire was not the only issue in the trenches. There were plenty of diseases and infections spreading around like a wildfire. Many soldiers got infections and diseases that could not be treated such as Trench Foot or Trench Fever. Although trench warfare acts as a great defensive and offensive measure, it became very dangerous because of the many different causes of death including shell fire, diseases, and infections.

The long period that the soldiers had to spend within the trenches,normally because dirty rain flood,with soaked shoes in mud puddles,rats and decomposing bodies,caused the

Conserving resources for soldiers became a big deal, especially since a great majority of the people went through the depression before the war. The idea of Victory Gardens came about, growing your own food and saving to conserve food for the brothers, husbands, and sons fighting in the war. Many advertisements included products to help buy supplies for the gardens that women could keep. (Document 1) People on the homefront really believed in conservation to help the soldiers, which is how the idea of rationing began. Rationing helped families get their fair share of everything to conserve supplies and food for the people they knew fighting in the war. (Document 3) Some items that Americans rationed were sugar, coffee, chocolate, oil, rubber, metals, or anything that would be a shortage due to the pause in international trading. Even though the U.S. was in the Great Depression as the war started, the wartime economy helped to pull it out and rationing became a new normal for Americans during the

Items they carried had been based on the necessity of that item and this necessity dictated (355). Amongst these was cigarettes, kool-aid packets, P-38 can openers, heat tabs, wristwatches, pocket knives, rations, water etc (355). Due to extreme war conditions, they carried armor, bandages, and a green plastic poncho that was “worth every ounce” (356). Lt. Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, which carried a strong significance throughout the duration of the excerpt. According to their rank or specialty, the soldiers carried a variety of weapons and accessories. They performed various missions while being resupplied every few days with “more of the same “(365). An increase in the amount of equipment carried translated to the increase in the amount of physical weight withheld. All these physical objects in which they carried weighed down on their emotional state of mind.

Throughout the novel, we saw the men of the Second Company adapt to the harsh conditions of war and fighting on the front line. The first instance was the men going to relieve the front line. It had been fairly quiet for them, so the quartermaster requisitioned the normal amount of rations for an entire

2. What were the main· features of trench warfare for the troops involved? What would happen to people who managed to live through this experience?

Intro: The life for the average soldier in the WW1 trenches was pretty horrible. They had to live in mud, fellow dead soldiers and lots of rats, some the size of your hand. Life of a soldier was very tough, having to see your best mate get shot and he left to rot. Any soldiers that made it out of the war would have suffered either shell shock or post-traumatic stress disorder and living with either of these would have been terrible.

Sometimes (not very often) when a battle is not taking place, soldiers had time to write or read letters, play games or catch up on sleep they missed. Some men were unlucky and had to be on guard duty. When there is a battle, no one can mess around. Everyone has to be in full concentration.

By now the fighting on Cups hill had caused and the battlefield became relatively quiet. Soldiers on each side sweated in the midday heat, waiting for whatever was going to happen next – witch to most of them was unknown (Gottlieb pg

Most soldiers had a hard time getting used to the meal they were served. Food was very important at that time. Suppose you were a soldier who marched for a long time, tired and sweaty, the only thing that can helped them gain energy was food.

Soldiers of both armies relied to a great extent on food sent from home and on the ubiquitous Sutler. Sutlers were independent peddlers who traveled with their portable stores and charged high prices for food. Eggs, butter, sugar which were easy to obtain before the war were luxuries once the war started.

During the war, 8 to 10 million soldiers were killed in battle, and 22 million were

Fast forward to World War II, and Troops ate C-Rations for up to 90 days. It was generally disliked by soldiers who often did not consume all the parts of the meal due to menu monotony. One of the most famous rations of World War II was the K-Ration, first requested for paratroopers to carry in their pockets. Its components were the most nutritionally balanced of any ration available at the time (“Food Distribution”). Of the 9 requirements for

     brigades had spent all day in an effort to deprive the enemy of illumination, some