Bulletin board by Jennifer Buxton

Digging

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 15:15:26 UTC

The men in the trenches had to dig them by hand. Sometimes their shovel would be in their hands more than a gun would. The trenches were constantly being rebuilt and added onto because of the damage they faced.

"Stand to"

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 15:19:57 UTC

The men on duty in the trenches mounted the fire step with their rifles ready. This was a drill that was done every morning nad every night. Usually, rifles were fired even if there was nothing to shoot at on the other side. This lasted on average 10 or 15 minutes.

Water supply

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 16:04:12 UTC

All the water the soldiers got was hoarded for drinking. There was no fresh water for the men to bathe in so they would wash themselves in mud. Mud was everywhere and in everything so much so that it was inescapable.

The Transport of supplies

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 16:11:29 UTC

Supplies for the men on the front lines were brought at night in order to prevent being detected. Everything had to be carried by hand through communication trenches. The supplies being transported included food, ammunition, tools, duckboards, timbers, rolls of barbed and telephone wire, hand pumps, mail and medical supplies. All of this was carried by soldiers.

Sentries

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 23:26:27 UTC

Sentries were men who were tasked with watching over no-mans-land and the enemy trenches overnight. They had to remain awake for their two-hour shifts with inadequate sleep and had to do back-breaking work.

Patrol

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 23:30:46 UTC

In order to ensure that no man fell asleep at his post, there would be others patrolling. Each section of the trench would be patrolled to make sure that each man was at his post, that work parties weren't shrinking, and to check each man for signs of the diseases that were common in the trenches.

Mealtime

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 23:32:17 UTC

After the morning hate was over each side would go, and eat breakfast. There was an unspoken rule in the trenches that neither side would open fire during mealtimes.

Iron rations

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 23:40:18 UTC

When regular food supplies were delayed in getting to the soldiers the men resorted to canned goods called "iron rations". Nutrition experts figured out, to the calorie, how much food was needed to keep a man at fighting strength. However, they had not figured out how to make food palatable so the soldiers would have to be heated up to be eaten.

Mail call

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 23:42:49 UTC

The army figured out how important mail was to the soldiers so they included mail into the supplies carried to the front lines. Newspapers arrived regularly, wives and parents sent homemade cakes, canned goods, and candy

Daytime duties

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 23:52:25 UTC

As visibility increased, moving around became more dangerous. Enemy snipers were always watching for movement on the other side. Another daytime duty was repairing the communication wires buried under the duckboards. Artillery shells would destroy the lines, no matter how deep they were buried, disrupting communication.

Personal tasks

1500263_2 — 2025-03-17 23:59:53 UTC

In the afternoons, men sometimes had time for personal tasks such as cleaning the dirt off their rifles. During rainy spells, men would urinate in the gun barrels in order to clear them.

Dehumanization

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:05:53 UTC

The British printed millions of postcards for the soldiers with blanks so they can check off what they are trying to say next to a prewritten sentence. The postcard also told the soldier not to add any personal messages. The postcards were effective but they were also lifeless and impersonal, adding to the dehumanization of the war

Sleep

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:10:23 UTC

Even when there was time to sleep, it was almost impossible. Soldiers had to sleep with a belt full of ammunition around them, a rifle digging into their ribs, a tin hat being used as a pillow, and feeling very damp and cold.

Men falling out of nowhere

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:16:25 UTC

Men could be having a conversation with one another and then all of a sudden one drops dead with a bullet through the head. This increased the anxious feeling of always being in jeopardy added to the strain of life in the trenches.

Rats

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:30:42 UTC

Rats in the trenches were very common on the battlefield. They would eat the remains of the fallen soldiers and torment the men in the trenches.

Bodies of the dead

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:36:05 UTC

When trying to repair walls or other work inside the trenches, the men would discover previously hidden bodies of fallen soldiers. There wasn't time to transport bodies out of the trenches so most of the time they were thrown over the top of the trench walls.

Diseases/conditions

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:38:59 UTC

The men in the trenches would often be infected with lice or cooties. Cooties thrived in hair, clothing, and the crevices fo the body. The men on the front lines were forbidden from removing their clothing so they could only scratch and wait for a chance for their turn at the delousing stations.

Flies

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:40:45 UTC

Because of the living and dead bodies as well as the latrines there were flies all over the place terrorizing he soldiers.

Illness

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:43:18 UTC

The damp atmosphere and exposure to the cold resulted in pneumonia. The cooties also spread a disease known as trench fever

Harming oneself

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:47:19 UTC

After the battles of 1916, self-inflicted wounds became a serious problem in all the armies. Besides breathing gas, common attempts included shooting oneself I the hand or foot, chewing cordite (explosives in stick form), sleeping in wet towels to induce pneumonia, and raising an arm or leg above trench level.

Gas attacks

1500263_2 — 2025-03-18 00:50:03 UTC

One of the sentries' jobs during the day was to watch for the telltale cloud that signaled a gas attack. They would hang an empty shell casing or other alarm bell to alert those in the trenches