The Life of Soldiers in the Trenches during WWI

 A total of 3,240,948 tons of food was sent to the front lines.  What did the soldiers eat?  Canned corned beef  Pea Soup  It was a good day if there were small lumps of horse meat in it  Bread  Biscuits  When flour became scarce  Bread made from dried ground turnips

 No proper sanitation in the Trenches  Dysentery  a disease causing inflammation in the lining of the large intestines  Later attempts to purify water were made, but chloride of lime did not taste very good to the soldiers

 After a rainfall or in poorly drained land, men stood in water logged trenches for long hours  No ability to remove socks & shoes  Caused an infection of the foot & in most cases both feet  As a result British Soldiers were ordered to change their socks at least twice a day to prevent this infection

 Barrage  extensive artillery fire against enemy positions.  classified as light, moderate or heavy.  light barrage = six or seven shells every ten minutes  moderate barrage = thirty shells a minute  heavy barrage = fifty to sixty shells a minute.

The Machine Gun allowed for more efficient warfare. The gun would be used as a way of keeping the other army in their trench. It was also used in combination with barbed wire to funnel soldiers into an area so that large groups of them could be killed at once.

Barbed wire was used to slow down advancing troops. The barbed wire was also used to force soldiers to charge through certain openings in the fence.

 Mustard Gas  first used by the German Army in September  almost odorless and took twelve hours to take effect  Effects  Skin blistered  eyes became very sore  Uncontrollable vomiting  internal and external bleeding  attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane