World War 1 started in 1914, for 4 years and ended in It killed 17 million people. I t was between 2 groups, The Triple Alliance which was Germany, Austria – Hungary and Italy and The Triple Entente which was Great Britain, France and Russia. The reason it started was due to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo.

There was plenty of illnesses in the trenches for you to worry about. Colds, flu and poisonous gases were a few. When I think about the trenches I feel very lucky and never in a million years would I like to be a solider!

This was a condition which made the soldiers act strangely after witnessing horrible events during the war. It affected their mind after hearing loud explosions, gun fire and smelling gases and dangers in the trenches. A very scary time.

Trench Foot is a horrible disease that lots of people got. It happened when the mud and water got into their boots and their feet swelled and quite literally went rotten. Some people were very unfortunate with trench foot, they had to have their foot amputated which means your foot is cut off! Some soldiers shot a bullet through their foot so they could get sent home.

Lots of soldiers in the awful trenches would of had lice, so the soldiers shaved their hair. But lice live on their head so it didn’t help. Imagine having lice, itching your head and having to concentrate on the war, that would be hard!

Food in the trench was no where near as good as the food we eat today. There wasn’t a lot and the bowls they ate from weren't that clean either.

The soldiers mainly ate tined food and ate their food in metal tins. At Christmas if they were lucky, they would get a tiny bit of chocolate each year from princess Mary. Every day food was not a lot.

Weapons used during the war were guns, poisonous gases, rifles, grenades and bayonets. These were knives that were placed at the end of the gun to be used if you came face to face with the enemy. Soldiers always carried a gas mask to protect them from gas attacks and wore boots and heavy coats/jackets, which were itchy and uncomfortable. They were not very waterproof.

So after reading that I probably wouldn’t like to be a soldier in WW 1. Think of the jobs they would have to do. It would have been very hard to do.