Pedro

=Everyday life and routine in the trenches=

Food supply in the trenches
A total of 3,240,948 tons of food was sent from Britain to the soldiers fighting in France and Belgium during the First World War. In the front,                                                         300,000 field workers worked on cooking and supplying the food.

The British Army attempted to give the soldiers the 3,574 calories a day that dieticians said they needed. However, others argued that soldiers during wartime need much more than this.  __ Food supply (British side) __
 * ** 20 ounces of bread ** || ** 1/10 gill lime if vegetables not issued ** ||
 * ** 16 ounces of flour instead of above ** || ** ½ gill of rum ** ||
 * ** 3 ounces of cheese ** || ** maximum of 20 ounces of tobacco ** ||
 * ** 5/8 ounces of tea ** || ** 1/3 chocolate – optional ** ||
 * ** 4 ounces of jam ** || ** 4 ounces of oatmeal instead of bread ** ||
 * ** ½ ounce of salt ** || ** 1 pint of porter instead of rum ** ||
 * ** 1/36 ounce of pepper ** || ** 4 ounces of dried fruit instead of jam ** ||
 * ** 1/20 ounce of mustard ** || ** 4 ounces of butter/margarine ** ||
 * ** 8 ounces of fresh vegetables or ** || ** 2 ounces of dried vegetables ** ||

__ Food supply (German side) __ By the winter of 1916 there was such a shortage that                                                         the main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat. Kitchen staff became more and more dependent on local vegetables and also had to use weeds such as nettles in soups and stews. The battalion's kitchen staff had just two large vats, in which everything was prepared. As a result, everything the men ate tasted of something else (i.e. the tea tasted of vegetables). It´s unecessary to say that food was usually cold.
 * ** 26 ½ ounces of bread or ** ||
 * ** 17 ½ of field biscuits or ** ||
 * ** 14 ounces of egg biscuit ** ||
 * ** 53 ounces of potatoes ** ||
 * ** 4 ½ ounces vegetables ** ||
 * ** 2 ounces dried vegetables ** ||

Routine and Death in the trenches
A typical British soldier's year could be divided as follows:
 * 15% front line
 * 10% support line
 * 30% reserve line
 * 20% rest
 * 25% other (hospital, travelling, leave, training courses, etc.)

Death in the trenches was not only caused by raid attacks but also by the shellfire directed by the enemy. These projectiles brought random deth, whether their victims were lounging in a trench or lying in a dugout. Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper´s bullet. Moreover, injuried soldiers also died due to the lack of medical treatment. It has been estimated that up to one third of Allied casualtiees in the Western Front were actually sustained in the trenches.

Rats and illnesses
Rats represented a great problem for both armies´soldiers. One pair or rats can produce 880 offspring in a year so after 2 or 3 years of War the trenches were really swarming with them, since trench conditions were ideal. There were rats as big as cats and they could even eat a wounded man if he couldn´t defend himself. These rats would also attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping soldiers. It was not allowed to shoot the rats since it was considered a waste of ammunition, but it was current to attack them with bayonets for example. However its number didn´t diminish. The feature which caused revulsion among soldiers was the knowledge that rats opnmely fed on the dacaying remains of comrades killed when advancing across No Man´s Land. They also carried ilnesses around the soldiers.

__**Trench foot**__ During the First war men were exposed to Cold but not freezing conditions often up to their ankles in water that was permanently in the bottom of the trenches. The feet would swell, appear red and blood blistered, the pain would be severe, until the sensory nerves had been damaged and would then be numb causing the man to be evacuated hopefully.


 * __Trench fever__**

Trench fever is another illness which arose as a direct result of trench warfare conditions. The term Trench fever conjures up maybe a psycological condition, a man who developes some nervous disorder due to confinement to trenches. Trench fever was a very real, potentially fatal illness, it was a type of Typhus and it struck in epedemic proportions sapping the strength of a front line unit. Yet after the war trench fever virtually disappeared.

Three Useful Weblinks

 * http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/memories_from_the_trenches.htm - Oral Testimonies of the trenches
 * http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/index.htm - Accounts and Galleries from Great War Period books. Different perspectives.
 * http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww1_trenches_life.shtml - Life and Death in the trenches