History Of Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through physical problems like Trench Foot and other physical trauma. Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through physical problems like Trench Foot. Trench Foot was a major disease that affected most soldiers that fought in trenches during World War One. Trench Foot was caused by circulatory changes in the foot caused by cold weather, wet mud, and pressure. Trenches were only a few feet above sea level so there was constant flooding, while soldiers fought in the trenches all day. "Soldiers would stand out in the cold slime day after day until their feet swelled, went numb, and began

to burn painfully" (Hochschild 135). Trench Foot affected the soldiers in a big way because it limited their ability to move. The disease would get so bad that the feet of some soldiers started to decay. "This was the dreaded Trench Foot, which sent men crawling to being carried to the nearest camps by the thousands" (Hochschild 135). In battle, mobility is very important. Trench Foot limited that mobility which left soldiers in battle to die.

When soldiers realized what was happening to their feet, they started prevention. "Prevention included improvement of trench environment; modification of footwear worn by the men; and the provision of greases to protect them from moisture" (Atenstaedt). Soldiers changed their socks frequently and rubbed whale oil on their feet so they can stop the moisture from the mud in the trenches. For the soldiers that forgot to prevent from the moisture or were too late and got the disease, medical assistance was available at the time to take soldiers out of battle and into medical treatment. The British Red Cross had the main task of developing ambulance teams for the battle of Verdun in France. The status of their work was described in their journal, "the nature of the assistance that the British Red Cross society has been affecting in the Verdun fight can be described as...fighting line evacuation work" (British). The ambulance service helped soldiers who were trapped in battle because of the loss of mobility from Trench Foot. Trench Foot was one of the most popular physical diseases created by Trench Warfare that devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War

One.
Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through physical problems like trench foot and other trauma. Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through physical problems like the proliferation of vermin and introduction of gas warfare. Rats were a huge issue, especially in the trenches. There were millions of rats that lived around and even in the trenches with the soldiers. Rats were often recorded eating their favorite food, human flesh. A French soldier tells a typical story:
"One evening, whilst on patrol, Jacques saw some rats running from under the dead men's greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. His heart pounding, he edged towards on of the bodies. Its helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured...and from the yawning mouth leapt an unspeakably foul beast" (Ellis 55).
The rats were known to be carriers of Weil's disease, which became a widespread disease in the last two years of World War One. Other than rats, lice and flies were also a huge problem in the trenches. Lice and flies feed on the dead bodies in the trenched and even swarm on living soldiers. In July 1915, a French soldier named J. Germain wrote about the flies: "An immense cloud smelling of corpses swept the plateau incessantly, choking the combatants with its fetid odour" (Ellis 58). The smell came from the flies laying maggots in the dead bodies and the maggots eating away the flesh of the dead soldiers. Flies hindered the soldiers everyday, especially since they are know for carrying diseases such as cholera, food poisoning, tuberculosis, and typhoid fever. Another major cause for physical trauma was the introduction of gas warfare. On April 22, 1915, French soldiers noticed a "strange, greenish yellow mist" billowing out of the Germans position. When the gas reached them, they witnessed, "Hundreds fell to the ground in convulsions. Those who could still breathe fled, staggering into first-aid posts blue from suffocation and coughing blood, speechless but pointing desperately to their throats" (Hochschild 141). The introduction of gas in World War One created one of the most terrifying ways to die. Front line soldiers were more terrified of gas attacks than they were of artillery. "The idea of a man slowly being suffocated or blinded seemed somehow more dreadful than his body suddenly being blown to bits by a high-explosive shell" (Reynolds 295). Many of the soldier hoped for a quick death rather than a prolonged death. Proliferation of vermin and the introduction of gas warfare in Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One.
Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through the destruction of land and destruction of woodlands.

Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through the destruction of land. Shell bursts and land mines were a vital factor in the destruction of French land during World War One. "If you were a British officer peering into no man's land, what met your gaze resembled the cratered surface of the moon..." (Hochschild 135). The shell bursts that were launched from allied and enemy trenches completed destroyed French land, which made it hard for soldiers to move across the battlefield. Besides explosions, land was destroyed by militaries building camps and trenches for the war. "The simple presence of military forces took land out of agricultural use for camps, training grounds, firing ranges, airfields, and many other purposes, and gave rise to localized destruction" (Clout 33). The presence of the military gave rise to localized destruction, which ruins the natural resources that soldiers can use. The military also ravaged the land and used anything they came across for themselves in battle. A French soldier reported: "Close to the front, the enemy stripped houses of doors, shutters, cupboards and especially bedding, which they carried into the trenches...They slaughtered farm animals, taking the best parts to eat and leaving the rest to rot" (Clout 33-34). The

soldier took all the natural resources while the were fighting in France so that when the battle was over their was nothing left for the French people the resided there. Gas is also another factor in the destruction of French land. An account from a French soldier retells what he saw when the gas was blowing toward him in the wind: "The spring leaves just coming out on the trees shriveled; grass turned yellow and metal green. Birds fell from the air, and chickens, pigs, cows, and horses writhed in agony and died..." (Hochschild 141). The gas that was used and introduced in the First World War changed the appearance of the land the soldiers were looking at. The gas also destroyed valuable resources the soldiers could use for food. The shell explosions, active military, and gas warfare caused by Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One.
Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through the destruction of land and destruction of woodlands. Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through the destruction of woodlands. The consequences from Trench Warfare obliterated forests and drastically altered the landscape. One American forester connected to the US army, reported, "not only did the artillery bombardments reduce forests along the Western Front, they also created a cratered landscape that reduced a once stable soil ecosystem into mounds of loose, unconsolidated sediment that was hardly worth calling 'soil'" (Hupy 413). Since the landscape was cratered and the soil was loosened it is not useable for agriculture, which greatly affects France if most of their land is not useable for crops. Soldiers could not use the land for resources. The French land that went through the war will never be the same as it was before the war. "Once diverse forest communities contain near monoculture plantings...Soils that have developed in the disturbed crater areas differ completely in their developmental pathways from soils in undisturbed portions of the battlefield" (Hupy 413). This effect of the explosions limits the resources the soldiers have in the war, which could have alter the outcome of certain battles. Towns that were occupied before the war in France are destroyed and torn apart because of the war. Meuse, a town in France near Verdun, was damaged as a result of the war. "Over half of the communal woodland in the département had been devastated and two-fifths of both state and private woodland had suffered material damage" (Clout 37). Since the town was destroyed during the war soldiers could not take advantage of the resource such as shelter and food. War-torn France was left with nothing that could be salvaged. A French soldier recounts the scene of the battlefield after the war in 1918: "absolute desert, without water, people, or vegetation...a land without colour..." (Clout 40). There was no water for the soldiers to use as a resource or vegetation to harvest from. The destruction of woodlands in France because of Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One.
Trench Warfare devastated the British and French soldiers fighting in France during World War One through psychological, physical, and environmental effects. The effects from the psychological, physical, and environmental effects are still felt today, but modern technology allows soldiers to be smart before going to war. The militaries across the world today are aware of mental illness and how to treat them. PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a big crisis in today's society and it was very similar to Shell Shock in World War One. Soldiers are helped as they try and fit back into the community when they get back home from war because people realized the effects that they have witnessed might have destroyed the minds. The modern invention of antibiotics reduces death and disease in war. Soldier no longer have to deal with diseases such as trench foot because soldiers are provided dry clothes to wear. Hygiene is also enforced in militaries today so that vermin such as rats and flies do not become such a big problem, like they were in the trenches. Today, we are more aware of the effects of war on the environment and we minimize the impact it has on the environment.