Western_Front

History Explain how the conditions experienced by frontline soldiers on the Western Front physically and psychologically affected them. There were many physical and psychological conditions that the frontline soldiers experienced on the Western Front. The physical conditions that I will talk about are trench rats, trench foot, body lice, lack of food, sleep and privacy, as well as starvation, bacterial disease and sickness, weather and hygiene. The psychological conditions are shellshock, boredom, experiencing near death experiences, and coping with the loss of friends and family who were also in the war. When at war, it was nothing like any soldier had ever expected. Frontline soldiers on the Western Front were put through long periods where there was no fighting and many physical conditions affected them. The main ones were trench foot, trench rats and body lice. As the soldiers, when at war, lived in the trenches twenty-four hours a day, trench foot was a common problem. It was caused by constantly having wet feet as the trenches were always mostly mud and water. It was hard not to catch this horrible disease which was excruciatingly painful and the very severe cases had to be evacuated. Soldiers were not only evacuated because they could no longer fight anymore, it was also the mental affect on the soldiers who didn’t have trench foot. Seeing the horrific pain and what happens to their feet could easily shut down a soldier’s mind and he might start to think to himself, ‘what on earth am I doing here.’ Having trench foot would also cause a foul smell and so to prevent getting it at all, dry socks were vitally important and gum boots were even provided for the troops who were in the most unprotected areas. They also provided part of the trench as a spot where two men at a time, around once a day, to rub each others feet with grease. Another large problem in the war were trench rats. Most men that were killed in the trenches died almost right were they fell. If new trenches needed to be built, a large amount of rotting bodies were found not too far below the surface. It was these decomposing bodies along with scraps left by soldiers in the trenches that attracted the rats. These trench rats were no ordinary size, they were extremely large and as one soldier said, “The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn’t defend himself.” These rats also became very bold and attempted to take food from soldier’s pockets. One of the rat’s favourite foods, which was always on the menu as they were found everywhere, were human bodies. There would always be at least two to three rats found on each dead body. These rats went for the eyes first and then made their way eventually down into the corpse. Many soldiers witnessed unpleasant and disgusting sights of dead human beings with parts of their bodies chewed away. One soldier described his encounter with a dead body devoured by rats. “His 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 a rat.” Another soldier describes that when asleep at night, the rats would run over them, play about, eat the scraps that were found lying around the trenches, and squeak constantly. It was impossible to get rid of the rats as they were everywhere but the soldiers tried their best to do so. They attempted to shoot them but would get in trouble by the Sergeant if caught wasting ammunition and they also tried baiting the ends of their guns with small pieces of bacon, so they could try and shoot them closer up. As well as trench rats, body lice also affected the soldiers. Every man in the trench basically suffered from body lice. One soldier described them as “pale fawn colour, and they left blotchy red bite marks all over the body.” As well as this, lice also created a sour and stale smell. There was a whole range of different methods used to try and minimise lice. One way was to use a lighted candle and move it over your body, but skill was required as it was easy to burn your clothes. Another way, arranged by the army, was large vats of hot water for the men to bathe in while their clothes were put through delousing machines. But this method hardly ever worked because many of the lice eggs remained in the clothes and it only needed the heat of the soldier’s body when he put his clothes back on to cause the eggs to hatch. Lice was not only a bad thing because it caused continuous scratching but because they also carried disease, known as pyrrexhia or trench fever. This disease did not kill, but it stopped the soldiers from fighting . These were some of the main physical problems that the soldiers encountered while on the Western Front. Other physical problems that the frontline soldiers were affected by was the lack of food, sleep and privacy. Food was scarce at war. As Richard Beasley, a soldier from the frontline, describes, “We lived on tea and dog biscuits. If we got meat once a week we were lucky.” Food at wartime was rationed and occasionally soldiers didn’t get enough food. Supplying the food was a major problem as soldiers in the army received the bulk of food a country was able to produce but that had an impact on the civilians of that country back home and who were also put under rationing. This is an example of a British soldiers ration per day, if they were lucky enough o receive this much: • 20 ounces of bread or 4 ounces of oatmeal • 8 ounces of fresh vegetables or 1/10 gill lime • 3 ounces of cheese • 5/8 ounces of tea • 4 ounces of jam or 4 ounces of dried fruit • Half gill of rum or 1 pint of porter • 20 ounces of tobacco (Max.) • 4 ounces of butter/margarine • 2 ounces of dried vegetables • 1/3 chocolate – optional An example of a German soldiers ration per day: • 26 and a half ounces of bread or 17 and a half ounces of field biscuits or 14 ounces of egg biscuit • 53 ounces of potatoes • 4 and a half ounces of vegetables • 2 ounces of dried vegetables Most foods were eaten cold as cooking in the trenches was too hard. Cooking was done in a pot if it did occur. There was also a shortage of food because the rats ate alt of the food in the trenches. Starvation started to arise when not enough food was provided. As well as not being enough food, there wasn’t a wide variety of food either. Being squished up in the trenches also meant lack of sleep and also lack of privacy. You would have to sleep all together in the trenches with no leg room and so therefore would be very uncomfortable. You would often have to sleep sitting upright. Having so many people around you in a tight place there was no privacy for the soldiers. They couldn’t be alone and grieve for lost family and friends. They couldn’t hide away in a corner and cry about being homesick and frightened about if life ends here. They had to keep it all in, stand up tall and be a man. If the weather was cold and frosty, men froze. If the weather was too hot the soldiers would sweat and therefore smell as there was no showers for them to clean themselves. Also the weather created diseases and sickness among the soldiers. If it rained, the trenches would literally become mud and water. This would make the soldiers cold and wet and having basically one pair of clothes meant staying wet constantly. If feet weren’t continuously dried and socks changed regularly, trench foot would occur. Hygiene was also something to think about. Having no showers and no toilets, the smell in the trenches would have been awful. Psychological affects were almost as bad as the physical. One main aspect was shell shock which was used to describe the trauma which the soldiers suffered who were on the frontline. This trauma was so severe in some cases that soldiers had to be sent home and for many years afterwards continued to feel its effects. The first noticeable symptoms included tiredness, irritability, headaches and lack of concentration. Men who did suffer from shell shock in the end had mental breakdowns so therefore could not remain in the frontline. A lot of these men even committed suicide just so they didn’t have to return to the frontline. Many people thought war to be all fighting but at most times fighting was the least thing they did and boredom became a big part of their daily life in the trenches. With boredom came the loss of self respect. Officers found that if they didn’t keep soldiers busy, they would just sit around in the cold mud becoming more and more miserable and this would eventually lead to physical problems such as loss of circulation in their feet and stopping all power of movement. To keep themselves preoccupied during any lull in fighting, they would talk to friends, play cards or write letters to home. Death was everywhere day and night and the smell of rotting corpses was always in the air. Burial was not always possible so bodies would lie where they fell sometimes until the war was over and therefore become unidentifiable. The bodies that lay in the trenches made life physically unbearable and mentallychallenging for those soldiers left who had to look at the faces of people they once knew. In conclusion, frontline soldiers on the Western front were affected by both physical and psychological conditions. For those soldiers who did survive and returned home safely, what they had to go through in war would have probably scarred them for the rest of their lives making it very hard to carrying on with their original lives back home. Counselling services were not as recognised as they are today so returned soldiers had to try and cope in their own silent world, others took their lives to end the suffering.