Trench Warfare In The Trenches Essay

“Through thundering gun, and cannon fire, you can hear shouting of wounded soldiers or bold attackers, storming and laughing at death” (Calm, Unknown). Trench warfare is probably one of the most iconic and studied factors of WWI. Soldier’s accounts and documented experiences of the warfare on European frontlines have illustrated the terrible and miserable conditions soldiers faced. “By late 1916 the Western Front containted more than 1,000 kilometers of frontline and reserve trenches” (Alpha History:TrenchWarfare,J.Llewellyn). Enemy attacks on trenches and advancing soldiers could come from an assortment of sources; Sniper fire, machine guns, poison gas, artillery shells, mortars, grenades, and underground mines. Soldiers were taught no mercy
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The trenches unsheltered from the elements would become murky quagmires filled with filthy water which would lead to “trench foot” a form of gangrene caused by the foot being constantly emerged in water. Trench soldiers also were constantly infested with lice, ticks, flies, mosquitos. These pesky creatures carried with them annoying bites accompanied by deadly diseases such as west Nile and infected scalp. Diseases also ran rapid through the trenches. There was no formal or proper hygiene while in the trenches, and medical care was less than desirable. Most of the time the cure was worse than the illness. Diseases like Cholera, Typhus, and Disentary thrived because of animals such as rats and mice. While poor sewage and terrible waste disposal along with stagnant water, ruined food, and uncovered decaying bodies laid host to numerous diseases. While the Western front laid way for diseases and sickness the terrority between enemy lines known as “no man’s land” was a literal nightmare. “Twas like the face of the moon, chaotic, crater-ridden, uninhabitable, awful, the abode of madness”(Wilfred Owen). No mans land was that of actual and metaphoric