What was it like to fight in a trench?

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1 Teaching notes Activity 1 Give each student a copy of the grid and one of the sources. What can they learn from their source? Can they complete one (or more) boxes on the grid? Activity 2 Students then swap their source with someone else to repeat step one. Do this a further three times. If the source gives information on a similar topic record it in the box underneath, so that topic is covered by two pieces of information. Extension question Can you question the reliability of any of the sources? Why? Activity 3 How far do you agree with the following statements? Decide whether, in your opinion, each is true or false and explain why using the evidence from the sources: Soldiers lacked an understanding of the decisions made by their generals. The horror of trench warfare was not the enemy, rather it was the conditions that soldiers were forced to live in Primary sources such as these are all biased in one way or another and therefore aren t a lot of use Page 1 of 5

2 Source grid Trench foot Lice and rats Attacks The enemy Generals and tactics Trench life Page 2 of 5

3 Sources Source A Whilst asleep during the night we were frequently awakened by rats running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim. R L Venables, a solider in the First World War Source B If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late. Harry Roberts, a solider in the First World War Source C The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a multitude of swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the trenches and strange beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled along dry ledges and invaded the dugouts, in search of the lice that infested them. Unknown journalist, a solider in the First World War Source D We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. Elizabeth de T Serclaes, a nurse on the front line during the First World War Page 3 of 5

4 Source E We have just come out of the trenches after being in for six days and up to our waists in water. While we were in the trenches one of the Germans came over to our trench for a cigarette and then back again, and he was not fired at. We and the Germans started walking about in the open between the two trenches, repairing them, and there was no firing at all. I think they are all getting fed up with it. Private Stanley Terry who wrote a letter to his family in November, The letter was not censored. Source F What is life like in the trenches? Well, muddy and cramped and filthy. Everything gets covered with mud; you can't wash, for water has to be fetched for a mile. There is no room, and if you walk upright in many of the trenches, you run grave risks; and you sleep, huddled together, unable to stretch. All day long shells and rifle bullets go banging and whistling, and from dark to midnight the Huns fire rifle-grenades and machine-guns at us. Lieutenant Bernard Pitt, First World War soldier, in a letter to his parents Source G Throughout the war huge bombardments, followed by a mass attack, failed again and again yet we persisted in employing the same hopeless method of attack. Many other methods were possible, some were in fact used but only half-heartedly and not early enough in the war Charles Hudson, First World War soldier, journal entry, 1918 Source H British generals were not uncaring but they accepted, as they had to, that the very nature of the war would lead to many deaths however hard they tried to avoid them. Gordon Corrigan, a retired British army officer, from his book, Mud, Blood and Poppycock, Source I It seemed as though nothing could live, not an ant, under that stupendous artillery storm. But Germans in their deep dugouts lived, and when our waves of men went over they were met by deadly machine-gun and mortar fire. Philip Gibbs, 1916, a First World War journalist Page 4 of 5

5 Source J It was an extraordinary sensation, the first time going into the trenches. The first idea that struck me about them was their haphazard design. There was, no doubt, some very excellent reason for someone making those trenches as they were; but they really did strike me as curious when I first saw them. It was a long and weary night, that first one of mine in the trenches. Everything was strange and wet and horrid. First of all I had to go and fix up my machine guns at various points, and find places for the gunners to sleep in. This was no easy matter, as many of the dug-outs had fallen in and floated off downstream. Lieutenant Bruce Bairnsfather, Bullets and Billets, 1916 Source K Good-morning; good-morning!" the General said When we met him last week on our way to the line. Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of em dead, And we re cursing his staff for incompetent swine. "He s a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. `But he did for them both by his plan of attack. The General by Siegfried Sassoon, a popular poem from the First World War Page 5 of 5