Life in the Trenches

First World War

Life in the Trenches

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Transcript

Soldiers on watch with binoculars

Soldiers digging with shovels through the snow in trenches

Trenches of the First World War were not the great killers we were led to believe.

Soldiers carrying wooden ladders laying on the sides of the trenches

Soldiers working on building trenches in the sand

Throughout the war, no more than one out of nine or ten casualties was attributed

Soldiers sharing supplies and working together

to living in the trenches. Most men were wounded or killed

Two soldiers carrying a wounded comrade through the rough terrain

Wounded soldiers carried on stretchers

going over the top, on patrols and attacks.

With weapons in hand, soldiers cross over their trenches to patrol their territory

Two soldiers lay a wounded comrade on the ground

Activity in battle within the trenches

But this by no means implies that trenches were pleasant, on the contrary.

A cannon is fired with great clouds of smoke

Blasts of fire cause smoke filled debris over the terrain

Two soldiers sitting down firing off artillery from their guns

Huge clouds of black smoke fill the sky

The noise was awful, nothing seemed coherent ...

Soldiers firing artillery from within their trenches

A heavy cannon fires artillery

our heavy and light artillery, trench mortars,

Soldiers blast mortars from behind the trenches

Group of soldiers sounding off mortar fire from cannon

Stokes guns and machine guns made a

Blasts of artillery fire shoot through the air

ceiling of rushing steel above our heads.

Clouds of black smoke fill the air overlooking the rough terrain

Enemy shells peppered the trenches

Smokey sky, huge blasts of black smoke fill the air

almost every day. About noon we began to get

Soldier taking cover in the trenches, squatting down on the dirt and loading ammunition

some heavy shells put over at us.

Sight of a soldier blown to pieces from enemy fire

It blew one of our boys to pieces,

Two soldiers assisting one another after one soldier is wounded

Soldiers taking cover in the trenches under enemy attack

wounded another and temporarily buried two others.

Soldiers waking through the rough terrain and snow covered mud

Exposure to the elements and

Soldiers walking in the snow covered trenches

lack of rest became a psychological torment.

Soldiers standing in the open of frozen mud and debris

Four days in the front line with little or

Soldiers marching through the trenches with gear on their back

no sleep is no joke. I have no hesitation in taking the rum these days and I feel it is quite

Soldiers digging trenches and tunnels in the mud

necessary under the nervous strain, sleeplessness, cold and dampness. Antibiotics had not been discovered,

Soldiers carrying the wounded on stretchers

and even minor injuries could fester and

Soldiers working together to care for the wounded

Three soldiers walking along the rough terrain assisting a wounded comrade

cause death. Some would even injure themselves just to get out of there… Bodies of the dead would lie nearby until

Many bodies of the dead lay on the cold, muddy ground

rot made them unidentifiable. She's a terrible war isn't she?

The face of a soldier with mud trench in the background

But we all look on the humorous side of things if even it's a stiff being buried.

A dead soldier lays on the cold and uneven terrain

Dysentery, typhus and cholera were common place.

Sick and wounded soldiers gather together washing and caring for each other

Soldiers had parasites.

Soldiers standing and sitting among their trenches with shelter and equipment all around them

We get a bath every 2 weeks … we hand in the dirty underwear and

One soldier carrying boots and others walking with supplies

get ‘so called’ clean ones.

Soldiers putting on clean clothing and receiving new supplies

I pity the poor fellow who gets mine as

Two soldiers sitting down washing their clothes in tubs of soap and water

A group of soldiers gathered together to receive clean supplies

I am horribly lousy. Poor hygiene meant fungal infections,

transcript of paperwork

the worst and best known of which were trench mouth and trench foot. My socks were embedded in my feet with caked mud and filth and

Soldiers shoveling the dirt from the trenches

had to be removed with a knife.

Soldiers walking through the rough terrain with guns in hand

So trenches weren’t killers as such,

Soldiers walking through the trenches with wheel barrows and supplies

but they were awful, nasty places where death and injury

Soldiers standing in trenches with water and mud almost to his knees

could come at any time,

Bodies laying in the trenches with rough debris all around

and where there was little or nothing you could do about it.

The face of soldiers walking through the trench

Oh, how we'll appreciate freedom and liberty,

A group of soldiers marching looking back, some with hands in the air

The faces of many soldiers waving in the crowd

if we ever get out of this thing.

Description

Narration on archival footage depicting the life in the trenches during the First World War.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Recorded:: November 4, 2015
Duration:: 2:58

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Life in the Trenches

First World War