Online College and University Degree Guide
| The memories of soldiers who fought in
the trenches in World War One are
a fascinating source about life in the war. Primary source
memories from World War One have given historians a vast resource to use.
| “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)
|
| “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)
|
| “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)
|
| “To get a ‘cushy’ one is all the
old hands think about. A bloke in the Camerons wanted a ‘cushy’ bad! Fed up
and far from home he was. He puts his finger over the top and gets his trigger
finger taken off and two more besides. “I’m off to bonny Scotland!” he
says laughing. But on the way down to the dressing station, he forgets to stoop
low where an old sniper is working. He gets it through the head.”
(Robert
Graves)
|
| “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)
|
| “No 1……2 Private A B; the
Battalion (Pioneers) South Staffordshire Regiment was tried by FGCM on the
following charges: “Misbehaving in such a manner as to show cowardice”. The
accused, when proceeding with a party for work in the trenches, ran away owing
to the bursting of a shell and did not rejoin the party. The sentence of the
court was to suffer death by being shot." |
| "We
must looked out for our bread. The rats have become much more numerous
lately because the trenches are no longer in good condition. The rats
here are particularly repulsive, they are so fat - the kind we call
corpse-rats. They have shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating
to see their long, nude tails."
Erich Maria Remarque |
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