Rodents amongst the trenches!
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The trench was a very dirty place to live in. Soldiers had to deal with rats, frogs, slugs and horned beetles. The rats that the soldiers came across were as big as an average cat. The problem of the rats was their constant return. Another problem in the trench was the rapid spread of lice. Lice would hide in the seams and pockets of clothing making it difficult to prevent from spreading. All of these factors made life in the trench much harder for the soldiers to cope with. The trench was a very dirty place to live in.
The rats that the soldiers came across were as big as an average cat. The problem of the rats was their constant return. The rats would taut sleeping soldiers, creeping over them at night. There were long bouts of boredom and rat hunting became a sport. To preserve ammunition, shooting at rats was banned but piercing them with a bayonne became a pastime for some soldiers. .Trench conditions were ideal for rats. There was plenty of food, water and shelter.
With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps.
The rats grew bigger and bolder and would even steal food from a soldier’s hand. But for some soldiers the rats became their friends. They captured them and kept them as pets, bringing a brief reprisal from the horror which lay all around.
Rats - brown and black - thrived literally in their millions among trenches in most Fronts of the war, be it Eastern, Italian, Gallipoli - but primarily the Western Front. Trench conditions were ideal for rats. Empty food cans were piled in their thousands throughout No Man's Land, heaved over the top on a daily basis.
Aside from feeding from rotting food littered in such cans, rats would invade dug-outs in search of food and shelter. Most soldiers who served on the Western Front would later recall how rats grew in boldness, stealing food that had been lain down for just a few moments. Rats would also crawl across the face of sleeping men.
As they gorged themselves on food so they grew, with many rats reportedly growing to the size of cats. George Coppard, writing in With a Machine Gun to Cambrai (1969), recalled the ceaseless rattling of tin cans during the night, the sound of rats constantly ferreting in No Man's Land.
However the feature which caused revulsion among soldiers was the knowledge that rats openly fed on the decaying remains of comrades killed while advancing across No Man's Land. Attacking - and eating - the eyes of a corpse first, rats would steadily work their way through the remainder of the body in a short space of time.
Disgusted and often feeling a horror of their presence, soldiers would devise various means of dealing with the rat problem. Although shooting at rats was strictly prohibited - it being regarded as a pointless waste of ammunition - many soldiers nevertheless took pot shots at nearby rats in this manner. Attacking rats with bayonets was also common. However the rat population was not noticeably diminished by such techniques - a pair of rats were capable of producing some 800 offspring within a single year.
The rats that the soldiers came across were as big as an average cat. The problem of the rats was their constant return. The rats would taut sleeping soldiers, creeping over them at night. There were long bouts of boredom and rat hunting became a sport. To preserve ammunition, shooting at rats was banned but piercing them with a bayonne became a pastime for some soldiers. .Trench conditions were ideal for rats. There was plenty of food, water and shelter.
With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps.
The rats grew bigger and bolder and would even steal food from a soldier’s hand. But for some soldiers the rats became their friends. They captured them and kept them as pets, bringing a brief reprisal from the horror which lay all around.
Rats - brown and black - thrived literally in their millions among trenches in most Fronts of the war, be it Eastern, Italian, Gallipoli - but primarily the Western Front. Trench conditions were ideal for rats. Empty food cans were piled in their thousands throughout No Man's Land, heaved over the top on a daily basis.
Aside from feeding from rotting food littered in such cans, rats would invade dug-outs in search of food and shelter. Most soldiers who served on the Western Front would later recall how rats grew in boldness, stealing food that had been lain down for just a few moments. Rats would also crawl across the face of sleeping men.
As they gorged themselves on food so they grew, with many rats reportedly growing to the size of cats. George Coppard, writing in With a Machine Gun to Cambrai (1969), recalled the ceaseless rattling of tin cans during the night, the sound of rats constantly ferreting in No Man's Land.
However the feature which caused revulsion among soldiers was the knowledge that rats openly fed on the decaying remains of comrades killed while advancing across No Man's Land. Attacking - and eating - the eyes of a corpse first, rats would steadily work their way through the remainder of the body in a short space of time.
Disgusted and often feeling a horror of their presence, soldiers would devise various means of dealing with the rat problem. Although shooting at rats was strictly prohibited - it being regarded as a pointless waste of ammunition - many soldiers nevertheless took pot shots at nearby rats in this manner. Attacking rats with bayonets was also common. However the rat population was not noticeably diminished by such techniques - a pair of rats were capable of producing some 800 offspring within a single year.
Dogs In The Trenches!
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Dogs had a vital part to play in World War One as the complexes of trenches spread throughout the Western Front. Dogs were used as messengers and proved to be as reliable as soldiers in the dangerous job of running messages.
The complexities of trench warfare meant that communication was always a problem. Field communication systems were crude and there was always the very real possibility that vital messages from the front would never get back to headquarters or vice versa. Human runners were potentially large targets and weighed down by uniforms there was a chance that they would not get through. In the heat of a battle, there was even less of a chance of a runner getting through as the enemy's artillery was likely to be pounding your frontline and the area behind it. Vehicles were also problematic as they could breakdown or the 'roads' could have been reduced to a mushy pulp and travel on them made impossible.
Dogs were the obvious solution to this pressing problem. A trained dog was faster than a human runner, presented less of a target to a sniper and could travel over any terrain. Above all, dogs proved to be extremely reliable if they were well trained. A dog training school was established in Scotland and a recruit from this school traveled over 4000 metres on the Western Front with an important message to a brigade's headquarters. The dog traveled this distance (war records classed it as "very difficult" terrain) in less than sixty minutes. All other methods of communicating with the headquarters had failed - but the dog had got through.
Dogs also had another role to play on the Western Front. For men trapped in the horrors of trench warfare, a dog in the trenches (whether a messenger dog or not) was a psychological comfort that took away, if only for a short time, the horrors they lived through. It is said that Adolf Hitler kept a dog with him in the German trenches. For many soldiers on any of the sides that fought in the trenches, a dog must have reminded them of home comforts.
The complexities of trench warfare meant that communication was always a problem. Field communication systems were crude and there was always the very real possibility that vital messages from the front would never get back to headquarters or vice versa. Human runners were potentially large targets and weighed down by uniforms there was a chance that they would not get through. In the heat of a battle, there was even less of a chance of a runner getting through as the enemy's artillery was likely to be pounding your frontline and the area behind it. Vehicles were also problematic as they could breakdown or the 'roads' could have been reduced to a mushy pulp and travel on them made impossible.
Dogs were the obvious solution to this pressing problem. A trained dog was faster than a human runner, presented less of a target to a sniper and could travel over any terrain. Above all, dogs proved to be extremely reliable if they were well trained. A dog training school was established in Scotland and a recruit from this school traveled over 4000 metres on the Western Front with an important message to a brigade's headquarters. The dog traveled this distance (war records classed it as "very difficult" terrain) in less than sixty minutes. All other methods of communicating with the headquarters had failed - but the dog had got through.
Dogs also had another role to play on the Western Front. For men trapped in the horrors of trench warfare, a dog in the trenches (whether a messenger dog or not) was a psychological comfort that took away, if only for a short time, the horrors they lived through. It is said that Adolf Hitler kept a dog with him in the German trenches. For many soldiers on any of the sides that fought in the trenches, a dog must have reminded them of home comforts.
pIGEONS!
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Pigeons played a vital part in World War One as they proved to be an extremely reliable way of sending messages. Such was the importance of pigeons that over 100,000 were used in the war with an astonishing success rate of 95% getting through to their destination with their message.
Pigeons were used extensively in World War One. Man-made communication systems were still crude and unreliable, so dogs and pigeons were used. Pigeons would have been found just about anywhere on the Western Front. At the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, French troops stopped the German advance on Paris. As the French troops advanced and pushed back the Germans, so their pigeons advanced with them. In the heat and disorientation of battle, pigeons proved to be the best way of sending messages to the French headquarters. At the Marne, the French had 72 pigeon lofts. As the French advanced, the lofts advanced with them - but many of the pigeons were 'on duty' carrying messages and could never have known where their loft had moved to. Incredibly, all the pigeons at the Marne returned to their lofts - despite the fact that they would have flown 'blind' not knowing where their loft was.
This ability to get home was vital for those who used them as messengers. A pigeon's great strength was not only its extraordinary homing instinct but also the speed at which it flew. Shooting one down would have been all but impossible. In many senses, a pigeon would always get through. The only natural way to counter them was to bring birds of prey to the front line and let one of nature's great battles occur. A falcon could bring down a pigeon - a marksman almost certainly could not.
Pigeons were used extensively in World War One. Man-made communication systems were still crude and unreliable, so dogs and pigeons were used. Pigeons would have been found just about anywhere on the Western Front. At the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, French troops stopped the German advance on Paris. As the French troops advanced and pushed back the Germans, so their pigeons advanced with them. In the heat and disorientation of battle, pigeons proved to be the best way of sending messages to the French headquarters. At the Marne, the French had 72 pigeon lofts. As the French advanced, the lofts advanced with them - but many of the pigeons were 'on duty' carrying messages and could never have known where their loft had moved to. Incredibly, all the pigeons at the Marne returned to their lofts - despite the fact that they would have flown 'blind' not knowing where their loft was.
This ability to get home was vital for those who used them as messengers. A pigeon's great strength was not only its extraordinary homing instinct but also the speed at which it flew. Shooting one down would have been all but impossible. In many senses, a pigeon would always get through. The only natural way to counter them was to bring birds of prey to the front line and let one of nature's great battles occur. A falcon could bring down a pigeon - a marksman almost certainly could not.