Soldiers spent long days marching and drilling, cleaning their kits, attending lectures and labouring on repairs and improvements to trench networks, camps and roads. In their spare time, soldiers wrote letters and diaries, drew sketches, read books and magazines, pursued hobbies, played cards or gambled.
In this post
What did soldiers do when bored in ww1?
Daily life here was a mixture of routine and boredom – sentry duty, kit and rifle inspections, and work assignments filling sandbags, repairing trenches, pumping out flooded sections, and digging latrines.
What did soldiers do in the trenches when they were not fighting?
When troops were not fighting, they were locked into trench deadlock, at which point boredom also became a serious issue. How were soldiers prepared for World War One? Dr Jonathan Boff examines the stages of training undertaken by the millions of soldiers across the British, German and French armies.
What duties did soldiers have in ww1?
Following morning stand-to, inspection, and breakfast, soldiers undertook any number of chores, ranging from cleaning latrines to filling sandbags or repairing duckboards. During daylight hours, they conducted all work below ground and away from the snipers’ searching rifles.
What did soldiers in ww1 do to pass the time?
Card games and gambling were very popular ways to pass the time, as well as sports like cricket and football. During the Christmas truce in 1914 some of the most memorable scenes were of soldiers from German and Allied sides playing football together. Music was a great lifter of spirits.
How often did soldiers shower in ww1?
About once every week to ten days
About once every week to ten days, Soldiers would go to the rear for their shower. Upon entering the shower area they turned in their dirty clothing. After showering they received new cloths.
How did soldiers go to the toilet in ww1?
These latrines were trench toilets. They were usually pits dug into the ground between 1.2 metres and 1.5 metres deep. Two people who were called sanitary personnel had the job of keeping the latrines in good condition for each company.
Why did soldiers walk in ww1?
They would walk, not run, in order to stay in formation. They would not creep forward while their own bombardment was in progress. They were given no instruction in how to rush defended positions. In any case, they were told, all Germans would have been killed or cowed by the shelling.
What was daily life like in the trenches ww1?
Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. They were very muddy, uncomfortable and the toilets overflowed. These conditions caused some soldiers to develop a problem called trench foot. There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of Allied trenches on the other.
Do soldiers write death letters?
The heartbreaking collection of last letters to loved ones from soldiers who never came home. These are the final, moving letters written by soldiers to their families just before they died. The brave servicemen penned the missives to be read by their loved ones if they were killed.
What was life like for civilians in ww1?
Civilians were seen as fair game during the First World War. As well as being threatened with starvation, they were attacked from the air. German airships had raided Britain since 1915, and two years later Gotha bombers also began terrorising the population.
What did soldiers in ww1 eat?
By the First World War (1914-18), Army food was basic, but filling. Each soldier could expect around 4,000 calories a day, with tinned rations and hard biscuits staples once again. But their diet also included vegetables, bread and jam, and boiled plum puddings. This was all washed down by copious amounts of tea.
What was life like for soldiers?
They had to deal with hunger, bad weather, poor clothing, and even boredom between battles. Soldiers were woken at dawn to begin their day. They had drills in the morning and afternoon where they practiced for battle. Each soldier had to know his place in the unit so the army would fight as a group.
What jobs were there in ww1?
Many worked in mining, shipbuilding and textiles. Others were farmers, shepherds or fishermen. Richer men with a better education might have worked as doctors or in banking. Men from the upper class were often rich as they inherited money from their family and owned land.
How much sleep did soldiers get in ww1?
Daily life. Most activity in front line trenches took place at night under cover of darkness. During daytime soldiers would try to get some rest, but were usually only able to sleep for a few hours at a time.
Where did they poop in the trenches?
The latrines was the name given to trench toilets. They were usually pits, 4 ft. to 5 ft. deep, dug at the end of a short sap. Each company had two sanitary personnel whose job it was to keep the latrines in good condition.
How often did soldiers eat in ww1?
once every nine days
The British government introduced rationing on the Home Front in 1918, to stave off food shortages. Soldiers’ meat rations were reduced, and later on in the war they only ate meat once every nine days.
How do soldiers go to the bathroom in war?
Porta-Johns. Yes, we have “Porta-sh*tters” located on the frontlines. For the most part, they’re located on the larger FOBs. To keep these maintained, allied forces pay local employees, who live nearby, to pump the human discharge out of the poop reservoirs.
Did they have toilet paper in ww1?
General Notes: Title by cataloger. This toilet paper packet was issued to soldiers daily during World War I and World War II. Since the United States did not join the war until 1917, it is likely that these packets were not issued until then.
What did they do with the dead bodies in ww1?
They were often buried where they fell in action, or in a burial ground on or near the battlefield. A simple cross or marker might be put up to mark the location and give brief details of the individuals who had died.
Did they shower in the trenches?
Bathing was terribly infrequent, soldiers sometimes not showering for weeks to months on end. There was no running water, so often they would just “wipe” their feet. The stench in the trenches was often dried sweat, body odor, and blood.