World War 1 life in the trenches ww1
78The Muddy Battle Field
Trench Living
Soldiers fought and Soldiers Died, some lived through World War One, others lived but were disabled for the rest of their lives, everyone who fought in the Trenches and lived had lost close friends or family members.
They all knew death and the smell that followed, that smell would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Life in the trenches was often said to be hell on earth and nobody could ever argue to the contrary.
Death, disease, Mutilated limbs, lice, rats maggots and insects were all around those poor fighting men, who lived minute by minute hoping that the next bullet didn't have their name written on it.
In the muddy battle fields of the Trenches there was plenty of life but there was no real living.
Preparing Food in the Trenches
American soldiers find some time to relax from the fighting
Typical daily rations
Trench Routine
Even with all of the fighting going on every day and every night, there was a daily routine in the trenches, but sometimes due to ongoing battle it was impossible to keep to the routine.
In the heat of battle it would be impossible to have a set meal time for the fighting soldiers, but if there was a lull in the fighting hot meals were able to be delivered from the field kitchens to the front line trenches.
When soldiers were at stand-down, food was easier to acquire and both British and German troops could expect certain food to be available with a degree of regularity.
The soldiers in the trenches ate quite well, and the food was considered to be luxurious, compared to what their families back at home were eating.
A typical days rations for a Brittish Soldier would include:
20 ounces of bread or 16 ounces of flour or 4 ounces of oatmeal instead of bread, 3 ounces of cheese, 5/8 ounces of tea, 4 ounces of jam or 4 ounces of dried fruit ,½ ounce of salt, 1/36 ounce of pepper, 1/20 ounce of mustard, 8 ounces of fresh vegetables or 1/10 gill lime if vegetables not issued, ½ gill of rum or 1 pint of porter , 20 ounces of tobacco, 1/3 ounces of chocolate - optional, 4 ounces of butter/margarine and 2 ounces of dried vegetables.
For a German Soldier the daily rations were:
26 ½ ounces of bread or 17 ½ of field biscuits or 14 ounces of egg biscuit, 53 ounces of potatoes, 4 ½ ounces vegetables and 2 ounces dried vegetables.
There was meat available for both The British and German Soldiers in the trenches, but only when a lull in the battle allowed it to be delivered from the field kitchens
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Trench Living
This is part 4 in a series of pages related to the Trenches of World War 1.
Part One
Describes the living conditions of the soldiers in the trenches during World War One.
Part Two
World War 1 A Day in The Trenches
Talks about the daily routine of the soldiers in the Trenches.
Part Three
Describing the amazing story of the Christmas day truce.
Part Four
World War One Trench Living (This Page)
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Thanks for your comment, Patty LOL, 53 ounces of potatoes isn't really that much though either 2 small potatoes or one large.....jimmy
You have giant potatoes, or smaller and heavy like mercury! :)
It's about 3 1/2 of the 12" by 5" 1-pound potatoes at my grocery. It's a lot to me, but chunky potato soup with the vegetables is good; better than just potatoes alone. It could get them through the day. Nice Hub.
Scottish potatoes are very heavy lol, thanks Patty i think i will need to learn my weight conversions.....jimmy 80)
Naaaah, you are fine! I THOUGHT Scottish and probably Irish potaotes are more massive! You know how air-headed some of our US products are. :)
A worthy addition to the WW1 series. Grim times, indeed.
Nice daily rations for the British :) Some countries don`t offer that much food in hospitals for every patient these days ... Great Hub I enjoyed reading it
Recently I think a lot about world war one and two. I just don't get it. What were we thinking. Jimmythejock, this is a very interesting view of the trenches. Those photos tell all don't they.
Thank you for your efforts.
Mon.
I have taught American and World History for many years and I really appreciate your writings. Trench warfare was a horrible experience! Have you ever considered comparing the trench fighting used during the Civil War in the United States and the trench fighting during WWI?
Dave
This is a great page, I think its really important to remember what happened to these people, especially as this war has now passed from living memory.
I often wonder what the UK would be like today if that war had not happened, I am sure it would be dramatically different... as would the rest of Europe...
it sound horrific!!!
NICE PAGEE!
Thanks for making this, it's really helping me with my final project.
When you really think about it, soldiers in WW1 had a really hard life, and what they had to go through really was hell.
:/
I enjoyed reading this. I had a great grandfather who died on the loos battlefield, 1915, so it was interesting to see a little insight into their life in the trenches. :))
Hello jimmythejock, this is the first time I've seen your pages about life in the trenches. I'm going to read all of them now I know they are here. My mum tells a story about an uncle of hers that turned up at home when he was supposed to be fighting. He was filthy dirty and covered in lice and confused about where he was. Everyone was concerned he would be shot as a deserter, so they cleaned him up and sent him back. It seems no one had missed him in all the confusion. Have you seen my hub on the subject. Apologies if you have, but here is the link in case you haven't. http://hubpages.com/hub/Were-Here-Because-Were-Her
Paragraph 4 nearly made me toss the potatoes I had for lunch, and I don't mean toss them haphazardly into the garbage. Way to start out graphic, Jimmy. I hope a lot of people view this hub. What an awful way to exist - even for a day - much less months +
Doing a project on ww1, this is a v. helpful page indeed! thnx so much! x :D
this is cool cheers :)
This is a great website it relly helped me with my project at school! thanks! :-)
love the page!!!
thanks...u just helped me with my histroy essay:D
i appreciate your posting this information. wwi was nothing short of horrific, but its important to remember and study and understand every aspect of the war so that we can ensure it never happens again. God bless!
Some of the most concise, well written, and balanced articles on WWI I have read. Have set my RSS to catch any other pages added. Thanks.
This is a good summery of the war, but it does not tell people about the trench life: example, the rats, the winter, christmas, the other enemys an so on.
Cheers My Dears Helped Me With My History :)
Nice Hub Btw
wear were the american soldiers located from the trenches
sounds like hell, thank God for the tea
thanks you help me with homework :D!!!!!
nice
ths hlps a lt wth my rprt 4 hstry. thnxs
bout wolrd war one and this nweb site helped me alot
thank you
xx
f rom alex mizon
hey thanks for this!!!!!!!
it really helps!!
EWWWW!!!!! RATS!!!!! and LICE!!!!!!
Thanksm ate this has really helped me with my history essay
thank you very much!! this helped me so much... i love history and this allowed me to learn a lot about it! :)
I think the muddy battle field picture was a great addition. You see that poor shlep covered in mud with his hands over his face, and you see everything around him all blown to hell, and you get a pretty good idea of what life in those trenches must have been like.
thanks u helped me finish my project
xxx
AWSM
you rock
u made me ace my school assesment!!!!!
you are awsm(not just with this hub, all your hubs are good)
this info is so helpful and those poor sheep++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
awesome page helped me a lot
yay :) this helps me so much with my assignment!
Hi I'm doing a history project on trench warfare and I've been reading your hubs and there amazing! brilliant for jotting down notes, I was really shocked at how diverse the british diet was even then and how most rations on the front were better than homes weird huh? anyway hubs are totally awesome man thanks a million.
this was so useful in many ways
ermmm i'm in year nine and we need to know about world war 1 trenches we already know about trench foot but our teacher told us they only really ate corned beef just so you know :) x
yeah help me soamuch with my assignment damn s.s
this helped alot in my history project thanks
this is a very useful document and i wrote 12 pages full of information, thankyou. iloveyou x
Thanks helped with my history homework :)
thanx 4 this - doing a test on monday nd i needed sum gd info to revise - well written and researched so thanx :D
thanks gotta do some diary entry as a soldier in the trench.
I think this page is very useful and will be for any students that do history, so why not use it now?
THANK YOU
Great sight. Reely helped me with my project that I am doing on life in the trenches.
haha kidding good page helpful with history homework cheers :D
sweet page thanks to this page i should get a good mark haha
thnx for help copy and paste a legend lol
wow great page helped me with my history assignment.
this page is helpful, but this is very bad what happen during the war.
excellent page but a very sad thing
Very well done; an great multi-part look. Would you consider posting something on conditions prior to major assaults, or just procedures for raids, counterattacks e.c.t.?
this was hell i would really hate to be in ur shoes thank god it does not happen now i would hate the live in the trenches coz it would of been easy 4 the other side to gdt in ............ x x x x
When did you write this statement??
the "Trench Living" one..
Very Good Usful for homework xx
really good stuff mate...
don't take it badly or anything, but it's ironic you don't mention anything about France or french soldiers if u know what i mean (and plz no anti-french comments here...).
Any ways,
keep up the awesome work!!!!!
can anyone help me with the games they played or how they entertain themseleves in the trenches during WW1?
I thought their food supplies were bad?
I think this webpage is GR8TE!!!!!!!!!
Thanks this was great for my history homework :)
it must be so sad to live in those trenches i would have hated it cuz i hate rats lol xx
So these trenches what are they?
its really hepl ful website. easy 2 follow what it says. it got all the answer that i needed thanks...
its really helpful website
This site is mad as. it was very useful for my history essay. thanks. :)
its a really useful website so young people like myself can do homework on it as i'm doing worldwar 1 . thanks
were the us involved in ww1? i know we were.
this was helpful, but i need to know more about
the advantages of trenches!
Sorry to be picky but "The soldiers in the trenches ate quite well, and the food was considered to be luxurious, compared to what their families back at home were eating" !??!!? - THIS IS NOT TRUE!!
I think you'll find that there were massive problems with supplying the actual foods listed!!
this is a good site it has helped me with mi history projct thanks x (: x
Thanks for posting this! Has been v. helpful!
Thank you for posting site. It was very helpful to find all of the information that i needed.
thanks mate
that helped alot:)
interesting
Thanks! Helped a lot.
omg thx 2 u soilders
this was very useful i used it for enlish war poetry
havnt read it all, but i dont think you mentioned that solderers rarely ever got that much, and often soldiers complained about having just bread for breakfast and hard biscuits for tea
tnx that helped me wiv hmwk ;)
this is gr8. helped me complete my hmwk on poetry
this is so good for my homework!!!!!!!!!!!
it is soo help for my project about ww1 trench life thatn every one
thnx for who writen this thing that is soo useful for me
good for homework
really helpful! thnx
i'm doing a report on this with my friend and it was really helpful. thank u to whoever wrote it! but i'm wondering, was the food really better than the people's at home? i always thought the trenches were horrible in every way!
glad i wasn't alive then!
helped me with a project thnkz
Thank you SO much i mean it i mean i forgot all about my project and needed to know about the trenches and other stuff i had my homewoek
i need to know a lot about ww1 trenches for something i am taking part in. easy to understand facts would to useful, thanks
Yes, like 'J', I also need some simple facts on 'World War One' trenches. This website has helped a lot but I would need some more information. If anybody has any suggestions of websites that I could go on to that would be fantastic. However, information and facts that you already know would be just as useful. Thank you.
Scary place always anticapating fire.
helped me whith my project
Thanks. Good work.
sorry my grandma always corrects me so its sorta become a habit. what poor living conditions wow they are heroes in every way
You've saved my life with my GCSE English. Wikipedia is a load of rubbish so thank you. Only now do I really learn to respect my great-grandparents... wish I could say thank you. Its so crazy that this escalated from one Archduke from being shot... quite amazing... Thank you MegsEds
thankyou this page was great it really helped me with some reseach i had to do!! :) thx
thx fr helping me with my english h/w couldn't of dne it without u... wikepedia is useless
thanks this really helped me thankyou :) xx
thx it helped me
thank you helped lots with history
that was sooo cool it helped of how life was like
Great Page! Thanks sooo much!
this mad me pss my test thank you
cheers soilders
thank you
this has helped
thanks for the info helped lots with history.
you're the best just saved my life i didn't have a clue what i was doing i thank you so much youre a star best website i could find and believe me i'm like an expert on th computer but this hlpd a lot :D
this has really helped me with my enquiry and i thank you so much .:)
this is amazing !
thibodaux, la
thanks bud great helpn P:)
this help alot for myschool projects thanks :)
history project :/
thank you very much for the information though!
It helped a bunch!
this is really helpful for my history extended learning task thanks the guy who wrote the answers down
thannnkkkksss
hepfull omg
whoever posted this is a absouloute legend :)
THANKS
Can't believe that they had to live in those conditions.
thank you for this information is really helped me for my history assessment
thx for all that info! It really helped me!
thankyou so much
thank you for all that infomation it helped me alot
The harsh reality of life in the trenches is well shown here. My great-grandfather was a soldier in the trenches in World War 1 and his letters that we recently found tell of soldiers waking up to find rats in their clothes and having a competition about who could kill the most. I am slowly scanning and transcribing each letter and hope to add it soon to my hub. Thank you for this information. My great grandfather's letters to his mother spare her most of these greusome details - it just shows how brave and stoic the men were back then.
might be helpful
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay:L
this helped me alot thankyou soooooo much for macking this page i got a 5A in my work thats great thankyou sooo much !!!! :)
thanxz :)
this really helped with my world wazr one asignment thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for this its helped me with my English homework and i feel sorry for the soldiers that are there fighting for Britain, but they are doing a brilliant job xx
thanks so much for this! it has really helped me with my history i will hopefully do well in my test thanks for letting me revise :)
Cheers just helped loads with my history project
What a wonderfully informative hub! I was just looking up information for my daughter on trench warfare and came across your hub. Thank you for making her research so much easier!
great website mate
absolutly amazing
it helped me do my home work well
ta. bob
this website is awesome my dad is in the army it is amazing how far warfare has come
this really helped with my history homework and its a great website :)
this really helped although u cud of put about trench foot (fungi on the foot) but other than that it helped me with my work
Good page
Patty Inglish, MS Level 7 Commenter 4 years ago
Very interesting kitchen in the trenches. The Germans certainly had a lot of potatoes to eat every day.