World war 1 A Day in the Trenches
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Daytime in the trenches
World War 1
German soldiers heading for the front line
soldiers retrieving the dead during an unnofficial truce
Trench Art
Snipers watching the enemy lines for movement
World war 1 A Day in the Trenches
Apart from dodging bullets and avoiding death from enemy shells, there was a daily routine in the trenches of World War 1.
It started 1 hour before dawn with the morning "stand to" the men were roused from sleep and sent to the "fire step", with bayonets fixed to their rifles to be on guard for a dawn raid by the enemy. Many raids were carried out at dawn by both sides although it was common knowledge that the opposing armies were both preparing to deal with them.
As the first light of day approached machineguns, shells, and even handguns would be fired toward the enemy trenches. Some people said that this was to test the weaponry. Others said it was to relieve the tension, and others said it was to ward off a dawn raid. Whatever the reason the first hour of the soldier's day became known, as "The morning hate."
After the "Stand to" rum was issued to the soldiers who would be cleaning their rifles, before an inspection by senior officers.
Then it was time for breakfast, unofficially breakfast time was a time of truce between both sides, both sides respected this truce for most of the time, but it was broken now and again when a senior officer heard about it and put his foot down ordering the men to open fire on enemy lines. .
After breakfast the soldiers would face an inspection by their commanding officer, this was followed by the daily chores, each man would be given a specific chore. Daily chores included the refilling of sandbags, the repair of the duckboards on the floor of the trench and the draining of trenches, repairing the trenches and preparing the latrines.
During the rest of the day movement was restricted in the trenches, snipers and lookout posts from either side constantly watched the front lines and shots would be fired at the first sign of movement. Soldiers used this time to catch up on some much needed sleep write letters to their sweethearts and home and some soldiers spent the time producing ornaments and useful items from used shell and bullet casings, these items are very popular these days and are sold as trench art.
With dusk came the second "Stand to" of the day. Soldiers would be sent to the fire step as darkness approached in preparation for surprise attacks. With the darkness of the night the trenches came to life, men were sent to fetch vital food, water, and maintenance supplies whilst others were sent to the fire step for sentry duty, 2 hours
Was the limit for the soldiers on the fire step before they were replaced, incase the men fell asleep, if a man fell asleep at the fire step the punishment would be death by firing squad.
Patrols into no-mans land would also be carried out under cover of darkness, to repair breaks in the barbed wire and some were sent out as "Listening posts" hoping to over hear information from the enemy.
Sometimes enemy patrols would meet in No Man's Land. They were then faced with the option of hurrying on their separate ways or else engaging in hand to hand fighting.
They could not afford to use their handguns whilst patrolling in No Man's Land, for fear of the machine gun fire it would inevitably attract, deadly to all members of the patrol.
The cover of darkness also allowed the frontline troops to be changed over, those who had completed their tour of duty would be swapped over with fresh troops.
Then it was time to start the daily routine again with the morning "stand to"
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World War 1 on Hubpages
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In 1905, 9 years before the start of World War 1,Alfred Graf Von Schlieffen devised a plan for the invasion of France through Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. This became known as the "Schlieffen plan" - http://hubpages.com/hub/Build_up_to_World_War_1
Although World war 1 didn't start until 1914 political movements that led to the war started in May 1883 when Germany,Austria-Hungary and Italy signed the Triple alliance. - http://hubpages.com/hub/World_War_1_Trench_Warfare
Over 200,000 men died in the trenches of WW1, most of who died in battle, but many died from disease and infections brought on by the unsanitary conditions. - Trench Living
what the soldiers ate in the trenches of world war 1
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thanks livelonger.
wow that was good!!!! very interesting!! feel free to use my memorial photo on "the only ww1 memorial" hub I made weeks ago!!! in any updates you do on this one.
This was a great hub Jimmy. Very interesting and very informative. Those fellows really had it rough.
Chuck
Helpful in my project, practically exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks :)
WOW!! good extract!! Gr8 Job M8tey
very helpful information
i am 14 years old and doing a project on lifein the trenches this website has been very useful for me getting information so glad i found it xx
thanks u gave me info for mi history work
Really go information, Thanks for helping me with my homework
Both of your WWI hubs were very interesting, Jimmy. You kept me absolutely captivated with your writing. Thanks. Do you have any more up your sleeve?? ;)
Thanks Robin, I have 7 hubs now on world war 1 and i have added links on this page i did another 1 today America declares war on Germany. watch out in the near future there are more to come......jimmy
Thanks. This was very useful
gr8! exactly wot i was lukin for..ur a lifesaver
thank you for the site, was very imfomative learnt alot. fantastic for what i needed. i still can't help a great sadness when i read of the death toll and the way so many youthful spirits where snatched away before their lives had begun.
thanks for your site it really helped me with my history project, thanks.
wery interseting information helped me alot
Needs more info on snipers, and equipment used during world war I
this site helped me with school workthanks
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thank you so much you helped me with my project thanks again
THankyoo very much...
i had a history project on world war one
It reallyyy helped
thanks again!!!xx
Hey this was pretty neat i'm doing a project in my 1st period histroy class on trench war and Trench poets... the part about making art from the bullet shells was pretty cool i didnt learn that in class, haha.
thanks!
I have a test tomorrow on WW1, so thanks for hepling me and hopefully I do well (Y)
x
yo, wdup G, this story shizzled my nizzle, and i was like foshizze mr izzle y dont u write anotherizzle
thnks a bunch...helped a lot 4 history assignment...:P
this helped with schoolwork
This helped with history homework THX!
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got an A !!!
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ps need a bit more information
Ah! Thank you so much for all that information! You have helped me so much with my History home work. Thank you!
great site. i need to know what the sleep wear of a typical soldier would be in training in the carolinas during word war 1. thanks jlfenger@yahoo.com
thank thus helped me w/ my homework
this never helped me in the slightest
cheers for helpin me with my homework and savin me ages =)
matt
Hi,
Thank you so muchfor this it really helped me with a world war 1 presentation that i did for school.
Thanks again for the help
this really helped me ta
i have a hole project due for tomozy thnx mate
I enjoyed the pages, but feel there's too much information for my essay. Have to condense it down, even for 4000 words it feels too much.
oh my god your a life saver my history teacher loved my assessment on "the life in the trenches"
thanks dude!
Thanks Helped Alot For My History Homework !
thanks help me loads with my project
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history project due tomozaa.
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Thanks alot. This is really useful for my history work.
gr8 info ty
this site is amazing it has saved my hist proj ty sooooooooooo much
Very nice! I've always been fascinating with world war 1. I commend you on supporting the information with plentiful yet *relevant* media!
Thoog.
Damn, you really have a talent there bud.
Hey, this was really helpful for my History project, cheers! xx
thanks dude... really helpful
man lets go yankees this helped my project yeah
history pictures really big help on ap us history
Thanks again 4 da help on my history project!I now know the soldiers daily routine! : )
tanx yo
doing a project on ww1 ... was a very helpful website
thx
Wars are really terrible and World wars tend to be more than terrible. I remmeber a program on History Channel in which they told that a Christmas truce took place between Germans and the British troops just for the christmas day. Soldiers from both sides even played a football match in the no man's land. This shows how futile wars really are. It also shows that human beings by their nature want peace. Nobody loves to fight.
But since wars keep on going all the time, we can't rule out the possibility of a third world war. I have made a hub on this topic: "How Third World War will be fought". Please visit and give comments.
Great Hub. Dont forget in WWI They also had to put up with Gas Attacks.
Great hub. My son really enjoyed it!!
i needed this 2 help with sm essay and it did
thank you
thanks for helpin us!!!!
Well it was crap!!:D:D
Jokiin!!
Love you lots!!:):) xx
Good one.
Thanks for sharingi got history project and dis is well happin me compllete it thanks!!!
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Well..my teacher only wants pages with the author's name attached, so IT DIDN"T HELP AT ALLLLL!!!!!!!!:(
yes i know what you mean very very interesting
SCHWEEEET!!!!!
THX
Wars are the greatest stupidity of mankind.This was particularly dirty and stupid. It shows, how very shallow were their leaders.
Only in one day of this massacre, more than 58.000 young soldiers had died. More than all US Vietnam casualties, just in 1 day.
What side of the war is this Germany or Britain???
other than that very resorceful for my history assignment
The information on WWI is quite interesting. I've read quite a bit on WWII (in part thanks to Stephen Ambrose) and the Civil War but I've always felt I should learn more about WWi.
hey guys , this site helped me a lot , I love alll you guys
kisses
thank you soo much for all the info. was doing my history project and was totally stuck. thank u jimmy the jock!
yer thnx this is my history essay now : ¬ )
Loved the old photos - thanks
We have to write about the trenches and this website has given me alot of information
Thank You.....
Great article. I am a war history buff and knew nothing about this daily routine. Those unoffical truces are funny. I wonder how they sorted that out? Did they just yell over to the Germans. "Don't shoot!".
Very nice Very nice this si ammazing iv never read anything like it!!!<333
i needed this for a history project and it helped me a ton ty u so much and make more!! :-)
Thanks this site helped alot for my history projec
(:
Ta xxx
working
livelonger says:
18 months ago
Wow. Interesting. I don't know much about modern warfare at all, so this was really educational. Many thanks, Jimmy.