Was life in the trenches “Hell On Earth” in WW1? In this essay I will be discussing the different points that are pro and con to the statement that life in the trenches as hell on earth during the first world war, there are many points arguing both ways but I will be concentrating mostly on the main points. I will talk about the conditions of living, moral, sleeping to name just a few.Life in the trenches was a filthy thing with constant rain and boots churning up the ground.
There was mud and insects everywhere especially floating in the dark stagnate water under the duckboards, which consisted of blood and raw sewage. Even in the “safe” dugouts there will millions of lice crawling everywhere going from person to persons transmitting deadly diseases and other insects and animals feasting on the lice then they become carriers further spreading it.Soldiers though barely removed their cloths and even slept in them using the blunt side of a knife when they awoke to scrape the lice off, another huge problem was the rats and flies who smarmed over all the food and even the sleeping soldiers from a diary of one of the soldiers “we wait at night for the rats to crawl over our legs if we cannot sleep and when they finally do we raise our legs and fling them into the air sometimes your hear them hit the ground but sometimes other soldiers. Because of the large amounts of pests safe food and water was hard to get so was protected fiercely and eaten quickly for if you didn’t the rats would have it within minuets.
All ready just by this you can see how dire their situation was and how horrible their conditions of living was so I think that this certainly if pro life in the trenches was “Hell On Earth” because of the sheer filthiness of their day to day living.Another factor that is pro life in the trenches was “hell on earth” was the sleeping conditions as well as moral. Firstly in the trenches you rarely got any sleep with constant shelling and fighting just outside so soldiers and the final anguished screams of soldiers as they released their final breath could keep them awake all night and they weren’t even safe in their dugouts as nearby shell explosions could collapse the dugout and bury alive all of the men inside.
