Life in the trenches - Passchendaele

A soldier's lot

The drama of combat – going over the top, facing machine-gun fire and enduring terrifying artillery barrages – naturally dominates accounts of Passchendaele and other great battles, but behind the scenes, everyday human activities continued as best they could. Soldiers had to be fed and go to the toilet. If possible, they shaved and washed themselves and cleaned their clothes. When they were not in combat, they carried out routine chores: cleaning their rifles and other gear, filling sandbags, repairing trenches or digging latrines. If they got any free time, they usually spent it reading or writing letters or diaries, playing cards or trying to snatch a few moments of sleep. Even amid the horror of war, daily life was often a mixture of routine and boredom.

Apart from the Germans, the New Zealanders' biggest enemy at Passchendaele was the mud. Indeed, the flooded trenches and churned landscape of this battlefield are among the most potent symbols of the First World War. Passchendaele was notoriously sodden due to the wet weather and the high water-table of this low-lying area, much of which was reclaimed marshland. Conditions were made much worse by the shelling, which had disrupted normal drainage.

Finding a dry spot to rest or sleep was often a challenge even though pumps were used to remove water from trenches and dugouts. Many troops succumbed to trench foot, a fungal infection caused by immersion in cold water. Rats and lice were soldiers' constant companions: rats, having gorged on corpses, allegedly grew 'as big as cats'; lice were the (then unknown) vector of another common wartime ailment, trench fever.

Trench art

Then there was the smell. Stinking mud mingled with rotting corpses, lingering gas, open latrines, wet clothes and unwashed bodies to produce an overpowering stench. The main latrines were located behind the lines, but front-line soldiers had to dig small waste pits in their own trenches. The application of chloride and lime to protect against disease and infection only added to the stink. While new arrivals were frequently overwhelmed by the sights, smell and noise of the front line, old hands quickly became hardened to the discomforts and dangers of trench life.

At night the trenches often became hives of activity. Despite the continued risk of night bombardment or trench raids, the cover of darkness allowed troops to attend to vital supply and maintenance tasks. Rations and water were brought to the front line, and fresh units swapped places with troops returning to the rear for rest and recuperation. Construction parties beavered away repairing trenches and fortifications, laying duckboards and wire and preparing artillery positions. An hour before daybreak, everyone would stand to in readiness for action as another day dawned over the bleak battlefield.