After the war of movement in 1914, both the Allies and the Central forces began digging trenches as a defensive measure against artillery and machine guns. A trench was basically a long narrow ditch of excavated soil such as the one shown below. Its purpose was to keep troops out of the direct line of sight of the opposing forces.

Since dirt trenches were prone to collapse from near artillery strikes unless the interior walls were reinforced, sturdier trenches were built with sidings of logs, planks, corrugated sheets of iron, woven sticks, or stacked sandbags. Pictured below is a section of trench from the Battle of Verdun from 107 years ago. This trench was so well constructed that sections of it survive to this day.

In general, the German trenches were more robust and included pill boxes, bunkers, and shelters that were made of concrete. Having quickly realized that the war would not be one of movement, the Germans entrenched in fortified positions

In contrast, the allies were more optimistic and viewed trenches as short term “temporary” measures. Instead of constructing concrete bunkers and pill boxes, soldiers dug out underground shelters that unsurprisingly were called dugouts. These dugouts were reinforced with wooden beams and were framed with sandbags, logs, planks, nets of barbed wire, or sheets of corrugated iron.

Since rain tended to fill the bottom of a trench with muddy water, the ground was often lined with duckboards such as the one shown here. In theory the use of duckboards allowed water to flow underneath the crossbeams.

In reality the water in some sections of a trench was so deep that the duckboards were submerged. The weight of passing soldiers also drove these boards deeper into the mud.

While World War I has been largely characterized as a war of trench warfare, the military leaders on both sides understood that keeping men indefinitely in the trenches was unhealthy, stressful, dangerous, and demoralizing. With the possible exception of the Russians whose officers sadly neglected their units, most armies rotated troops in and out of the front lines.

To understand this rotation, one must first understand the trench system. Trenches consisted of a minimum of three rows. The frontline was literally within about 250 yards of the enemy. The support line was an equal distance behind the front line with the reserve line being 250 yards behind the support line.

Each row of trenches was connected by communication trenches that ran perpendicular to the three lines. This allowed reinforcements and supplies to move forward out of sight of the enemy while the wounded or units that were being rotated off the front lines could move away.

As you can see from the illustration above, the trenches themselves did not run in straight lines. They zig-zagged as a defensive measure against artillery strikes or the successful storming of a trench by enemy forces. Zig-zagged lines limited how many men were killed or wounded by flying shrapnel. If the enemy were to take a section of the trench, they would not then be able to fire down the entirety of the trench.

In general the British kept their men on the front line for four days after which they rotated to the support lines for four days, and then to the reserves for eight days.

This post will address the topic of what 24 hours was like for a British soldier on the front lines.

Stand to: Since dawn was often a favorite time for a trench to be stormed, British troops “stood to arms” before dawn. Pictured below is a section of trench being manned by troops. Three of them are standing on the fire step which was a raised platform that allowed the soldiers to peer over the top edge of the trench. The battalion commander, a Lieutenant Colonel is pacing by on an inspection tour of the front lines.

Improperly attired or equipped soldiers had their names recorded by a non-commissioned officer to place on “fatigue duty” which typically involved extra work over and beyond the daily routine.

Daily Rum Ration: If no attack was forthcoming and if the soldiers were not given the order to go “over the top” so as to launch their own surprise attack on the enemy, the troops would then be stood down. While one member of the section stayed on sentry duty, the rest would be given their daily rum ration.

Rum was issued in large jugs that were labeled with the letters SRD. The troops joked that this meant “seldom reaches destination”. In actuality the initials mean “Service Ration Depot.”

Initially issued as a way of helping the men cope with the cold during the winter of 1914, the rum ration became a tradition in the British Army because it raised morale and helped the men better cope with stress. Each man received about 5.3 ounces of rum (1/3rd of a pint).

Breakfast: Breakfast was served at 7 AM. Although garrison troops might have received pork sausages, fried potatoes, and oatmeal; frontline troops often received canned food along with hardtack. Hardtack were twice based crackers that were issued when fresh bread was not available. These crackers were so hard that they literally had to be soaked in water, soup, or stew to soften them enough so they could be eaten.

Eggs would not have been common because chicken egg laying farms had not yet been developed. It would not be until the 1940’s following the scientific research of cage use in California that eggs would be sold in American grocery stores. Without eggs; pancakes, French toast, and waffles would not have been common as civilian breakfast foods let alone for soldiers in the trenches.

Here is a recipe that I found for an allied soldier’s breakfast. Since hardtack was a staple of the British and French armies (since the Americans would not join the war until April of 1917), soldiers who saved part of the evening ration of hardtack could soak the crackers in water overnight. In the morning they could improvise a sweet porridge by adding a can of condensed milk. Since jam was often issued along with more hardtack for breakfast, adding jam would have added flavor and additional sweetness to this meal.

Washing and Shaving: Since there were no bathing or showering facilities on the front lines, washing consisted of washing one’s face, hands, and forearms with a strong lye based soap. This would have been done using a bucket of water that was shared with the rest of the section. A section (squad) consisted of up to twelve men that were led by a non-commissioned officer.

Since gas masks could not be firmly seated unless one had a clean shaven jaw, the British army had strict expectations regarding shaved chins and jaw lines. While mustaches were tolerated within reason, beards were prohibited.

The work day begins: The work day consisted of many activities. First and foremost was the need for soldiers to clean their weapons. To avoid putting the soldiers at risk of being unarmed while weapons were disassembled and cleaned; standing orders said that only half a section at a time could clean their weapons.

In the foreground a soldier with a disassembled weapon is holding a “pull through” that consisted of a piece of string that was tied around a piece of cloth. After disassembling his weapon the length of string would be dropped through the barrel until it came out the other end. The soldier would then pull the cloth through the barrel so as to remove layers of carbon and lead.

One of the least popular jobs each morning was to empty the section’s night soil bucket. Since there were no restrooms on the front line and since it would have been unhygienic for the men to go wherever they wanted, the soldiers had a bucket that was only used for human waste.

Each day this stinking bucket had to be taken to the latrine area which consisted of a deep pit. The soldiers would empty the buckets into the pit and scoop calcium carbonate (powdered lime) over the mess to reduce the odor. They would then clean and wash the bucket prior to returning to their section.

Trench maintenance was an important job for the soldiers manning the front lines. If rain had turned the ground under the duckboard into mud, the men had to excavate the mud. Any damage to the retaining walls had to be repaired lest the walls collapse and bury the men. Broken duckboards or flooring that had submerged below the mud had to be replaced.

At some point during the day, the battalion’s medical officer would come by to do a foot inspection. Since trench foot (rotting dead surface flesh that results when a foot is submerged in cold water and mud for too long) was a constant problem, the doctor would inspect the soldiers’ feet. Soldiers with trench foot were hospitalized and given bed rest while their feet were treated with a mixture of (I kid you not), a wash made from lead and opium.

Dinner: The British ate dinner (what Americans would call lunch) at noon. This was the main meal of the day and typically consisted of tinned bully beef (corned beef) or Maconochie stew which consisted of corned beef that had been stewed with turnips and potatoes. The meals that were provided by battalion’s mess in the reserve area were carried to the front lines in mess containers that were covered with lids. Given that the messmen had at least 500 yards to traverse to get from the rear area to the frontlines, the food was often cold when it arrived.

Since cooking was generally viewed as “women’s work,” most army cooks did not actually know how to cook. They used army issued cookbooks to produce indifferently made and often under seasoned food with very little in the way of variety. It would not be until the creation of the WAACs (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp) that army cooks would be replaced with women who often had a decade or more of cooking experience.

If time, safety, fuel, and weather conditions permitted, each section had a portable gas burner that could be used to heat their meals. In general the soldiers preferred a hot dinner to a cold one because the fat in cold Maconochie stew would congeal into a cold and greasy mess.

In the picture below, the soldiers have included fresh potatoes and carrots to their mid-day ration. One of them is also adding some HP sauce which was a favorite condiment for the British soldiers. HP sauce is a brown sauce made of tomatoes and tamarind extract. It is still immensely popular in today’s United Kingdom both in the army as well as the civilian population.

Leisure Time: If the soldiers had some leisure time before the evening, they could catch upon their sleep, write letters, or play cards. The daily mail call was a much anticipated activity because in addition to providing news from home, some families sent their loved ones care packages. These care packages could contain anything from clean socks, magazines, and newspapers to bottles of HP sauce, cans of condensed milk, biscuits (what we would call cookies), candy, tinned sardines, and other treats.

Since sugar and tea were part of the daily ration, the soldiers often brewed tea throughout the day. Cigarettes were also issued at the rate of two per soldier per day. Men who didn’t smoke could hoard their cigarettes to barter for favors or to trade for items from a care package.

2nd Stand to Arms: As the day came to a close, the soldiers would again stand to arms just as they had at the start of the morning. Due to the on-going threat of snipers, activities that could not be conducted outside the trench during the day had to be done at night after the soldiers were stood down.

Supper: Supper was served around 8 PM and often consisted of soup with bread or more of the dreaded hardtack. The soup itself would have been relatively easy for the army cooks to make. It often consisted of pea soup leavened with chunks of horsemeat.

Some soldiers were tasked with extra duties that could be conducted before or after supper. This included restringing barbed wire, establishing a listening post, or conducting a reconnaissance of the enemy lines.

As you might imagine, all of these activities were extremely dangerous. When restringing barbed wire that that had either been damaged during an artillery bombardment or cut during an enemy assault; the slightest noise could bring a burst of machine gun fire from the enemy trenches.

To make it even more challenging for enemy troops to attack, the soldiers who restrung barbed wire often attached empty ration cans filled with a few stones at intermittent points on the wire. The metallic rattle of these stones would then alert sentries who fire a flare gun overhead so as to illuminate the area that the sound had come from.

Any illuminated enemy troops would then be strafed with machine gun and rifle fire while being bombarded with grenades. An alert sentry’s action would rouse the local section as well as entire line and would result in a general stand to arms.

Here is a first account of a junior officer who was tasked with having his section place barbed wire in front of their trenches. This excerpt is from a book called, “A Subaltern on the Somme” that was written by someone simply known as Mark VII. This book was published in 1928.

“Smalley and I are on top with a wiring-party. Queer and eerie the sensation
of standing high above the heads of Germans in the trench just over there beyond the wire. With automatic regularity they keep firing Verey lights
that rise like roman candles and reveal our sil-houetted forms to one another so clearly it seems impossible at first to believe the enemy cannot see us. When the light is strong we stand stock still. At first these moments are terrifying; then, as time goes on, one gains confidence in the darkness that covers our own trenches.“

“Just now I was badly scared by a light that seemed to come right out of no-man’s land, just behind my back. Luckily I dropped in a shell-hole before the light began to fall. One cannot realise how hideously ploughed up
this ground is till one begins to wander about over it. It is simply a succession of larger and smaller shell-holes. What a fearful job it must be to keep men in an attack, over such ground, in any sort of regular formation! Here, slowly
wiring, it is simply devilish difficult to get alignment, and one takes a fantastic time getting from place to place. If we didn’t live in momentary fear of those machine-guns suddenly starting again out of Gommecourt, the efforts of some of these fellows would be comic. As it is, it is infuriating
to find one man tying himself up in his own strand of wire and another going pell-mell down a deep shell-hole; or to hear two fools cursing each other
in loud tones that will give us away if they are not silenced.“

“We wire badly. I must ask Rowley for wiring practice next time we are out of the line.“

Another hated activity was the establishment of a listening station. There were two different types of listening station. Both were hazardous but one was even more dangerous than the other.

The less hazardous option was to dig a trench that was perpendicular to the front trench out into no-man’s land. The purpose of this trench would have been for the the occupants to listen for any sign of the approaching enemy. This listening post would have served as a metaphorical tripwire to advise the regiment of enemy activity. Pictured below are two reenactors at a listening post.

Since German sappers sometimes dug tunnels under no man’s land, so as to plant explosives under the Allied lines, a listening station was sometimes tasked with monitoring underground activity. One way to determine if sappers were underground would have been to drive a long stick deep into the ground and to hold the other end with one’s teeth to feel for any underground vibrations.

Another way of detecting activity would have been to sink an empty drum into the ground. After filling the drum with water, the team would have watched the water’s surface to see if it was still or rippling from underground activities.

Pictured below is the 2nd more dangerous variant of a listening post. The soldiers assigned to this mission had to crawl through no man’s land and to get as close to the enemy position as possible. They did this while dragging a field telephone with them. The telephone would have been connected to a cloth covered cord that would have been unraveled as the soldiers moved closer and closer to the enemy lines.

After taking cover (often in an artillery crater or behind a fallen log), these soldiers would listen for any enemy activity. Since it would have been suicidal under some circumstances to talk over the phone, prearranged jerks on the phone cable were used to relay simple coded messages back to the friendly lines. In general it would have been easier for these soldiers to talk if the enemy positions were being shelled since the noise of the explosions would have made it impossible for the enemy to hear these men speaking.

In this picture, a two man listening post is in danger of running afoul of a German reconnaissance patrol. Reconnaissance patrols were dangerous missions for the soldiers of all armies because they consisted of crawling into no man’s land to ascertain the exact location of enemy positions. The commanders on both sides would have been particularly interested in learning the position of enemy machine guns and pillboxes.

As the war progressed, listening posts became increasingly important due to changing German tactics. Having quickly realized that daylight frontal attacks were extremely costly in terms of casualties, the Germans developed the idea of Stoßtruppen which translates as “thrust troops” or “stormtroopers”. These particular soldiers were trained to crawl through no man’s land as part of a small team, to infiltrate a trench, and to then sneak into the rear area to raise havoc while conventional troops stormed the frontlines. These types of troops were the predecessors of what would become commando units during World War II.

Pictured here are Stoßtruppen who are cutting through barbed wire.

After supper, soldiers who hadn’t been tasked with reconnaissance patrols, setting up a listening station, or stringing barbed wire; used this time to sleep. One man in the section stood guard for no more than two hours at a time after which he would be relieved by another man in his section.

Some soldiers slept in personal dugouts that they excavated under the trench walls. Others rolled up in blankets and slept wherever they could.

Sleep did not come easily for soldiers who were new to the front. Depending upon how the wind was blowing, the evening’s breeze could bring the stench of corpses that had been left to rot in no man’s land. Rats were a constant problem with some rodents having become emboldened enough to bite the sleeping soldiers. Lice was a constant on-going problem. Artillery bombardments and sniper fire would have occurred intermittently throughout the night. In addition to trench foot, long term exposure to cold mud and rain led to a whole litany of health issues. Two million soldiers on both sides would eventually die from exposure, frostbite, hypothermia, the flu, dysentery, asthma, and other ailments.

Here is a first account of a junior officer who caught three sentries whilst asleep on guard duty. This excerpt is from the same previously quoted book, “A Subaltern on the Somme”.

“Turning out in the very early hours is not exactly pleasant; but as each subaltern only does four hours at a time, it is never very arduous. The
sergeant called me up an hour ago and we went round once together. Now I have dispensed with him; ’tis so seldom one can be alone out here. Old Burt, the bruiser, looked funny when I passed him; I think I’ll go back and make sure
he’s awake. There he is, and it certainly doesn’t look like it. His head rests on his chest and his rifle is leaning against the corner of the bay. The other two men are sprawled on the firestep, sleeping. No, Burt, this won’t do!”

“Quietly I collect all three rifles, hide them in the traverse and get up on the firestep beside Burt. Still he does not wake. Burt, my man, you must
have a lesson. I load my revolver and fire it over the top, almost in the man’s ear, shouting “Hands up !” All three jump to their feet feeling for their
rifles and fairly gibbering with fear. There follows a short and vehement address. I return them their rifles and, pointing an obvious moral, leave
them. Somehow the scene when they awoke was too pitiable and realistic to be amusing; but I don’t think Burt will sleep on sentry again. I wonder
if he thinks I shall split on him?”

NOTE: The above mentioned traverse refers to zig-zag bend in the trench.

On a documentary of the Battle of the Somme, one survivor of the war was quoted as having said that 99% of his experience had consisted of unrelenting boredom that was punctuated by 1% of sheer terror.