(Soft music) - [Narrator] We all know
the stories of the horror of trench warfare in the First World War. Waves of soldiers clambering
out of their trenches into a hail of gunfire and nests of barbed wire strewn
across no-man's land. Artillery shells exploding all around them as they advanced, while
aeroplanes buzzed overhead firing machine guns down upon them. Often the enemy trench was only
yards away yet in that time, hundreds if not thousands
of men could be left dead or dying in the mud. It was a man-made hell on Earth. But what is often overlooked
by the history books was that in between the battles, life went on in the trenches. A new culture was formed in those long, dug out
lines that stretched from the Belgian coast
to the south of France. That culture had its own social norms, social hierarchy and
jobs aimed at maintaining the world and with all of
that came the daily routines. Just like in everyday life back home, while no two days were
ever completely the same, there were typical days
that followed a pattern for activities. Here we're going to look at what a soldier in a typical British trench might expect while serving at the front
waiting for the next attack or the order to go over-the-top. (dramatic music) The day would begin in a somewhat dramatic fashion. Shortly before sunrise, officers and NCOs would
begin rousing their men and order them to stand-to-arms. The soldiers would prepare
themselves for battle and then position themselves on the fire step, a raised platform dug into the side of the trench facing the enemy so that soldiers could stand on
it and have the height to fire over the parapet. The reason for taking this
action in the morning was that most attacks were carried out at dawn and both sides wanted their
troops ready for action in case the enemy decided to launch a surprise attack. The stand-to-arms usually
lasted half an hour and as a way of relieving the tension and reminding the enemy
they were prepared to fight, the two sides would often fire a few shots in the direction of the other. For these reasons, the whole practice of
stand-to-arms was referred to as the morning hate. The whole practice was loathed
by the soldiers for not only did they have to contend with the psychologically taxing prospect of standing there wondering
if the enemy were about to attack but their officers and NCOs would also take
the time to inspect them and in the British Army where strict rules of uniformity were heavily enforced, an improperly dressed soldiers could find himself punished with being assigned some of the
more unpleasant duties of trench life. And there were plenty of them in a trench. After the men had
finished the morning hate, they then found themselves being issued with a ration of rum. Introduced somewhat
unofficially in the winter of 1914 before being rolled
out across the British Army, the rum ration was
initially given to soldiers to combat the cold in the trenches but quickly it became a way of helping the men cope with stress. Each man was given around one third of a pint through the
week and it became one of the highlights of the day when stationed at the front. At 7a.m, breakfast would be served. In the early months of the war, all British soldiers no matter where they were based, be it at the front, in reserve or back in
Britain ate the same rations but as the British dug in,
it was quickly realized this left the troops in
the frontline trenches with insufficient calories to sustain them during the many physically
strenuous activities they often had to undertake. Therefore, the Army
prioritized frontline troops over all others and they began to receive the best rations which often totaled over 4,000 calories per day, nearly twice the
recommended daily allowance in modern civilian life. At first it might appear
that at least there was this benefit to being at the front but in reality, the food often
provided little comfort due to its poor quality and equally the poor variety. All that mattered to the Army command was that the men got their calorie quota. It didn't matter if it
was by eating the same, often tinned foods over and over again, but it was perhaps the Army biscuits that achieved the greatest notoriety. The biscuits were provided as
a carbohydrate substitute for when bread wasn't available and were most often served during breakfast but these biscuits became as
loathed as the enemy for not only were they not very
palatable but at a time when dental hygiene
amongst the working class who made up the bulk of the troops was very low, the hard biscuits frequently
broke weakened teeth. To get around this, the soldiers often ground
down the biscuits to a powder and then mixed them in with jam. After breakfast, the
day's real work began. Maintaining a trench was an
arduous task all year round but particularly when it rained. The rainwater would weaken the sides causing them to collapse or
would gather in the bottom of the trench creating large
puddles of mud that had to be drained out. This was without the damage
the trenches would sustain from exchanges of artillery fire between the two sides. The squalid conditions of the
trench also affected equipment and regular maintenance of
weapons had to be maintained to make sure they remained
in good working order. One piece of equipment whose importance would grow
exponentially during the war was the gas mask. And this had to be kept clean at all times for it quite literally was
a matter of life and death. Personal hygiene was also highly important since the trenches were
breeding grounds for diseases. Some two million men on
both sides perished due to diseases in the trenches
during the course of the war. For some specialists, they were often spared these routine duties for
they had other tasks. The cooks had to clean
up after breakfast and of course prepare lunch. Logistics personnel
had to deliver supplies while medical personnel had to check their stocks of supplies and attend to any injuries the men might have sustained in an accident. The war did not stop while all this was taking place. Artillery crews continued
bombarding the enemy aided by spotters on the ground
or in the air while snipers took up concealed positions waiting for an unfortunate enemy soldier to reveal themselves above their trench if only for a moment. Understandably, what was served depended on the supply situation and again often included tinned foods, one of the most well-known
being corned beef, more commonly referred to as bully beef in the trenches. Again, if bread was not
available to make a sandwich then the dreaded biscuits
were used instead. Another notorious meal
was Maconochie stew, a watery stew of turnips and vegetables with mineral meat, which had been a staple of British Army rations
since the Boer War. It was recommended that
the stew was warmed prior to eating but this was
not often possible and so it was usually eaten cold and this produced an unfortunate side-effect in the form of flatulence. Soldiers were also issued
what were called iron rations. These were emergency rations
kept in a tin and designed to last for a day or so in the event of being cut off from
the supply chain such as during an attack. Typically, these rations would
consist of a tin of meat, some cheese, tea, sugar, salt
and of course the biscuits. Under such circumstances, one would hope that good
old-fashioned ingenuity would see Army cooks
rising to the challenge and producing food that
was at least appetizing with very little ingredients but this doesn't seem to have been the case. One reason for this is
that British culture in 1914 viewed cooking as a woman's job in her
capacity as a home maker. As such it was not uncommon
for newly enlisted troops being assigned as cooks without
ever having boiled an egg in their life. The Army issued basic recipe books and the men followed the instructions in the same way they would
for assembling a piece of machinery which left little
room for culinary innovation. Two significant events in 1917 would begin to change the food
situation for the better. In order to free up more men for combat, the British Army began to allow the Women's Auxiliary Army Corp to adopt more and more of the non-combat roles
and this included cooks. Women with years of food
preparation experience were now making meals of higher quality aided by the second significant event of that year and that was the
entry of the United States into the war. America's huge agricultural industry was now thrown into the support of the Allied cause and while the German
Navy's submarine fleet would severely hamper the supply chain across the Atlantic, it was never able to sever it as the Kaiser hoped. Once dinner was over, the men were usually afforded a few hours of precious downtime. For many, that meant an
opportunity to find a place to curl up and get some much-needed sleep. It was also a chance to
read letters from home or write one back while some
of the more artistic troops turned their hand to poetry as a way of expressing themselves regarding the cataclysmic events they found themselves living through. Anyone with any musical
talent was always sought after to get the men singing to lift their spirits. Trench art also provided a
creative outlet and as well as sketching and painting, sculptures were made with
anything they could find just laying around, from empty tins to pieces of shrapnel. There was very little in the
way of recreational activities in a frontline trench beyond a pack of playing cards, but the men often found
creative ways to remedy this. Officers might hold
competitions between platoons over the best kit with the winning section getting both the pride of winning and some treat as a reward such as an extra chocolate ration. It was also not uncommon
for drill routines to be carried out blindfolded
by some for the amusement of others or games of
tug-of-war to be held in the long trenches. However, the soldiers often
found other more disgusting ways of entertaining themselves. This would include activities
such as placing bets on how many lice could be
plucked from the hair of one of their members. Another common pastime
was to place an empty tin from lunch on a stick and poke it above the
trench for a German sniper to shoot off. The abundance of rats in trenches also provided entertainment with captured rodents being used in rat races. At around 1700hrs, the troops would begin having their tea after which they would
again find themselves back in the stand-to-arms positions. Despite the commonly
held belief that attacks only happened at dawn, it was just as likely attacks
at dusk would take place too. This was because the light, just like at dawn was considered good enough
for an attack but low enough to inhibit the ability of enemy spotters to gain a wide field of
view from their positions. Although the Germans were
well aware of the times that the British would stand-to-arms, a large number of their
attacks still took place during these times, most often when German
intelligence officers discovered that the British had rotated
out of one group of soldiers from the trench and replaced them with fresh but inexperienced troops. As darkness blanketed the western front, the men would stand down, but for many of them at the front, this was where the real danger lay. At a time when night vision devices hadn't been invented
yet the darkness was the only time they could
move out of the trench with a degree of safety. Small groups would mount reconnaissance of the enemy defenses or
repair any barbed wire that may have been damaged
by enemy artillery. However, both sides would
frequently fire star shells into the night sky to
illuminate the terrain between the opposing trenches, the aptly named no-man's land. A star shell was an artillery shell containing a bright flare
that was timed to explode above the area that needed illuminating. For anyone caught in their glow crawling around no-man's land, death would often come in the form of a machine gun or sniper. If a trench ever needed
extending or redirecting, this too was carried out at night in an effort to prevent the
Germans from observing them and adjusting their plans accordingly. It was often back breaking work leaving the men exhausted, all
the while knowing that soon, dawn would come and with it the prospect of at best simply
repeating the daily routine or at worst, fending off a German attack. Thanks for watching this episode and will see you next week for a video on the fall of constant Malcolm.
