What was winter like in the trenches

The bitter winter was the coldest in living memory for soldiers in France and Flanders. Soldiers suffered from frostbite and exposure, causing them to lose fingers. The trenches did little to provide shelter or warmth from the extreme low temperatures, especially at night, when even clothes and blankets froze solid. The muddy walls became hard as bricks, and any food and water became almost impossible to eat. NCO Clifford Lane described the bitter trench conditions. You can hear his account here :.

But we used to have tea sent up to us, up the communication trench. Well a communication trench can be as much as three quarters of a mile long. It used to start off in a huge dixie, two men would carry it with like a stretcher. It would start off boiling hot; by the time it got to us in the front line, there was ice on the top it was so cold. After an extremely wet autumn had ruined the potato crops and cereal production, the German population was forced to subsist on turnips in order to survive.

This event was inspired by wartime Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, who famously said upon the outbreak of WW1: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.

But their headgear was always distinctive, as seen here. The Great War was the first conflict in which motorcycle Despatch Riders played any sort of role in battlefield signals. The Royal Engineers took on the main task of providing them and men were specially trained pre to operate motorcycles. Those with motorcycle experience were brought in when volunteers flooded in after the outbreak of war to cope with the expansion of the army.

This image shows a motorcycle Despatch Rider in winter dress wearing a standard British Army greatcoat but of the shorter type issued to drivers of vehicles and horse transport. He has leather gloves for a better grip and to keep his hands warm when out on his bike and he has a scarf to protect his neck area. On it is his pair of Despatch Rider goggles. His Royal Engineer cap badge is visible in the middle. Post war the RE Despatch Riders formed an old comrades association which was active well into the s.

This system of trenches had been taken over from the French in the summer of and despite attacks here during the Battle of the Somme, the line had remained unchanged. Very few images exist taken inside WW1 British dugouts and this one shows it is a basic construction with solid timber supports. The occupants have salvaged a table from a nearby house and all are dressed for the cold; the officer on the right is wearing a goat or sheep-skin jacket, common in the winter but prone to being a breeding ground for lice.

Harrison was a prominent local Hull rugby player; he had joined the Hull Pals in and served with them in Egypt and on the Somme. He would later be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in the fighting at Oppy Wood on 3rd May As part of the 31st Division the battalion had moved from England to Egypt in December , where it occupied defences along the Suez Canal which was then threatened by the Turkish Army.

In March the battalion moved to the Western Front where it spent the next year on the Somme, aside from a short period in Northern France, taking part in the fighting for Serre in November This photograph was taken in December after the first major snowfall on the Somme had melted, flooding the trenches.

The problem with alleviating this flooding is evident here. The soldier from the 11th East Yorks has a woollen cap comforter on under his steel helmet, a common practice during the winter months on the Western Front. Working in the snowy conditions of winter on the Western Front was a hard task for all soldiers.

While the work kept you warm, the frozen conditions on the battlefield often made such work near impossible in the first place. This French image from La Guerre Documentee shows a group of French Poilus working on their trenches in a wooded area with picks; so hard is the ground it seems that shovels are not enough.

There has been a heavy snow fall and one man keeps watch over the far parapet, but this is likely to be a reserve position away from direct observation otherwise the soldiers would not risk getting up in the open like that. The soldiers are all wearing their great coats, have gloves and scarves, and the image gives us a good insight into how difficult life was on the Western Front during the winter months.

This image was taken in the Vosges area, a region known for its severe weather and deep snow in the winter, and a sector of the Western Front in Eastern France where the fighting revolved around mountainous terrain. However, it does give an insight into winter conditions in the Vosges in This contemporary illustration from La Guerre Documentee shows a typical French Poilu in a front line trench in winter garb. The French soldier was issued with a substantial greatcoat worn over his tunic which did offer some protection from the cold, but as this illustration demonstrates they also had to result to make do and he has a pair of woollen gloves and a scarf to help make long periods in the front line during the winter at least bearable.

The Argonne Forest lies between the battlefields of the Champagne east of Reims and the ground at Verdun. The fighting here in established the lines around the forested area of the Argonne, where it would remain for much of the rest of the war. Still a forested area, it contains to this day much evidence of the war with trench lines still visible in many places. The lack of damage and the fact that he has no problem about popping his head above the parapet would indicate this was a reserve trench line, some distance back from the actual battlefield.

Much of these reserve lines in the Argonne were finally taken by American troops in the final battles of the autumn of The Winter War post yesterday looked at the uniform and kit worn by British troops during winter periods on the Western Front. This image, dating from , shows a group of German soldiers dressed in their version of the make-do gear to keep them warm during a winter in the trenches.

If untreated it led to gangrene and amputation. The impact of rain on the trenches was worse at the beginning of the war than it was at the end. As the war raged on, the design of the trenches changed leading to better drainage, but the weather continued to affect the trenches, especially during the winter months.

Winter in the trench combined the worst of the fall with cold weather. There was still rain but also below freezing weather and snow. Frostbite was rampant sometimes leading to amputation. Trenches did not provide any warmth. Everything froze; clothing, blankets, food, etc.

It also caused the walls of the trench to freeze, making them hard as a rock. Vehicles and machinery were effected as well, making them inoperable. Troops had to use heated water to try and fix the problem. The summer combined heat with rain. Troops still had to deal with muddy trenches, but they also had other issues. Excrement and dead bodies within the trenches produced an unbearable stink.