WWI Primary Sources

Photos and First Hand Accounts

Trench Photos
Allied Trenches
Trench Photos
Allied Trenches
Trench Photos
German
Trenches
Trench Photos
German Trenches
 Trenches - First Hand Accounts
Harold Oxley, of the Middlesex Regiment, compared British,
French and German trenches.
“Taking the French trenches first, we found when
we took over the French trenches in the Kemmel
area they were very much deeper than ours, but
not kept in the cleanliness and order one would
expect to find from taking over from a similar, what
shall we say, infantryman to another infantryman –
they weren’t in a similar condition to ours. They
were dirty and the latrines at the back weren’t in a
similar condition to ours as regards keeping clean.
The German difference was that they would be
reinforced with a kind of wattle fencing – wattle
construction – the breastworks would be
reinforced with those. But you didn’t find it with the
British trenches, they’d simply be sandbagged.”
Ted Rimmer, of the South Lancashire Regiment, describes
the German trenches.
“We were in the advance to the Hindenburg Line,
talking about dugouts, and we got to the
Hindenburg Line and you ought to have seen
dugouts they had. They were like hotel rooms,
they were all fitted out with special pumps and
everything – tables and everything there, you
know, not like ours! Ours were just simply dugout
earth and sort of, what you slept on was a wire
netting mattress, just wire netting in our dugouts,
they were deep big dugouts. But they were
marvellous their dugouts, they had tables and all
that and laid out with stuff on them!”
 Trench Life
10 PHOTOS OF LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
Click on the link above to see 10 photos of life in the trenches. Be sure to read the paragraph next to each photo.
Dangers of Trench Life
Private William Gardiner

Year Unit Age Service

1915 7th London 26 6 months

Disease: Trench Feet

Began 3 weeks in the reserve line trench just behind Loos. Had
been standing in water for several days. Feet were very swollen,
and he lost sensation- skin unbroken. He also complained of
chilliness-could not get warm even in hospital-treated in No.2
Canadian Hospital Le Freporte- Treatment: Boracic Powder daily.

Present Condition: He can walk a little, sensation is

returning-throbbing pain.
Dangers of Trench Life
Extract from a war diary of 75th Field Ambulance in 1915

Summary of Events and Information

11 cases of trench feet have been admitted from 13th Cheshire

Regt. The trenches were very wet & the men had been standing
& working in water, none of the men had used the anti- frostbite
grease before going into the trenches, but they had dry socks to
change.

None of the cases were severe, the feet were red & congested &
as a rule swollen with tingling sensation or loss of sensation in
the toes. They all recovered after little more than 24 hours rest &
treatment, which mainly consisted of baths & warm dressings.
Dangers of Trench Life
Private Isaiah Sisson

Year Unit Age Service

1914 1st Grenadier Guard 19 18 months

Disease: Frost bite both feet

Was in the trenches on November 27th. In the trenches 10 days.

Was unable to walk out. Was wet through on 20th next night
there was frost. Two days later had pain in the feet. Constant
sharp tingling pain. The boots were on the tight side, was only
wearing one pair of socks. Took boots off at headquarters, ¼
mile away. Feet commenced to swell. Then noticed that right foot
was black. Left foot only toes were black. Left foot treated with
hot fomentation every ¼ hr coming down in the train. In hospital
4 weeks. Treated with yellow stuff wrung in cloths then with a
paste Turpentine & lanolin.
 Dangers of Trench Life
Report to Medical Services 8th Division from Officer Commanding of 24th Field Ambulance concerning research into the increased
number of cases of scurvy, 13th August 1915

“Having noticed that a large proportion of the patients in the Divisional Rest Station had anaemia [low
iron], pyorrhoea [inflamed gums with the discharge of pus and loosening of the teeth] and rheumatism...

The symptoms- anaemia, affection of the gums, loose teeth, muscular pains, rashes, and night
blindness form the chief symptoms of scurvy...

It is to be noted that the most constant symptom was night blindness, which occurred in 10 out of 12
cases...

At the present time the Infantry are in the trenches from 6-4 days...During the trench period they have
no fresh meat or vegetables; tinned meat, biscuit & bread, jam, cheese, etc. are issued, the men often
eating but part of the meat & supplementing the bread by local purchase.

If scurvy is to be regarded as due to the absence of vitamins, it is fair to suppose that a great diminution
in these for periods of several days will, in some cases, have an effect on health.”
Allied Weapons and
Clothing Photos
German Weapons
and Clothing
Photos
Fighting in the Trenches
To whom it may concern.

I went up to the firing lines on the 6th of Oct. and during my

stay of twenty three days under that hellish shellfire, I had
some very thrilling experiences.

I saw scores of men, my Comrades, fight and die for the

cause of Liberty and it was surprising to see how willingly
they suffered death.

There is no words which will thoroughly explain that feeling

or sensation which we all had to contend with while amidst
the bursting shells and the pitiful cries of our wounded
soldiers, and in order to make my story brief, I will conclude
by saying the following. I feel confident, that if every living
human being on earth could spend a few hours under a
heavy barrage fire and could witness the barbarious sight
on the battle fields, it would mean Peace and Good will on
Earth forever.

Corbl. W. R. Cox
WWI Fighting - No Man’s Land
 WWI Fighting - No Man’s Land
John Raws, Australian Corp, letter to a friend (4th August 1916)

“We do all our fighting and moving at night and the confusion of passing through a
barrage of enemy shells is pretty appalling. You've read of the wrecked villages?
Well, some of these about here are not wrecked. They are utterly destroyed, so that
there are not even skeletons of building left - nothing but a churned mass of debris,
with bricks, stones and girders and bodies pounded to nothing. And forests! There
are not even tree trunks left - not a leaf or a twig. All is buried and churned up again
and buried again. The sad part is that one can see no end of this. If we live tonight
we have to go through tomorrow night - and next week - and next month.”
 WWI - Gas Attacks
Will Irwin, correspondent for the New York Tribune, April 27, 1915 - Boulogne, France

“The gaseous vapor which the Germans used against the French divisions… introduces a new element into warfare. The
attack of last Thursday evening was preceded by the rising of a cloud of vapor, greenish gray and iridescent. That vapor
settled to the ground like a swamp mist and drifted toward the French trenches on a brisk wind. Its effect on the French
was a violent nausea and faintness, followed by an utter collapse. It is believed that the Germans, who charged in behind
the vapor, met no resistance at all, the French at their front being virtually paralyzed.

In addition to this, the Germans appear to have fired ordinary explosive shells loaded with some chemical which had a
paralyzing effect on all the men in the region of the explosion. Some chemical in the composition of those shells produced
violent watering of the eyes, so that the men overcome by them were practically blinded for some hours.

The effect of the noxious trench gas seems to be slow in wearing away. The men come out of their nausea in a state of
utter collapse. Some of the rescued have already died from the aftereffects. How many of the men left unconscious in the
trenches when the French broke died from the fumes it is impossible to say, since those trenches were at once occupied
by the Germans.

This new form of attack needs for success a favorable wind. Twice in the day that followed the Germans tried trench vapor
on the Canadians, who made on the right of the French position a stand which will probably be remembered as one of the
heroic episodes of this war. In both cases the wind was not favorable, and the Canadians managed to stick through it. The
noxious, explosive bombs were, however, used continually against the Canadian forces and caused some losses.”
WWI Fighting - Gas Attacks
WWI - Chemical Weapons
At the close of the 19th century, the various European powers became troubled by
the potential of chemical weapons and began holding conferences and writing
various treaties to prevent the development and use of this new technology. The
Hague Convention of 1907 forbade the use of “poison or poisonous weapons” in
warfare, yet more than 124 000 tons of gas were produced by the end of World
War I.

By the time of the armistice on November 11, 1918, the use of chemical weapons
such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas had resulted in more than 1.3
million casualties and approximately 90 000 deaths.