What were the duties in the trenches?

What were the duties in the trenches?

Following morning stand-to, inspection, and breakfast, soldiers undertook any number of chores, ranging from cleaning latrines to filling sandbags or repairing duckboards. During daylight hours, they conducted all work below ground and away from the snipers’ searching rifles.

What was a typical day in a trench?

A typical day in the trenches Soldiers only got to sleep in the afternoon during daylight and at night for an hour at a time. During rest time they wrote letters and played card games. Soldiers sleeping and writing letters. Watch our video to learn more about life in the trenches.

What jobs did soldiers have in the trenches?

What did men do in the Army?

  • Infantry soldiers lived in trenches for up to weeks at a time.
  • Artillery soldiers, known as ‘gunners’, fired explosive shells.
  • Soldiers were given a rank, most were privates at the start.
  • Sappers planned where trenches should be dug, miners dug tunnels.

What was the daily routine in the trenches ww1?

Individuals spent only a few days a month in a front-line trench. Daily life here was a mixture of routine and boredom – sentry duty, kit and rifle inspections, and work assignments filling sandbags, repairing trenches, pumping out flooded sections, and digging latrines.

What jobs did soldiers do in the trenches ww1?

What was sentry duty in ww1?

These duties included: inspecting weapons and equipment, digging and repairing trenches, filling sandbags, or emptying latrines and flooded sections of the trenches. But the most important task of all was: – Sentry Duty.

What was the daily routine in the trenches?

Daily routines in the trenches For all the soldiers in the trenches, life was extremely difficult and they had a lot of chores that they had to do. They were not just firing and attacking the enemy. They were rotated between three lines, front line, support line and reserve line as well as a short period of rest then it began again.

What was life like in a World War One trench?

What was life like in a World War One trench? On the Western Front, the war was fought by soldiers in trenches. Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. They were very muddy, uncomfortable and the toilets overflowed. These conditions caused some soldiers to develop medical problems such as trench foot.

What was the food like in the trenches?

In the 800-strong infantry units, “wastage” rates were as high as 10 percent per month, or 80 soldiers killed or incapacitated. Two soldiers eat slices of bread while propped up against sandbags. Bread rations usually arrived in three-pound loaves that were shared among several soldiers. Food was bland and monotonous, but no one ever starved.

Why was it important to work in the trenches at night?

Night work 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.