“On the fire step in the trenches during the night, you could hear the groaning of the dying — but you couldn’t go out to help them” Cecil Withers, British Private. As it is mentioned in this quote, lives in trenches were a total catastrophe. World War 1(WW1) is one of the most miserable moments throughout the world history. From 1914 to 1918, massive number of innocent young soldiers were died in WW1 that was caused by tensions and desires between countries. Many countries were involved in WW1 including Canada. Although Canada was not directly related to the cause of war, Canada automatically joined the war because its mother country, Britain was involved. Since the WW1 can be considered as the war of attrition and resources, many soldiers …show more content…
During WW1, weapons technology developed rapidly that resulted more casualties than had ever been experienced (Cranny & Mold, 2010, p. 40). Tank, flamethrower, poison gas, submarine, machine gun, and artillery, these were developed during WW1 that killed numerous soldiers. Propagandas depicted ideal structures of trenches, where protective sandbags, wooden barriers, and dug ins are. The real trenches, however, did not have enough protective barriers, sandbags, and dug in for soldiers to hide themselves. As Figure 4-2 is showing, the trench itself was narrow, dirty, and opened that soldiers did not even have proper places to rest. This is extremely dangerous because the soldiers in trenches could be attacked by developed weapon like artillery from vertical direction. As well as dangerous war weapons, trenches were full of unwanted factors: muddy grounds, rats, insufficient food and shelters. These factors allowed disease to spread. Soldier’s clothes were infected with lice, and many men got trench foot, a painful and gangrenous disease, they even got mental disease. Soldiers expected adventure like wars due to inaccurate message in propaganda, but the reality wasn’t like their imagination. If the wars were this dangerous and tragic, why would the government feel it had to do