In 1914 trench warfare had started in World War 1, with thousands of soldiers fighting for their country. The Gallipoli landing is often given prominence in accounts of Australia’s involvement in WW1. When actually trench warfare should be given prominence for what the soldiers had to go through each day. The trenches were designed to stop soldiers from being shot, and to transport food easier so that it wouldn’t get shot or blown up. From World War 1 trench warfare grew a lot as its purpose became very helpful, Especially In Western Front War.
Trenches were a significant part in WW1 because they were the only protection that soldiers had. Generally trenches were about 10ft deep so that soldier’s heads couldn’t be picked off. However they
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The rats had infested the trenches stealing food and carrying diseases that spread rapidly to the soldiers, some also grew as big as cats. Lice was also one of the main offenders, causing a disease called trench fever, this disease was particularly painful which began with severe pain followed up by high fever (this is stated in source 7). This disease took a very long time to recover; it could take up to 12 weeks away from the trenches. Men usually shaved their heads due to the lice. Trench foot was another disease it was a fungal infection generally caused by cold and wet feet. Trench foot could turn your feet infected and could lead to amputation. But by the end of the trench warfare is started to fade due to conditions started to get better. Mud also was a problem as in Australian trenches they didn’t use wooden floor boards to be a base so that you would have to walk in deep thick mud. But in source 6 you can see that the conditions in the German trenches was very good as everything was quite clean but this contradicts to the source 5 which is an Australians trench and it is filled with thick mud. Australian trenches were some of the worst due to its horrible conditions. Australians soldiers in trenches should get recognition for these horrific conditions they had to go