World war 1 A Day In The Trenches Of WW I

Author:
Jimmy the jock
Updated:
Aug 29, 2014

A Day In The Trenches During World War One

Men fought together and men died together, the battles raged on and on and much blood was spilled. If you were lucky enough to survive the bullets, disease and infection were also on hand and took the lives of many a soldier.

Life in the trenches was never going to be easy and even in the chaos of battle the soldiers still had to follow a daily routine on top of keeping the enemy at bay.

Dodging bullets and enemy shell fire every minute of every day may have been routine enough for most of the soldiers but the trenches had to be maintained and fixed, if the soldiers were to try and increase their chances of survival, after all if the trenches were left alone they would quickly deteriorate and offer little or no protection from the enemy.

Trench Routine

German troops on the first "Stand too" of the day.
Oscar Tellgmann@wikimedia Commons Public Domain

World War 1

Morning Routine In the Trenches

A soldier in the trenches would begin his day around one hour before sun up with the morning "Stand too" he would be woken up an sent to the "Fire step", with his bayonet attached to his rifle, on guard duty in case of a dawn raid from the enemy. Dawn raids were common in the trenches from both sides although it was common knowledge that both sides were prepared for them.

As daylight broke over the trenches, machine guns, Shells and even some hand guns would be fired toward the enemy lines, this was thought by most as a weapons test but others were of the opinion that it was a way for the soldiers to relieve some of the stress that was building up in side them. The first hour of daylight became known as "The morning Hate" by the men in the trenches.

After the morning "Stand too" the soldiers would be issued with a tot of rum before they cleaned their weapons before the morning inspection by senior officers.

With the inspection over it was time for breakfast, unofficially breakfast time in the trenches was a time of cease fire which both sides became to respect for most of the time. The truce was broken on some occasions though, usually when a senior officer new to the trenches heard about it and ordered the men to open fire on enemy lines.

After breakfast the soldiers would face an inspection by their commanding officer, this was followed by the daily chores, each man would be given a specific chore.

Daily chores included the refilling of sandbags, the repair of the duckboards on the floor of the trench or the draining of trenches, repairing the trenches and preparing the latrines.

Trench Repairs

One man takes time out to read as two men work on repairing some sand bags.
United Kingdom Government @wikimedia commons Public Domain

Afternoon Routine In The Trenches

During the afternoon, unless there was a heavy battle taking place the men in the trenches took it in turns to man the fire step. The men who were lucky enough not to be on guard duty were allowed some time to themselves to either catch up on some sleep, read or write letters from home or enjoy some games even although movement was restricted in the trenches.

Snipers were set up in lookout posts and would fire at the enemy and the first sight of movement, you had to keep your head down in the trenches no matter what you were doing for fear of being shot.

Opposing snipers used to play a game with each other raising a helmet above the trench to see if the enemy could hit it with a bullet.

Some inventive soldiers used the materials around them to make useful or ornamental objects which has since become known as trench art, trench art is highly collectible on the antique market today.

Daily Rest In The Trenches

Canadian soldiers manage to get a break and relax for a while in the trenches.
Bibliothèque nationale de France@wikimedia commons Public Domain

Evening Routine In The Trenches.

As darkness approached the men were sent on their second "Stand too" of the day again bayonets fixed in preparation for surprise attacks from enemy lines.

When the darkness of night came the trenches came to life, men were sent to the rear to bring up vital supplies such as food, ammunition, water, medical and maintenance equipment.

Unless there was a full scale battle going on the length of time a man was allowed to stay on the firing step was two hours before being replaced, this was in case he fell asleep on duty. Falling asleep at your post was a capital offence and could see the offender face death by firing squad.

Scroll to Continue

four-reasons-why-i-think-is-the-year-of-the-rapture

confessions-of-a-former-love-addict-gaga-for-guys-sorry-not-sorry

Patrols into no-mans land would also be carried out under cover of darkness, to repair breaks in the barbed wire and some were sent out as "Listening posts" hoping to overhear information from the enemy.

Sometimes enemy patrols would meet in No Man's Land. They were then faced with the option of hurrying on their separate ways or else engaging in hand to hand fighting.

They could not afford to use their handguns whilst patrolling in No Man's Land, for fear of the machine gun fire it would inevitably attract, deadly to all members of the patrol.

The cover of darkness also allowed the front line troops to be changed over, those who had completed their tour of duty would be swapped over with fresh troops.

Then it was time to start the daily routine again with the morning "Stand too"

Comments

hi on March 29, 2018:

Cool facts

Brianns on February 16, 2011:

@CoolCat

Lol ur comment was hilarious

Seth-218 on February 15, 2011:

Wow!!! Very in-depth. I liked it very much. Thanks.

Akin corbitt hmu on facebook on February 15, 2011:

helped with my project

kell bell on February 13, 2011:

how do you site this source????

Waffles on February 13, 2011:

Thank you very much for your information. It has been a great help and very useful. :D

tom on February 08, 2011:

helped a lot for my history exam thankyou for the information

ALY:D on February 08, 2011:

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuu.

This was soooooooo useful

Amber007 on February 03, 2011:

Thanks that really helped me a lot with my english assignment

ttt111sss4445655 on February 01, 2011:

this helped with english homework

thanks

boomboomHAH on January 28, 2011:

I have to do a video project on life in the trenches...this article helped me create a very accurate script. Thanks for posting this!

Wowwee on January 22, 2011:

For my homework we have to do a model of a ww1 trench and this helped a lot thanks i have to do it by myself though cause my so called friend ditched me

'Ricardo' on January 14, 2011:

Why war? we are fighting us, we may be black or wight, fat or thin but we are one, we stand together to be strong, we are MAN

brian on January 11, 2011:

thanks for the information about trench life

Saraah on January 08, 2011:

That is brilliant thank you! I don't know what i would have done without it!:) You should make it into a book!:)x

Jimmy the jock (author) from Scotland on January 06, 2011:

Hi Saraah, I wrote an article concerning writing a letter from the trenches hope it helps.....jimmy

https://discover.hubpages.com/education/World-War-...

Saraah on January 06, 2011:

Really good this! Very interesting:D! I'm have to wrote a letter from world war one back to home, know anything that would help?x

toribug on January 05, 2011:

im in 6th grade doing a project on ww1 and this helped me soooo much this website is awesome!

Nicole on December 13, 2010:

thanks, this helped me so much with my history project, i really appreciate it :)

Becca.A on December 13, 2010:

i think was very interesting,and also educational,many thanks to jimmy :) x

KATIE on December 13, 2010:

really good info! but abit BORING! HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Rachel on December 09, 2010:

Thankyou, this helped a lot!! :)

Lolz on December 08, 2010:

TY TY TY

this helped me with my history prodect on trench Warfare WW1 and it was a great help

Thanks

Laura on December 01, 2010:

i think that the many men gave up their life to fight for our country and they died for us

Janine on November 28, 2010:

Guys, I need this guy's name for my history essay and date of this text, I can't figure out. some know how? please? :/

by the way, very good !!! Helped a lot !!! (sorry for my english, I am from Brazil..) ahaha

Janine on November 28, 2010:

Guys, I need this guy's name for my essay and date of this text, I can't figure out. some know how? please? :/

isha on November 28, 2010:

Helped a lot with my course work

Thanks :)

isha on November 28, 2010:

Helped a lot with my history course work

Thanhs :) xxxxxx

kaushal on November 28, 2010:

helped a lot with my diary entry

jade on November 25, 2010:

thanks this helped with my history homework a lot....

iit filled up my report on life in the trenches :')

jade.-x-

KoolGirl2 on November 25, 2010:

Thanks for the help with the information. It really helped!

sophie on November 24, 2010:

thank you so much this hlped massivly with my homework couldn't of done it without you

thanx

-x-

lUCY LEMON on November 22, 2010:

THANKS A lot

GR3AT xxxxxxxx

Fred :) on November 20, 2010:

cheeeeeeeeeerrrrzzzzzzzzzzz m8 helped alott

some guy on November 20, 2010:

this helped me a lot with H/W

gem on November 15, 2010:

the war is stupid cant they do it in discusion

camille on November 11, 2010:

Thnx so much. Ma history project is done.:D

Mel x on November 11, 2010:

Thanks this should help with my english essay :)

wweytfty on November 09, 2010:

yes now i can finish my history stuff

Usshh on November 09, 2010:

Wow, this was all the information i needed to help me with my history assesstment :) Thanks A Lot :D xx

allah worshps me muslim scum on November 07, 2010:

pretty damn good

john on November 06, 2010:

this has everything thank u sooo much!!!

Megan :) on November 03, 2010:

oh, em, eff, gee, this page has everything im looking for! thankyouuuuuu!!!

d-d-d-doin history hmewrk...... on November 02, 2010:

tyvm 4 all the info! im doin a history assessment and this is sooooo helpful!!!!!!! :P;P I used this whole page for all the info i need!

Wooyoungi on November 01, 2010:

omg this is soooo helpful thnx a bunch!!! teehee!!

MythiliK from India --> Switzerland on October 28, 2010:

War is a painful thing, where lots of innocent lives are taken for some ones mistakes and greediness.

I gave a reference to this hub in my hub about "Five Golden Indian Women with Foreign Origin". Thought of sharing with you :-)

..... on October 25, 2010:

thanks alot, very helpful with school work!! great site!

BOB on October 22, 2010:

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAy

This helped me with my work a lot!!!!!!!!!!!

iloveastonmerrygold on October 22, 2010:

thanks helped a lot with my work :) saved me a lot of time :) thanks again :)

tom b is a durry on October 21, 2010:

beat it on your projects. 4 a4 pages is nothing, get over it

Yr 9 person on October 21, 2010:

Really useful saved me a lot of time!

Thanks so much :)

tadhg conroy on October 21, 2010:

world war 1 was really sad PEOPLE DIED

zzirGrizz on October 20, 2010:

OMG Thankksss so much this helped a lot for my english project

tom b on October 19, 2010:

helped me a lot with me history project of 4 sides of a4

Olivia xx on October 16, 2010:

really helped my with history hw

thankyouuu

luk8 on October 15, 2010:

thanks had history project on ww1 trenches helped a lot cheers

casey on October 15, 2010:

thxs u help me a lot

ashlee'x;-) on October 13, 2010:

I have a thousand word essay to write plus a diary, this helped me a lot i recommend this to evey one who needs help, thank-you so much xo Luv You and Bill xo

jack oc on October 12, 2010:

Cheers I would be nowhere without this for my English essay!

coooooooolllllllccccccccaaaaaaaattttt on October 11, 2010:

omg this website is the bomb lol get it the bomb... ya know like bomb in ww1 im sooooo creative with my comment :D

Harrison on October 04, 2010:

Thanks a lot for putting this up it has helped me loads with my 5 page diary. =]

Wanger on October 03, 2010:

this is a really good website :)

Emily watson on October 01, 2010:

Are these phtos real?? because in one of these pictures, my great granpa is here. I have the same photo framed in my house as it's my great grandpa's photo. Thnx for putting that photo..

mynameisjonas on September 30, 2010:

yaaaa boiiiii. dis is da gr8est ste i ever saww. thx 4 puttin' up dis artikle cuz loike, it got me a A on mah history testt.

foshizzle.

peace &luv boyzz, peace & luv.

ffft fffft fffft ffftt

felixrox on September 26, 2010:

good but too much info. needs more 'fun' if you know what i mean.

inottellu on September 23, 2010:

lots of good info yes school were would they sleep???????????/

school on September 19, 2010:

need more info about where the slept and where they went to the toilet

MooMoocow on September 19, 2010:

thanks it has help me a lot with my homework i really could not think

Emzonater on September 16, 2010:

It was really good is thank you

blah on September 06, 2010:

very nice written work their young fella, good eff mate woooooo

Mr.Shizzle ;)

Omnomnom on September 02, 2010:

Shankyou Thus has helped a lot ;D

benjamin 6440k on July 11, 2010:

ta very much.

adorababy from Syracuse, NY on June 16, 2010:

The World War 1 must have been terrifying to all who experienced it but a lot of heroes rose to that occasion.

dora ;) on June 16, 2010:

this is great, this site is on my favorites it really helps with projects and school work

Jamie on June 13, 2010:

Thanx a million this website helped all my school matez

tommy on June 05, 2010:

thanks a lot it helped with my school work

Andrew on June 02, 2010:

Thx had a big project due tomorrow this site really helped :P

by the way awesome pics and this cite will be all credited to you thx borski >:D

Allysha Mulholland(: on May 17, 2010:

Thanks This helped I have an essay in two day's and this helped me allot! (: I hate home-work and its an essay so it was even worse but then i found this website and I have used what you said in my own words and thats me Done (: Lol. Thank-you x x

bling bling on May 11, 2010:

thnkyou :)

this information helped me heaps!!

teasy2 on May 10, 2010:

thanks it helped with my sose assignment

chaza on May 04, 2010:

real help thanks

Millie on April 29, 2010:

This was very helpful with my History Project thankyou very much !

Greg on April 27, 2010:

Thanks so much saved me getting killed by my history teacher lol

:D on April 25, 2010: