Frank Sears, a Corporal in the A.E.F., put pen to paper and explained for all posterity the filthy conditions of living in a W.W. I trench:
“We had heard from fellows who had been there before us what we thought were jokes about cooties and trench rats, but it was no joke to me when I looked, for the first time, at a rat as big as a cat… I threw a heavy hobnail shoe at him and he merely changed his position and looked around to see who had interrupted him. But I will say that if it were a matter of choice, I would select a hundred rats in preference to two cooties.”
“We became so used to mud up in the lines that if our chow did not have some mud, or muddy water in it we could not digest it. It was just a case of mud all over: eat, drink, sleep and wash in mud.”
More articles about W.W. I trench warfare can be read here.
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newspaper article on living conditions in ww1Life in a WW1 Trenchworld war 1 soldier living conditionsnewspaper article on living conditions in ww1WW1 Trench Lifewhat was it like living in a ww1 trenchliving in a ww1 trenchLife in the trenches is made up of cooties rats mud and gasww1 mud in the trenchesww1 cooties in a ww1 trenchUS soldiers in WW1 trenchesDoughboys in WW1 trenchesAmerican soldiers in WW1 trenchesfirst-hand description of American Doughboys in WW1 trenches
