Life in the Trenches

Soldiers fought, soldiers died, some lived through World War One; others lived but were disabled for the rest of their lives. Life in the trenches was said to be ‘hell on earth”. In the muddy battle fields there was plenty of life but no real living for the young men who fought in them.

Death, mutilated limbs, disease, rats, maggots, lice and insects were all around the fighting soldiers, who lived minute by minute dodging the bullets and shell fire. With shells exploding all around them and bullets flying just above their heads, life in the trenches of World War One was very hard.

Soldier’s food during WW 1

Food for soldiers in the trenches during World War One was considered a luxury. Getting decent hot food from the field kitchens to the front line trenches was almost impossible when a battle was in full flow and there was no set meal time for the fighting soldiers. When soldiers were at stand-down, hot meals were able to be delivered from the field kitchens to the front line trenches.

A total of 3,240,948 tons of food was sent from Britain to the soldiers fighting in France and Belgium during the First World War. The British Army employed 300,000 field workers to cook and supply the food. At the beginning of the war British soldiers were given 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables a day. As the size of the army grew and the German blockade became more effective, the army could not maintain these rations and by 1916 this had been cut to 6 ounces of meat a day. Later troops not in the front-line only received meat on nine out of every thirty days. The daily bread ration was also cut in April 1917. The British Army attempted to give the soldiers the 3,574 calories a day that dieticians said they needed. However, others argued that soldiers during wartime need much more than this.

Soldiers in the Western Front were very critical of the quantity and the quality of food they received. The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), bread and biscuits. By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips. The main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat. Kitchen staff became more and more dependent on local vegetables and also had to use weeds such as nettles in soups and stews.

The soldiers in the trenches ate quite well, and the food was considered to be luxurious, compared to what their families back at home were eating.

 

A typical days ration for a British Soldier

20 ounces of bread or 16 ounces of flour or 4 ounces of oatmeal instead of bread

3 ounces of cheese

5/8 ounces of tea,

4 ounces of jam or 4 ounces of dried fruit

½ ounce of salt, 1/36 ounce of pepper

1/20 ounce of mustard,

8 ounces of fresh vegetables or 1/10 gill lime if vegetables were not issued

½ gill of rum or 1 pint of porter

20 ounces of tobacco (two cigars and two cigarettes or 1 oz. pipe tobacco, or 9/10 oz. plug tobacco, or 1/5 oz. snuff)

1/3 ounces of chocolate - optional

4 ounces of butter/margarine

2 ounces of dried vegetables

Daily Ration for a German Soldier

26 ½ ounces of bread or 17 ½ of field biscuits or 14 ounces of egg biscuit

53 ounces of potatoes

4 ½ ounces vegetables

2 ounces dried vegetables.

There was meat available for both The British and German Soldiers in the trenches, but only when a lull in the battle allowed it to be delivered from the field kitchens.

Daily Ration for an Indian soldier

¹⁄₄ pound meat
(Non-meat eaters received 2 ounces of gur (coarse, unrefined sugar made from sugar cane juice) or sugar or 3 ounces of milk in place of 4 ounces of meat)

¹⁄₈ pound potatoes

¹⁄₃ ounce tea

¹⁄₂ ounce salt

1 ¹⁄₂ pounds atta (flour)

4 ounces dhal (dried lentils, peas or beans which have been stripped of their outer hulls and split)

2 ounces ghee (clarified butter)

¹⁄₆ ounce chillies

¹⁄₆ ounce turmeric

¹⁄₃ ounce ginger

¹⁄₆ ounce garlic

1 ounce gur

 

Sheep being taken ashore at Gallipoli in 1915, to be issued live to the Indian troops for slaughter according to their religious practices. [AWM C01662]

Indian troops' iron rations (emergency supplies issued in case soldiers were cut off from regular rations) consisted of:

1 pound biscuit

8 ounces gur

1 ounce tea

6 ounces condensed milk or 2¹⁄₂ ounces dried milk in lieu, when available.