The war environment
As was stated in the home page, the conditions in which the soldiers were living under were not pretty. There were millions of animals involved in the war, including horses, mules, and donkeys. So on top of dealing with human diseases, soldiers had to prevent themselves from coming in contact with diseases from animals. Out of all of the animals, mosquito's were the ones that carried the most contagious diseases including Typhus fever and Malaria. Soldiers would come in contact with these mosquitoes if their camp sites were near swamps.
One of the worst unsanitary outbreaks throughout the whole war was lice. These bugs were said to leave blotchy red marks all over your body, creating a poor smell that was left on them. Nowadays, they are usually found in hair, back then they would hide in soldier’s trousers. They tried to kill off the lice by running a candle up and down their pants without burning themselves. If this worked, they would hear a large pop to indicate the lice were dead. Often soldiers were placed in large vats full of water while their clothes were put through machines to clean them, but this rarely worked.
“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “ (Elizabeth de T’Serclaes – a nurse on the front line)
One of the worst unsanitary outbreaks throughout the whole war was lice. These bugs were said to leave blotchy red marks all over your body, creating a poor smell that was left on them. Nowadays, they are usually found in hair, back then they would hide in soldier’s trousers. They tried to kill off the lice by running a candle up and down their pants without burning themselves. If this worked, they would hear a large pop to indicate the lice were dead. Often soldiers were placed in large vats full of water while their clothes were put through machines to clean them, but this rarely worked.
“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “ (Elizabeth de T’Serclaes – a nurse on the front line)