The conditions soldiers endured in the trenches were truly awful. Rats, lice, duckboards, incoming shells, raids, snipers, the fear of entombment, the smell of death from no mans land and the occasional seven day furlough.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Jack Campbell talks about life in the trenches, the fear of going over the top, going hungry and the danger of rats.
Production Year
1988
Contributor
Gay Byrne (Presenter)
LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
Seven Shillings A Week
Denis Kelly describes the conditions endured by troops at the front in return for seven shilliings a week.
Production Year
1981
Contributor
Jim Fahy (Presenter)
LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
"I Twice Woke Up Under Water"
Colonel E.H. de Stacpoole talks about how hard it was to keep the water out of the trenches in Flanders, which were prone to flooding.
Production Year
1974
Contributor
Kieran Sheedy (Producer)
Tom McGurk (Presenter)
LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
Mules For Wine
During wartime, extreme measures were sometimes undertaken by light fingered troops who wanted to sample the local wines, as Major Walter Joyce of the Irish Guards tells Jim Fahy.
Production Year
1982
Contributor
Jim Fahy (Presenter)
LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
Soldiers Robbed Behind Own Lines
The local women were another attraction, though the unwary soldier could find himself in some trouble for straying out of bounds.
