What did the battlefield look like and how was it different in world war 1 and how did soilders expect it to be?

Answer 1

The soilders expected war to be In World War I, the "trenches" were literally trenches dug into dirt or mud to shelter soldiers while they were firing at the enemy. Both sides used trenches in the fighting.Trench warfare was primarily a defensive tactic, placing soldiers low in the trench for protection, installing barbed wire in front of them in more modern times, and then allowing the soldiers to shoot at the enemy. Trench warfare has been used militarily since Roman times, although it came into widespread use in World War I.The trenches were, of course, dirty. They could often become crowded, so any kind of wound sustained in the trenches was likely to become infected, whether it was sustained in battle or from opening a can. Shell fragments often carried dirt or other debris into the wounds they created. Infection and gangrene claimed a much higher percentage of fighting men's lives than did actual deaths directly from fighting. Antibiotics had not been invented in World War I, so palliative care was about the only treatment that could be given.Besides the direct effects of wounds, the indirect effects of many men in close, dirty quarters meant that common diseases like colds and the flu could spread quickly. When it rained, the trenches became low-level marshes, filled with inches of dirtywater that made soldiers susceptible to fungal infections now known as trench foot and trench mouth.Parasiteslike lice, fleas, and weevils were everywhere, and they could spread other diseases. Dysentery, typhus, and cholera could spread quickly during warm, wet weather, forcing many of the troops into the hospital even if no bullets had ever passed their way.Some trenches were dug quite deep, and then fortified with lumber to make things a little drier and more homelike. But in general, these were developed to cover short distances and be a temporary defensive position for troops before moving on to a new battlefield, so there was little in the way of creature comforts