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At the front they were in constant danger from artillery shells, mortars and bullets. As the war progressed they also faced aerial attack. Food was very restricted because of supply problems and disease was rife in the damp, rat-infested conditions. Many troops suffered from 'trench foot', a painful swelling of the feet. Life was terrifying then dreary. Men were lice-ridden and frequently wet and extremely muddy, or dry and exceedingly dusty. They suffered frost-bite in the cold winter months and heat exhaustion in the summer. They suffered appalling, perhaps unimaginable, conditions. Some never recovered from shell-shock, but anyone caught deserting their post faced execution.
For the wounded soldiers, and over half the troops received a wound of some kind, it was a painful process reaching the field hospital - the slow progress through the mud by the stretcher party to the Regimental Aid Post for initial treatment, then to the Advanced Dressing Station and on to the Casualty Clearing Station, where most surgery was done. Nurses who arrived in France in ever-increasing numbers were not allowed nearer the front than the Casualty Clearing Stations. The journey home was in Ambulance Trains and Hospital Ships.
Ambulance Trains
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