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Trench rats were rodents that were found around the frontline trenches of World War I. Due to massive amounts of debris, corpses, and a putrid environment, rats at the trenches bred at a rapid pace. The rats likely numbered in the millions. [1] The rats played a role in damaging the soldiers' health, psyche and morale and were responsible for ...
Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. If a trench subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. These corpses, as well as the food scraps that littered the trenches, attracted rats.
Rats - brown and black - thrived literally in their millions among trenches in most Fronts of the war, be it Eastern, Italian, Gallipoli - but primarily the Western Front. Trench conditions were ideal for rats.
These rats stole food and were attracted by the human waste of war and bodies of buried soldiers that repapered after rain or heavy shelling. The soldiers had to face many problems in the trenches, and one of them was omnipresent rats.
Image 1: Pet dog of the Middlesex Regiment with its catch of rats in the trenches on the Western Front during the First World War. Rats didn’t just grow in terms of population. The sizes that rats could attain while feeding on the leftovers of armies could be astounding.
Trench Warfare in World War I: Rot, Rats, Ruin. Life as a soldier throughout history has never been easy. But World War I’s trench warfare brought a whole new facet to the phrase “War is Hell.”
Oversized rats, bloated by the food and waste of stationary armies, helped spread disease and were a constant irritant. In 1918, doctors also identified lice as the cause of trench fever, which plagued the troops with headaches, fevers, and muscle pain.
Rats were an alarming and pervasive problem in the trenches during WWI, significantly affecting the daily lives and morale of soldiers. The harsh and unsanitary conditions of trench warfare provided an ideal environment for rats to thrive.
The trench soldier of World War I had to cope with millions of rats. The omnipresent rats were attracted by the human waste of war – not simply sewage waste but also the bodies of men long forgotten who had been buried in the trenches and often reappeared after heavy rain or shelling.
The troops shared the trenches with huge numbers of rats, attracted by dead bodies and food waste. James Harvey was one of many plagued by them. Rats were common, very common, you didn’t dare leave a bit of food about or else there’d be swarms of rats round you.