Fortunately for the lice population, if not for their hosts, conditions of trench warfare proved ideal for their rapid spread. Of the three types of lice - head, pubic and body - the latter was far and away the most common. Lice could only thrive in warm conditions - which was provided by body heat and clothing.
'Cooties' was the nickname American soldiers gave to body lice – the itchy little bugs that burrowed into skin, hair, clothing, blankets and just about anything made of natural materials. For many soldiers, cooties were as relentless as their human enemies.
The British also developed a combination of naphthalene, creosote, and iodoform made into a paste which could be applied to the seams of uniforms with a good result of eliminating lice in just a few hours.
Lice were a constant problem for soldiers living in the cramped and crowded conditions of the trenches. These tiny insects infested clothing, irritated skin and caused 'trench fever' and typhus.
Robert Sherwood's main trench annoyance was lice, another constant among soldiers. Filthy, wet clothing welcomed these pests, where they lodged in seams and caused constant itching.
The stink of war
Then there was the smell. Stinking mud mingled with rotting corpses, lingering gas, open latrines, wet clothes and unwashed bodies to produce an overpowering stench. The main latrines were located behind the lines, but front-line soldiers had to dig small waste pits in their own trenches.
British troops in WWI were issued with a toothbrush as part of their kit. The kitbag or holdall generally contained: a button brass (to keep metal polish from staining the uniform), a razor, a toothbrush, a shaving brush, spare leather boot laces, and a knife, fork and spoon.
Vaccine successes had been documented for smallpox and typhoid. However, louse-borne typhus killed 2–3 million soldiers and civilians on the Eastern Front, and the war's end in November 1918 was hastened by an influenza pandemic that had begun in January 1918 and eventually claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million.
Classic trench fever is caused by Bartonella quintana, which is carried predominately by a vector body louse. B. quintana reproduces in the intestinal lumen of the louse and then transmits the disease via inoculation of contaminated feces into exposed skin or conjunctivae.
It was estimated that 97% of the soldiers in the trenches had lice. Trench conditions made it perfect for lice to thrive. A female louse can lay up to a dozen eggs and they would hatch in one to two weeks. It wasn't until 1918 that doctors attributed “trench fever” to lice.
About once every week to ten days, Soldiers would go to the rear for their shower. Upon entering the shower area they turned in their dirty clothing. After showering they received new cloths.
The ancients managed their lice by suffering through them, combing them out, affectionately picking them off each other's heads, dousing them in oil, or simply shaving. (Thus the wigs.)
The oldest physical evidence of head lice on a human was a nit found on the hair of a 10,000-year-old body at an archeological site in Brazil. Lice combs have been found in the tombs of Egyptian royalty, and even Cleopatra was said to have solid gold lice combs buried with her.
By far, artillery was the biggest killer in World War I, and provided the greatest source of war wounded.
In many, their illnesses moved rapidly from typical influenza to lethal pneumonia. US military data on this are particularly detailed [15]. Respiratory diseases killed 46,992 soldiers during the war, mostly from pneumonia.
In the middle ages, humans couldn't get away from lice. They were an unavoidable part of their life and lice didn't discriminate; they infected all parts of society from serfs to royals. People in the Middle Ages took lice to their grave as well.
Historically, trench fever was described in relation to outbreaks among soldiers during the first and second world wars. Since then, few cases have been documented, mainly in Europe and Russia.
The soldier fired into No Man's Land, the area between the enemy trenches. Soldiers were ordered to keep firing even if they did not see anything. This was called the “morning hate.” The constant fire would keep the enemy from sneaking up on the trench.
Trench conditions were ideal for rats. There was plenty of food, water and shelter. With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps. The rats grew bigger and bolder and would even steal food from a soldier's hand.
Epidemics of typhus, malaria, typhoid (the infamous enteric fever), diarrhoea, yellow-fever, pneumonia and influenza, generously amplified by innumerable cases of venereal disease, scabies and the like, routinely wreaked vastly more casualties on these armies than those wrought by the engines of war; be it the bow and ...
The United States lost 675,000 people to the Spanish flu in 1918-more casualties than World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined. Pharmaceutical companies worked around the clock to come up with a vaccine to fight the Spanish flu, but they were too late.
the narrow, muddy, treeless stretch of land, characterized by numerous shell holes, that separated German and Allied trenches during the First World War. Being in No Man's Land was considered very dangerous since it offered little or no protection for soldiers.
Trench mouth is an infection that causes swelling (inflammation) and ulcers in the gums (gingivae). The term trench mouth comes from World War I, when this infection was common among soldiers "in the trenches." The appearance of normal teeth varies, especially the molars.
The U.S. military has supplied gum in combat rations since World War I to moisten mouths, clean teeth and calm nerves.
The Department of Defense revived previous efforts to recover the remains of missing American soldiers during the 1970s. Since then, the remains of almost 1,000 Americans killed during World War II have been identified and returned to their families with military honors, according to the POW/MIA agency.