Daily Life
Loyalty drew many men to join the army. The love and pride for Australia and the 'Mother Country' Britain, was strong. However soldiers had many other reasons to go to war. Wages were a high attraction and the opportunity to travel the world and explore new places. However, the conditions including the climate, diet and health were not taken into consideration and many soldiers were shocked when they experienced their surroundings.
In Gallipoli, the Anzacs fought and lived in deep, long trenches. For the officers, the trenches had special roofing, wooden floor, electricity, running water and heating. Ordinary soldiers had to put up with far less wellbeing. The Anzacs’ trenchers were filled with filth and disease, with unburied bodies floating in dirty water and sewage. Huge ‘trench rats’ would emerge from holes to feed on the corpses. Many soldiers died or suffered from the diseases that broke out in the trenches rather than from the bombardment or bullets. |
At the outbreak of WW1, Australian soldiers were sent to take part in the fighting.
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Soldiers from New Zealand pictures in September 1916. Having consolidated their position in the trenches they take a rest, eating bread.
Climate
In WW1 the ANZAC troops experienced a variety of climates over the four seasons. The Australians and New Zealanders stayed further up north on the steep hill borders and in the bundle of valleys at Gallipoli and couldn’t benefit from the similar middle conditions. The soldiers landed ashore with pleasant climates in the late spring. Unknown to the allied chiefs and to the Anzacs, the peninsula was subjected to extremes in temperature throughout the year.
Throughout the summer, the sun and temperatures soared and continued during the night, averting the soldiers from being able to rest. Though many of the ANZAC troops had a civilian background, working on farms outdoors, they were able to cope with the heat.
During winter, there were freezing blizzards and frost that caused discomfort to the soldiers. Most of them had spent their life under the heat of the Australian sun and this weather was foreign to them. As the snow began to fall and the north wind began to blow, the soldiers had only the clothes that had seen them through the warmer months. When not on duty, the men would often find themselves huddled together in dirty old blankets as their clothes and shoes were all worn out. It wasn’t unusual for the men who were on duty to freeze to death and many others had to have their toes or feet amputated due to severe frostbite.
Another climate challenge for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers was the torrential rainstorms. The constant rain flooded the channels and made the battleground look like dams of mud. The Turks had an advantage, as they were familiar with their country’s climate and weather patterns. Also the rain wasn’t a concern for the Turks as their trenches were situated on higher ground than those of the Anzacs who were not prone to flooding.
Anzac Cove in Winter 1915
Throughout the summer, the sun and temperatures soared and continued during the night, averting the soldiers from being able to rest. Though many of the ANZAC troops had a civilian background, working on farms outdoors, they were able to cope with the heat.
During winter, there were freezing blizzards and frost that caused discomfort to the soldiers. Most of them had spent their life under the heat of the Australian sun and this weather was foreign to them. As the snow began to fall and the north wind began to blow, the soldiers had only the clothes that had seen them through the warmer months. When not on duty, the men would often find themselves huddled together in dirty old blankets as their clothes and shoes were all worn out. It wasn’t unusual for the men who were on duty to freeze to death and many others had to have their toes or feet amputated due to severe frostbite.
Another climate challenge for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers was the torrential rainstorms. The constant rain flooded the channels and made the battleground look like dams of mud. The Turks had an advantage, as they were familiar with their country’s climate and weather patterns. Also the rain wasn’t a concern for the Turks as their trenches were situated on higher ground than those of the Anzacs who were not prone to flooding.
Anzac Cove in Winter 1915
Food and Water
In Gallipoli during WW1, water was scarce for a lot of the time, even in the spring months. Troops dug well and took water bottles from dead bodies. Most of the water was shipped in and loaded into tanks on the beach. Fresh water was not always obtainable and when it was available, the soldiers were often limited to about 2.3 litres. This was frequently drunk in the form of tea. Leftover tea was used for shaving.
Food for soldiers in the trenches was abundant but very plain. They ate tinned fruit, stew, a type of tined corned beef known as bully beef, rock-hard army biscuits called Anzac Biscuits, jam and sometimes bread. Vegetables were unusual and men resorted to eating ‘Julienne’ which was dried pieces of various meats. ‘Machonochies’ was tinned meat that also contained some potato and other vegetables. Army cooks prepared the food each day, usually in big iron pots, and the soldiers ate from tin plates. The catering staff would make their way along the trenches, handling out pots of grub, sometimes in the midst of attack. When the shooting disrupted the transport of food, soldiers would sometimes go for days with little to eat other than biscuits and tea. Sometimes a soldier would receive a food parcel from his family in Australia – a cause for much celebration.
The troops would commonly eat Anzac
Biscuits. The hardtack biscuits became notorious.
Food for soldiers in the trenches was abundant but very plain. They ate tinned fruit, stew, a type of tined corned beef known as bully beef, rock-hard army biscuits called Anzac Biscuits, jam and sometimes bread. Vegetables were unusual and men resorted to eating ‘Julienne’ which was dried pieces of various meats. ‘Machonochies’ was tinned meat that also contained some potato and other vegetables. Army cooks prepared the food each day, usually in big iron pots, and the soldiers ate from tin plates. The catering staff would make their way along the trenches, handling out pots of grub, sometimes in the midst of attack. When the shooting disrupted the transport of food, soldiers would sometimes go for days with little to eat other than biscuits and tea. Sometimes a soldier would receive a food parcel from his family in Australia – a cause for much celebration.
The troops would commonly eat Anzac
Biscuits. The hardtack biscuits became notorious.
Sick and Wounded
During the Anzacs’ time in Gallipoli, disease was known to be widespread. Soldiers lived in trenches filled with stagnant water and insufficient sanitation. They were inflicted with flies, lice, mosquitos and rats along with the rotting, empty food tins and innumerable dead bodies piled across the area between the trenches. The soldiers had to endure seeing the spiteful rats devour on the decomposed flesh of the decaying comrades. In the hot summer of Gallipoli, the soldiers also had to struggle with the swarms of flies. These flies weren’t only annoying but they were also the main source of disease as they spent half their time on the rotten leftover food and human excrement and the other half of their time on open wounds and decaying corpses. This encouraged infestations of maggots. Thousands of men were evacuated, suffering from dysentery, diarrhoea and enteric fever.
The powerful smell caused by conditions in the trenches was almost unbearable, particularly in the warmer months. Several truces were made to enable soldiers from both sides to bury their dead. The corpses were often left to rot in ‘no man’s land.’ Gallipoli was worse than any of the soldiers had imagined and was certainly not a holiday for the Anzacs. |
Ambulance men carry fellow soldiers suffering from trench foot, to a transport that will take them to hospital tents.
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"Countless hordes of flies settled on everything edible. The soldiers waved them off. The black cloud rose and descended among the filth on the other side of the parapet. Presently they were back again on the food,—and so on, from the jam to the corpse, and back again to the jam, flitted the insect swarm, ensuring that the germs of most things undesirable were conveyed to the soldier's system through his mouth."
Fred Waite, The New Zealanders at Gallipoli, 1919
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/the-gallipoli-campaign/conditions
Fred Waite, The New Zealanders at Gallipoli, 1919
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/the-gallipoli-campaign/conditions