By Michael De Paola
Trench Warfare
Conditions:
Trench Warfare was to most soldiers Hell on Earth. Low amounts of food water and sleep take a toll on the human body. Sometimes these battles take days weeks or months. Since the enemy usually shot artillery at the enemy for long amounts of time you were never a loud to leave the trenches if the shells were going off in your area since the trenches were many miles long. Being under stressful and loud environments like that for sometimes 24 hours at a time is very damaging to the body and especially the mind causing P.T.S.D. or Shell Shock.
Food & Water:
The human body cant go that long without food or water. The human body can go roughly 3-4 days without water and a few weeks without food (number varies). In conditions without much food and water can put a lot of stress on the body. Many times soldier would go days without food, puting them in great pain and in a state of weakness. This can also cause stress on the mind. Stess on the mind will resu;t to stress o the nervous system, causing P.T.S.D. or Shell-shock.
Roughly 1,300,00 casualties for Great Britain in WW1. That is counting everything. From deaths to sprained ankles. Anything that would put someone out of the war. 80,000 of these were from mental or nerve related injuries. Most of these illnesses happened or were reported on the western front, where trench warfare was most common. One third of all casualties in the entire war was from PTSD or shell shock.
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