Lice

[Old Forge]

How long does it take to become verminous? Specifically, for Seventh Division troops landing 6th-7th October 1914 at Zeebrugge, able to wash/shave and possibly change clothes up to about 14th October, how many days before they start scratching? From 14th October (when the Division arrived in Ypres), the pace began to quicken, and especially from 21st October when the German push west began in earnest. It's a slightly obscure question, granted … but when might lice have become a common problem?

[KGB]

Troops became "chatty" after a few weeks. 

[Old Forge]

1 hour ago, KGB said:

Troops became "chatty" after a few weeks. 

 

Thanks @KGB , I rather thought 'weeks' might come into it   I'm wondering (very roughly), how many of them? I don't recall hearing of peacetime soldiers suffering from lice on exercise - I guess 2-3 weeks might be the longest without normal facilities. Perhaps lice were more prevalent 100 years ago, around horses, more rough-and-ready households and farms etc. I don't recall seeing mention of them in memoirs of First Ypres - but then, they had other things on their minds...

[HenryTheGerman]

Lifetime cycle of lice: Breeding time of the eggs is about 8 to 10 days, the hatched larvae are developing within 10 days (undergoing three moults) to adults.

Lice were everywhere in the trenches, clothes, quarters. Adults migrated quickly from one man to others.

 

My grandfather who was a 2nd Lt (10. Magdeburger Husar, observer and recce), on April 25., 2018 wrote to his parents from his observation post "Bayernschloß" (White Chateau) near The Bluff, Ypres:

„Ich habe zu meinen großen gewöhnlichen, beinahe schon bodenständigen Läusen noch die kleine rote englische Sorte bekommen, sie beißen noch einmal so stark. Heute Nacht habe ich kaum schlafen können.“
Translation: „In addition to my big, ordinary, almost down-to-earth lice, I got the little red English variety, they bite even twice as much. I could hardly sleep tonight.”

 

Tte agressive lice were the revenge of the British for the initial successes of the Germans during Operation Michael where in the Allied trenches my grandfather came over British clothes: Shirts, coats, trousers, rubber boots. He had almost no chothing and was happy to be able to fall back on his enemies' goods.

 

Regards

 

Heinrich

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

I suppose that it's natural for each side to blame the other. 'Twas ever thus. Very interestingly, assuming that you mean April 25 1918, not 2018 (I'm glad it's not just me that makes that error when on auto-pilot!), just 5 days earlier than the date of your grandfather's letter, on April 20 1918, when my granddad's unit had taken over some German trenches in the Gommecourt area, the entry in his diary is:

Developed a rotten cold and felt very groggy. The dug outs were rather dirty and it was rather difficult to keep clean – “friends!” were prevalent. I suppose the Boche had left them and as they hadn’t had much to feed on for some time – they made hay while the sun shone.

As you will understand, by "friends" my grandfather means "lice", and what he says about having taken over German trenches at a time when the British were generally in retreat during the Spring Offensive is explained thus:

[We were] in a Sector to the right of the BUCQUOY Sector. Our front ran from ROSSIGNOL WOOD to a point 400 yds E. of BIEZ WOOD … The Batt HQ was in a dug out on the left of the GOMMECOURT – PUISIEUX-au-MONT Road on the SE side of the village ...The Front line followed roughly the BUCQUOY – HEBUTERNE Road … The positions taken up had been the German trenches when No Man’s Land lay between FONQUEVILLERS and GOMMECOURT WOOD in JUNE 1916. The old front line of the enemy, now formed the reserve line [and] consisted of well revetted deep trenches with eighteen inches of mud on the old duck-boards. The old German Front line facing HEBUTERNE was now a communication trench to our front line (for the German front line here originally faced SW and was in 1916 the most Westerly point of the German line). His original reserve lines, now formed our Front line, [and] were shallow trenches, lacking in revetment, fire steps, barbed wire defences and anything in the shape of localities or strong points. Work was concentrated on these deficiencies. The old German light railway from Gommecourt Park to Biez wood was soon put in working order and used for carrying water, rations, RE material, and Ammunition. There were several tunnelled dug outs in the wood – stretching from one side to the other, these being a fine example of German thoroughness. Our Battalion HQ was a fine place all wood lined, with separate cubicles, evidently it had been a Batt HQ in 1916. The mess room was lined with oak panels evidently removed from the Chateau by the Boche and the seats round had one time been pews in the village church. It was a bit dirty, but we soon made change and had it looking like home! At any rate a trench home.

[Old Forge]

Thanks @HenryTheGerman and @A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy, all good stuff. I'll keep hunting to see if I can find how long it took before lice affected the original BEF - I suspect it took longer than it would for those following later, when lice were firmly established in the trenches. 

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

Apologies, Old Forge, because I know this isn't really what you are interested in, but is there any way in which lice could have survived in abandoned dugouts from June 1916 to April 1918, or was my grandfather merely being fanciful?

[IPT]

I'm not a lice-ologist, but i'm sure they need a host to survive.

[Steven Broomfield]

11 hours ago, IPT said:

I'm not a lice-ologist, but i'm sure they need a host to survive.

 

Not necessarily: eggs of various parasites will hibernate. My understanding, from many years in animal welfare, is that flea eggs will last some little while without a host, living quite happily in bedding, carpets, soft furnishings, etc. Our advice to cat and dog owners was always to ensure flea infestations were treated not only by spraying/treating the host animal, but also by treating the rest of the house. I daresay there would be old items of clothing, bedding, etc, in a disused dugout that would happily provide a decent habitat for a hibernating louse egg.

[HenryTheGerman]

@@A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy,

yes, 1918, of course. - Isn't it great that we have such intersting letters and diary reports from our grandfathers? Very interesting what your granddad wrote about the German trenches and dugouts. - Yes, it seem to had been natural for both parties to blame the other one. My grandfather had many prejudicies , he was a strong nationalist but he always respected the opponents and behaved chivalrous.

When your granddad entered the abandoned German trenches, the German "friends" that he met certainly were of the ordinary down-to-earth subspecie .

As far as I know, adult lice do not survive longer than 2 or 3 days without a living host.

 

Regard

 

Heinrich

[kenf48]

On 06/06/2020 at 15:20, Old Forge said:

It's a slightly obscure question, granted … but when might lice have become a common problem?

 

Medical Diseases of the Great War (OH) , does not unfortunately give a specific answer to your original question but there is little doubt the medical authorities were awar of the problem from the outset.

 

It does however discuss the prevalence of lice and the diseases caused by lice and dirt, which it notes accounted for nearly 50 per cent of admissions (to medical facilities) and were largely preventable by good sanitary hygiene.  Lice were carriers of typhus which was largely avoided on the Western Front though the OH goes into some detail as to the prevalence of the disease on other fronts, notably the Serbian epidemic of 1915.  Apart from skin diseases and connective tissue the part played by lice in 'trench fever' was not identified until much later in 1917.

 

In the preamble it is stated, "Although measures to exterminate lice were pursued energetically from an early stage in the war, and the means of disinfestation constantly increased, it was not until the trench fever committee reported the infection was carried by lice that the sanitary branch received the full equipment and facilities of which it had long been desirous."

 

The OH gives further information on the life cycle and the environment where the species thrive and devotes a whole chapter to 'trench fever', often diagnosed as the frequently seen 'pyrexia of unknown origin'.  There is a certain contemporary resonance as many doctors and nurses contracted the disease, which was also carried into the back areas by those attending various courses etc.

 

'Medical Diseases' can be accessed online https://archive.org/details/medicalservicesd01macpuoft/page/n5/mode/2up

 

As can the general medical history, but I think you have to dig a little deeper to find any references to lice.  Perhaps the war diaries?

 

 

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

HenrytheGerman, I agree that we are very lucky to have our grandfathers' writings. I have got to know my grandfather's thoughts and what sort of man he was better through his diaries than I knew him in life, as he died when I was 11.

Sometimes his view of "the enemy" seems very simplistic (maybe it had to be), but, as you will see from the extract I have quoted in my earlier post, he could also admire certain German characteristics, just as your grandfather "respected the opponents".. Interestingly, in my grandfather's case, the more simplistic outlook seems to predominate earlier in his diary, while a more nuanced opinion seems to have emerged later on. I might have expected that, as he saw his friends killed, his views might have developed into a more hardened prejudice, but that does not seem to have happened.

Whatever the type of lice he encountered (hopefully the more ordinary less vicious type!) I think he must have been wrong to blame the Germans, unless, just possibly, the lice had survived on, say, rats, which, according to the World Health Organisation, would not be "normal". This is what the WHO says:

The three species [that is to say, head lice, body lice, and pubic lice] live only on humans (not normally on animals) and feed on human blood; the life cycle has three stages: egg, nymph and adult (Fig. 4.16). Development from egg to adult takes about two weeks. The white eggs (called nits) are glued to a hair or, in the case of the body louse, to fine threads on clothes. The nymphs are similar to the adults but much smaller. Fully grown lice are up to 4.5 mm long and feed by sucking blood. Feeding occurs several times a day. Lice can only develop in a warm environment close to human skin, and die within a few days if they lose contact with the human body. They are normally spread by contact, e.g. in overcrowded sleeping quarters and other crowded living conditions.

[HenryTheGerman]

@A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy,

you are right, and it is quite logical that your grandfather - and mine likewise - hat a more simpplistic view of the other party. Even if no man's land was between them, and they had to fight against each other instead of to talk to each other, they learned about and from each other.

Regarding lice, my grandfather once in 1918 had to undergo a delousing treatment in Kalisz, Poland. In the location where the "lausoleum" was in operation, there was a guest book, and my grandfather copied out a number of funny poems being written in it by some visitors. Unfortunately the humor falls by the wayside when these rhymes are being translated. But for the ones who have some knowledge of German let me copy one of the poems in here:

 

Lausoleum Kalisch

Hurrah, Es soll die Klause leben,
Wo so viel tote Läuse kleben.
Tritt froh hinein in dieses Haus
Hier lebt der Mensch, hier stirbt die Laus.
Zermalmet sie, zermalmet sie,
nicht eher wird es and‘rs allhie!
(Trotz Lausoleum)

Ob Kanonier, ob General
Er wird entlaust, s‘ist ganz egal.
Ob Ungar, Türke oder Preuße,
herunter müssen alle Läuse!
Doch sollt ein Mal der Kaiser kommen,
Wird der hier auch wohl vorgenommen?

Der Mensch lebt nicht vom Brot allein,
Er muß auch ohne Läuse sein.
Mehr Feinden gab ich hier den Rest
als auf der Front in Ost und West.

Hier liegt die Laus in letzten Zügen,
hier stirbt die Wanze, stirbt der Floh
Und wie wir sie hier unterkriegen,
Geht‘s draußen unsren Feinden so.
 

Wo man laust, da laß‘ dich ruhig nieder,
Bist Du raus aus Kalisch, kriegste Läuse wieder.

 

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

Thank you HenrytheGerman. I do not read German myself, but a friend has roughly translated the poem for me. I'm sure that the humour  loses something in translation, but I think that we have got the general sentiment.

[NigelS]

On 11/06/2020 at 12:15, kenf48 said:

Medical Diseases of the Great War (OH) , does not unfortunately give a specific answer to your original question but there is little doubt the medical authorities were awar of the problem from the outset.

 

and probably before: I doubt that the little so & so's weren't around during the Crimea and probably in most military campaigns long, long before that, although possibly prior to the  improvements in social conditions in Victorian times living with lice would have been a fact-of-life for everyone - well at least the lower classes - not just those serving in the army, that wouldn't usually have warranted comment.

 

NigelS

[kenf48]

2 hours ago, NigelS said:

 

and probably before: I doubt that the little so & so's weren't around during the Crimea and probably in most military campaigns long, long before that, although possibly prior to the  improvements in social conditions in Victorian times living with lice would have been a fact-of-life for everyone - well at least the lower classes - not just those serving in the army, that wouldn't usually have warranted comment.

 

NigelS

 

The human is the only host for the louse, no more so than amongst the recruits in K1 as recorded by J.H.M. Staniforth, Oxford educated he joined the Connaught Rangers in September 1914 and described his fellow recruits as 'blind drunk...about a dozen seedy, ragged.lousy,unshaven tramps...'.   The Army were well aware lice thrived in dirty, overcrowded conditions, which is a description of trench warfare.

 

By the turn of the century epidemic outbreaks of typhus in the U.K. had largely been eradicated.  There were still outbreaks, Liverpool and Glasgow suffered, but access to clean water for washing clothes and bodies had turned the tide against the blighters. 

[Old Forge]

Thanks all, some fascinating information emerging. I now understand that the common louse has a symbiotic relationship with humans. Whilst the trenches would later offer a perfect breeding ground for them, in the opening months of the war infection rates may perhaps have been slower, since (with exceptions) most reservists would have turned up for duty lice free. My hypothesis is that the most likely route for infection in Flanders circa October-November 1914 would be from lice infected farm buildings and houses. Once the trench lines cohered, the trenches themselves would be verminous and infection/reinfection would be swift for the remainder of the war.