Winter

[burlington]

The recent moderate cold spell (in the UK but appreciating that many readers come from different climes), makes me wonder how the troops coped in the depth of winter.

Mufflers, gloves, scarves, stoves and so on apart, at the end of the day they had to perform as soldiers. In the freeze how did they do this?

OK if you look at wars in history, all stopped in the autumn and resumed in the spring, and ceased at harvest time.

WW1 was different. Apart from the so-called truce at Christmas 1914, war continued unabated.

Perhaps my 'old' bones are thinking about what would they feel like if I was in this situation.

Any comments?

[Max]

During WW2 my Grandfather was in 71st Anti Tank, 53rd (Welsh) Div.

During the winter of 1944-45 the Division was engaged in operations in and around the Ardenne. Apparently the winter was bitter. He kept warm by wearing a Noel Coward style quilted dressing gown (that he had "liberated" from somewhere ) under his battle dress. He said it saved his life.

Andy

[paul guthrie]

There were places it was much worse, all of the eastern front was bad but the Carpathians may have been the worst. The battles in the Caucasus in January 1915? were terrible. The Serbs had to go through the mountains of Albania when they were defeated in 1915, real bad. The war in ALpine Italy saw death by avalanche of many.

[Muerrisch]

WW1 was different. Apart from the so-called truce at Christmas 1914, war continued unabated.

Not really; there was a marked downturn in offensive operations by both sides each winter. Edmund Blunden uses an historic quotation to describe this: a chapter headed "Caesar went into winter quarters". Of course trench warfare continued [by the way, there was a sketchy Christmas Truce in 1915 also] but in trenches it was possible, enemy permitting, to have a degree of comfort, frequent reliefs, hot food and a change of socks, especially in the best units where officers cared for their men, and where the men were capable of caring for themselves. As an example, Trench Foot was kept to a minimum in units with high morale.

[Tom Morgan]

LangleyB is right - operations were scaled down somewhat during the worst of the winter months. Many soldiers found that some aspects of life were actually better in the freezing weather because the mud froze and although very cold, it was easier to move around. The winter of 1916/17 was very severe and one victim was my grandfather, who was sent home with frostbitten hands. How they endured the conditions I don't know. They were just tougher than us, I guess. Or maybe it was just pointless complaining.

Tom

[Guest Pete Wood]

Please don't forget the poor blighters in Gallipoli.

In November the troops had been sweltering in the heat, with their food covered in thousands of flies.

In December of 1915, they suffered flash floods and bitter snowstorms which caused troops on both sides to drown (!!) and for some men to literally freeze to death. All their 'warm kit' had been packed or had been shipped off to Egypt in preperation for the evacuation.

There was also more chance of being wounded, on all fronts, by frozen lumps of mud being hurled up by exploding shells.....

[Thomas]

Didn't the troops also get lectures on how to prevent trench foot and frost bite? They were also told to rub whale blubber in to their feet.

[Malcolm]

Having just been outside where it's -6C and ffffrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeezing, I cannot image being in a trench let alone handling a rifle. Maybe - no --They were a diffferent breed in those days.

Aye

Malcolm

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

The war would soon stop where I live. -40 at times in January and up to 192 inches of snow from December through April. Who would want to fight in that. Any Russian Front re-enactors out there?

Ralph

[Robert Dunlop]

While large scale operations may have been scaled down on the Western Front during Winter, the daily life of most individual soldiers was rarely interrupted by battles anyway, even at the height of the season. There was always a steady trickle of killed, died of wounds and wounded on any day of the year. Snipers, 'hates' and other potentially lethal daily occurences continued largely unabated. I was reminded of this when reading Sulzbach's book 'With the German Guns: Four Years on the Western Front' (ISBN 1 84415 019 4). So the fear of death for the individual soldier did not subside.

I have to agree that the Caucasus campaigns have to be the most brutal examples of winter fighting. Quite extraordinary, both the Turkish attack on Sarakamis and then subsequently the Russians attack on Erzurum. Not just those who froze to death but the numbers of men who were left with the disabling consequences of frostbite. Apparently, the latter were to be found in the many villages of the Caucasus for some years afterwards.

Robert

[egbert]

How the troops coped in the depth of winter?

Booze, unbelievable amounts of booze!!!! I read it in all the various accounts, diaries, postwar books. BOOZE!!! It doesn't help really but at least makes a warm feeling for a couple of minutes. After that your toes had been frozen.....

[jhill]

Soldiers were always asking for warm clothes from home. Knitting circles were set up in every town where ladies would knit socks for the lads. Apparently, army issue gear was not thought adequate.

The rum issue was a physcological life line, depite the fact that the modern medical establishment is unanimous that alcohol the just about the worst thing one can put into people outdoors in cold temperatures.

Presumably, the men spent more time in dugouts in cold weather. There was a variety of portable cookers and stoves that were used to take off the chill. I have seen operational orders stipulating that men were to carry solidified alcohol fuel.

Yes, they grew a different type of men in those days.

[Broznitsky]

I have worked outdoors in -30 and -40 (Celsius or Fahrenheit, at these temperatures it's just cold!), and can't imagine what it might have been like to try to fight and survive day after day, night after night in such conditions.

When it was that cold, we jumped out of the truck, worked for about 5 or 10 minutes, jumped back in for 15 or 20 minutes, and repeated the process. The Russians, Italians, Germans, Austrians, and others never had this luxury, in both great wars.

Peter (shivering)

[mordac]

The thought of being in the trenches in weather under 0ºC or 32ºF is bad enough, but the thought of being a member of a kilted battalion/regiment under those conditions is mind numbing ...

Garth

[David E I Jones]

A colleague visited Ypres for the first time yesterday. He was interested to see the layout and construction of a trench. So after work off we went to the Yorkshire Trench. I found it an enlightening experience to be there for the first time at night.

It was dark but with a full or nearly full moon. Visibility was surprisingly good, silhouettes recognisable at some distance! Secondly it was very cold. We had the benefit of modern synthetic clothing and became numb quickly, handling equipment or a weapon would have been trying at the very best. At worst not possible.

All very obvious, yes we all know it’s going to be cold, uncomfortable and difficult in a trench. It made me realise just how much I am unable to grasp how it must have been. I was not in fear of my life and after half an hour I returned to town to a hot meal and a beer or two.

As a relative newcomer to the study of the First War I have realised the more I learn the less I comprehend, but the respect and admiration keeps growing! I’m sure it’s a process you have all been through I apologise for stating what is very obvious. I just found it tremendously humbling.

Dave

[burlington]

As a relative newcomer to the study of the First War I have realised the more I learn the less I comprehend, but the respect and admiration keeps growing! I’m sure it’s a process you have all been through I apologise for stating what is very obvious. I just found it tremendously humbling

Dave

I think this happens to us all, all the time.

[Muerrisch]

Didn't the troops also get lectures on how to prevent trench foot and frost bite? They were also told to rub whale blubber in to their feet.

Yes indeed. Units with a good CO, good officers and good NCOs avoided the worst effects by application of iron discipline. Even 'policing up fag butts' and proper disposal of body wastes was part of the [these days] unfashionable 'bull', which taught a soldier that to be clean whenever possible, to shave whenever possible, to have a clean weapon and generally look after himself was to be a good soldier. The so-called pampered and privileged officers of such units were very hard-worked, and were taught to look after the horses, the men, and themselves, in that order. The indignities of inspecting feet had a very sound purpose!

[dycer]

The Winter of 1916 from the 8th Royal Scots in the European War.

"The weather was wretched,and the mud of the best.The latter was rich,deep and clinging,and so loving that frquently a man gave his boots to get rid of it.The long walk through twisting trenchings,knee-deep in mud,taxed all ranks to the utmost,so it is not surprising that sick parade became popular.The enemy objected to the Battalion's camp,and shelled it frequently,and often at night Companies would meet other Companies mole-hunting in trenches close by."

This was the Courcelette Sector in early December and it would seem the Unit Historian had not lost his sense of humour!

[BMoorhouse]

On the subject of the freezing cold winter of 1916...

In memory of Private Benjamin Gaylard, from Stoke-under-Ham, Somerset (7th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry) - found sitting up dead in a trench with his feet frozen - died 14th December 1916.

Brendon Moorhouse.

[Stuart Brown]

Did this originate from the Great War or was it just things that children did?

They were called "Winter Warmers" basically a coal fire in a tin can.

This might sound crazy but it is true. In the mid 1950s the boys on the street where I lived used to make fires in tin cans in winter, no , not every day, but when the urge came I suppose. Take a tin can about the volume of one pint of liquid, bash some holes in it, tie a piece of wire to make a (very) long handle, make a fire in in the tin (wood and coal) and when it needed a boost of oxygen whirl it around in a vertical circle until the fire gained a hold . We must have been mad but they were definitely called "Winter warmers". I would love to know the origin of this craze.

[Annette Burgoyne]

I have seen it recorded that the winter of 1916 on the Somme was the worse the 6/K.S.L.I. had spent, worse then Ypres. The men suffered very badly from the cold, they used to huddle together in little groups against the sides of the trenches, to get what little warmth they could get from each other.

There is a funny little story in Captain Dugdale's book. He and his batman were the last to leave the trenches on relieve, on the way out they came across a chap stuck in a shell hole.

The chap stuck in the shell hole shouted.

"Give us a hand, mate. I can't move in this ------- mud."

The two men tried to get him out.

"Something's caught", he yelled.

They finally managed to pull him free, falling over in the process.

Dugdale wrote

We roared with laughter. Poor devil. He had left his breeches, pants, and everything else in the mud; he stood in his shirt.

"What are you going to do now ?" laughed the sergeant-major.

"Don't you worry about me Sir." he replied. I shall get back to billets if I have to crawl the whole ------- way "

Annette

[Malcolm]

The thought of being in the trenches in weather under 0ºC or 32ºF is bad enough, but the thought of being a member of a kilted battalion/regiment under those conditions is mind numbing ...

Garth

Stramgely enough a kilt keeps the kidneys warmer than trousers and tunic ........ but their knees must have been something else. In a diary, I'm trying to persuade a High School to put on the web, about the winter of 1914 - 15, the writer mentions putting his legs in an old oatmeal sack for warmth, sitting in his ' niche ' with an old biscuit tin lid for a table. He also mentions a goatskin jacket.

Aye

Malcolm

[michaeldr]

As someone else has already pointed out, a lot depended upon efficiency of the officers in the care of their men. The 6th South Lancs at Suvla on Gallipoli during the great blizzard managed to construct braziers out of biscuit tins, get fires going and provide hot meals for their men. They suffered no deaths due to exposure, however others were not so lucky. Capt H. Whalley-Kelly mentions over 5000 cases of frostbite and more than 200 men drowned or frozen to death. He also refers to an unofficial truce.

One other remedy on offer mentioned elsewhere [7th North Staffs] was the provision of whale oil which was to be applied to the feet every day.

Details from Westlake

Regards

Michael D.R.

[Somme1916]

Spending time in the “field” during the winter does take some getting used to. You’ve got to acclimate yourself to the climate, just like you would do for the heat of the desert or the thin air of the Andes Mountains. The longer you spend outside the more accustomed your body becomes to the new environment. Troops that had been serving in the trenches for many weeks, months or years were constantly exposed to the changing elements and their bodies adjusted as the seasons changed. It would have been much harder for new drafts or persons returning from long stays in hospital etc to acclimate to harsh winter conditions if suddenly they found themselves trust into the front lines in mid Feb than if they’d been out as the seasons changed.

Of course it’s not all acclimatization, good cloths help and a place to get somewhat warm, like a dug out or a small charcoal fire in a wind sheltered traverse etc goes along way to keeping you alive. Warm food makes a big difference as well, when you can get it. Also soldiers learn what we in the U.S. Army call “field craft”. It’s the art of keeping one’s self alive and functional while out campaigning. The old salts teach the new pups the tricks and they in turn pass it along. That’s why in “All Quite, Western Front” the old hands were assigned to the new platoons, to teach them field craft.

Anyone who works outside all year round, even in the civilian world, experiences acclimatization to some degree or another. Just look at the construction workers, farmers, and postmen, they keep working despite some of the most brutal weather. It’s the same thing just on a lesser scale (no snipers, shelling, raids etc). For those who live sheltered lives being outside during times of extreme temperature change is very hard in deed because they/we are used to the climate controlled environments of our homes, cars and work places. The few minutes we spend running from one to the other aren’t enough time to get acclimated and thus it seems so far beyond our pale to understand how people can live and function under such conditions.

All the best mates, keep warm!

Jon

Captain, U.S. Army

[Tim Birch]

How they endured the conditions I don't know.  They were just tougher than us, I guess.

Tom

Don't forget that the climate was generally a lot colder in those days prior to the current effects of global warming. People were used to severe winters with frequent snow and frozen rivers and ponds in Britain.

Another factors were that horse drawn carriages were unheated and often open, as were motor buses, there was no central heating nor double glazing in houses, and unless you had a servant to heat up water for you or were prepared to do it yourself, you washed in a basin of cold water. The temperature in a house could fall to well below freezing once the fire went out and apart from being sheltered from wind chill there was little difference between being outside or in other than in the evening when there was a fire in the grate. Factory shop floors were unheated, as were most offices, unless there was a fire grate.

Labourers worked out of doors rather than in the heated cabs of today's JCBs, and walked to work in all weather conditions. Where possible brasiers were lit on building sites or in the trenches to give temporary relief, but it was only temporary.

Consequently men from a population toughened to cope with cold winters found nothing unusual about winters in the trenches, and were reasonably content provided they could stay dry, keep out of the wind and had a greatcoat or blanket to wrap round them.

Tim