in the history of the human race, in which over 40

million military men and civilians died.

The life of a trench soldier was a living hell.

They endured disease, hunger, rats, horrific smells,

corpses everywhere.

And most importantly, they had to come

to terms with the reality that they could die at any moment.

Today we're going to find out what

it was like to be a World War I trench soldier.

But before we do, be sure to subscribe to the Weird History

Channel.

And let us know what historical events you

would like to hear about.

Now, on to the trenches.

From October, 1914, to March, 1918, British, French, German,

Russian, and Ottoman forces fought in trenches,

an interconnected series of muddy paths

dug about seven feet deep and six feet wide into the ground

at the front lines the battlegrounds.

While the trenches gave soldiers cover and protection from enemy

fire, they also, ironically, were

the cause of many deaths due to their sewer-like conditions.

When you hear about the trenches of World War I,

you might envision a bunch of crudely dug walkways.

But these trenches had a purposeful, strategic design.

The Allies and the Central Powers

designed their trenches as a defense mechanism.

Aggressive, heavy weapons forced both sides to hunker down.

So trenches became a way to hold a line without making

soldiers vulnerable.

The trenches were also dug in zigzags and curves, which

created corners and corridors, giving soldiers better vantage

points and hiding spots.

Those zigzag patterns kept infiltrating enemies

from jumping into the trench and wiping out everyone in sight.

And these trenches all served a different purpose.

Some trenches served as holding corrals

for troops on R&R. Some trenches were for supply storage.

And other trenches were for waste.

Something about being covered in soupy mud is fun.

People pay good money to get slathered in organic mud

at fancy day spas in the name of healthier skin.

But during World War I, prolonged exposure

to flooded, muddy trenches could cause trench foot.

You could lose your toes-- or worse, your feet.

Trench foot was so rampant and commonplace,

it impacted roughly 75,000 British soldiers alone.

It was also discovered in World War I

that soldiers gave each other regular foot inspections.

The men would be paired up in twos,

and each partner made responsible

for the feet of the other.

And they would generally apply whale oil

in an effort to prevent trench foot, that could happen

under all cold, wet conditions.

As a matter of fact, some concertgoers

were reported to have developed trench foot at the Glastonbury

Festivals, the Leeds Festivals, and Download Festivals

as a result of the consistent cold, wet, and muddy conditions

at those events.

Even though advanced medical techniques

meant that doctors were better equipped

to manage the health of soldiers in World War I

than they had been in previous conflicts,

it was still common for soldiers to simply get sick and die.

The cold, damp, and unsanitary conditions in the trenches

did nothing to fortify soldiers.

And the unforgiving elements made them prone to illness.

Lice circulated in the trenches and spread maladies

like trench fever.

And it wasn't uncommon for soldiers

to wake up finding rats eating their rations--

or them.

Yes, the rats were so bold they'd take bites

out of sleeping soldiers.

And let's not forget that the trenches were the breeding

ground for one of the deadliest outbreaks in history,

the influenza pandemic of 1918.

Due to World War I, soldiers' already low immune systems,

weakened by malnourishment as well as the stresses of combat

and chemical attacks, their susceptibility to the disease

was imminent.

World War I changed on April 22, 1915,

when German forces shocked Allied soldiers

along the Western Front by firing more than 150 tons

of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions

at Ypres, Belgium.

The United States, which entered World War I in 1917,

also developed and used chemical weapons.

Future President Harry S. Truman was the captain of a US field

artillery unit that fired poison gas against the Germans

in 1918.

All in, approximately 100,000 tons of chemical weapons

were used in World War I, injuring around 500,000 troops

and killing nearly 30,000 men, including 2,000 Americans.

Gas attacks were terrifying.

It was a new level of warfare that no one was expecting.

A gas attack could severely injure or end

anyone unlucky enough to come into proximity with it.

It also could depend on how the breeze was blowing

at that particular time.

Soldiers weren't in the trenches 24/7 for months on end.

Soldiers actually only spent between one and seven

days at a time in the trenches, in close reserve, and at rest.

This process limited the amount of time

a soldier spent in the bleak trenches.

And the rotation was incredibly important in managing

their stress.

"Rest" could be a misnomer, though.

If regiments were understaffed, soldiers

were usually recruited to expand and repair the trenches.

On the other end of the spectrum,

some soldiers also took advantage of their time

away from the trenches by visiting brothels.

By 1918, 1 million French soldiers

had been treated for STIs.

Front-line soldiers, who were forced

to confront death and violence for days on end,

naturally developed damaging psychological wounds.

The high-stress climate of the trench warfare

led to extreme anxiety and panic attacks,

though medical and military officials used terms

like "shell shock" to describe what was happening,

which is now what we call post-traumatic stress disorder.

Many soldiers who had shell shock

were sent to convalescent homes to recuperate.

As a matter of fact, the term "shell shocked"

was coined during World War I. Some soldiers that

suffered from the condition were put on trial,

and even executed for military crimes,

including desertion and cowardice.

Think about it.

266 British soldiers were executed

for desertion, 18 for cowardice, seven

for quitting a post without authority,

five for disobedience to a lawful command,

and two for casting away arms, all because no one knew

how to handle PTSD.

Trench food was a big thing during World War I. Naturally,

it was horrible.

But it was important to keep the troops going.

The British Army alone employed 300,000 field workers

to cook and supply the food.

The men's diet was made up of small rations

of boiled beef, bacon, vegetables, and bread,

although it could take up to eight days for the bread

to reach the trenches.

And by then, it was stale.

But crafty soldiers solved the stale bread dilemma

on their own by tearing the hard loaves up, adding potatoes,

onions, raisins, or whatever else was available,

and boiling the mixture in a sandbag.

By the winter of 1916, flour was in such short supply

the bread was being made with dried, ground turnips.

And the main meal was now a pea soup

with a few lumps of horse meat.

Soldiers may have had to deal with crappy food.

But the one thing they had to look forward to

was the alcohol they received that provided liquid courage

for the men in the trenches.

Even though millions of people perished

and it seemed like there was a new battle every day,

a soldier's life in the trenches was often

spent sitting around, doing nothing

but waiting around for the next volley of gunfire.

It seems like it would be impossible to get bored when

you're surrounded by the enemy.

But boredom was the most common state of being.

And officials and officers knew this.

They were worried that soldiers with nothing to do

would just get into trouble.

So the British military pushed them

to be creative as a way to raise morale.

One of the most memorable British artifacts

to come from the sheer boredom that came with trench life

was producing a trench magazine.

The Wipers Times was one such magazine that soldiers printed.

English soldiers stationed near Ypres--

which they mispronounced as "wipers"--

in Belgium found an old printing press and put it to good use

by publishing their own magazine and circulating it

in the trenches.

The magazine didn't report on the hard news of the war,

though.

It was filled with poems, essays and jokes,

and lampoons of the war they were fighting.

The tone was dark, humorous, and, at times, touching,

like a cross between The Onion and a high school newspaper.

As bad as World War I was, the first Christmas

of World War I, in 1914, brought forth

a spirit of humanity and unity that stood in stark contrast

to life in the trenches.

On Christmas Eve, a chorus of carols

from both British and German trenches

resulted in a tentative truce for the holiday.

Soldiers from opposite sides of No Man's Land

emerged from their trenches and met,

bringing goodwill and makeshift gifts.

It was odd to see French, German,

and British soldiers crossing trenches

into No Man's Land to exchange seasonal greetings and talk.

But there they were--

bartering for cigarettes, playing

football against each other, and exchanging food and souvenirs.

Unfortunately, the peace did not last long.

Fighting resumed the next day.

And the goodwill hardened again into animosity.

The following year, a few units arranged ceasefires

to congregate and retrieve the dead bodies

of their fellow soldiers shot down in No Man's Land.

But the truces weren't nearly as widespread as in 1914,

due in part to orders from those in high command of both sides

prohibiting truces.

One of the most interesting and surprising World War I legacies

was its effect on language.

The blending of soldiers' nationalities,

languages, dialects, accents, and social backgrounds

of the trenches produced an unusual glossary

of military slang.

For example, British soldiers called enemy grenades "potato

mashers," and used the phrase "storm troopers"

to describe soldiers that performed

risky, lightning-fast attacks.

The term "basket case" was another bit of slang

that originated during World War I. "Basket cases" were injured

soldiers who were carried out of the trenches

in long, casket-shaped baskets because of their lost limbs.

"Cooties" is a word that came into play in 1915

from the coot, a type of duck known

for being infested with lice and other parasites.

So would you want to be a trench soldier in World War I?

Let us know in the comments below.

And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos

from our weird history.