Are you looking for the topic “Did they eat rats in the trenches – Deathwatch (2002) – Eaten Alive by Rats Scene (10/11) | Movieclips“? We answer all your questions at the website https://tw.taphoamini.com in category: https://tw.taphoamini.com/photos. You will find the answer right below. The article written by the author Movieclips has 2,747,925 views and 16,277 likes likes.
Table of Contents
Watch a video on the topic Did they eat rats in the trenches
Please continue to watch videos on this topic Did they eat rats in the trenches – Deathwatch (2002) – Eaten Alive by Rats Scene (10/11) | Movieclips here. Look carefully and give us feedback about what you are reading!
Deathwatch (2002) – Eaten Alive by Rats Scene (10/11) | Movieclips – Did they eat rats in the trenches, details of this topic
Deathwatch movie clips: http://j.mp/2jUDebM
BUY THE MOVIE: http://j.mp/2jUJfVR
Don’t miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6pr
CLIP DESCRIPTION:
Pfc. Charlie Shakespeare (Jamie Bell) tries to comfort Pvt. Colin Chevasse (Ruaidhri Conroy), but finds that he’s already too far gone.
FILM DESCRIPTION:
Lost deep in the enemy territory of the western front during World War I, allied soldier Private Charles Shakespeare (Jamie Bell) and eight other British soldiers from the Y Company seek refuge in maze of an abadoned German trench. Winding through the twisting tunnels through piles of corpses and hungry rats, the exhausted soldiers decide to hold thier position and await a rescue team. As the soldiers begin to fall prey to an unseen force, one by one thier numbers dwindle and thier suspicions of one another grow. A young soldier who illegally entered the armed forces at the tender age of sixteen, Private Shakespeare must now summon the courage to face an evil greater than he could ever imagine.
CREDITS:
TM \u0026 © Lionsgate (2002)
Cast: Raidhr Conroy, Jamie Bell
Director: Michael J. Bassett
Producers: Michael Bischoff, Jan Fantl, Caroline Hewitt, Ralph Kamp, Sam Lavender, Dan Maag
Screenwriter: Michael J. Bassett
WHO ARE WE?
The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans, for movie fans.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MOVIE CHANNELS:
MOVIECLIPS: http://bit.ly/1u2yaWd
ComingSoon: http://bit.ly/1DVpgtR
Indie \u0026 Film Festivals: http://bit.ly/1wbkfYg
Hero Central: http://bit.ly/1AMUZwv
Extras: http://bit.ly/1u431fr
Classic Trailers: http://bit.ly/1u43jDe
Pop-Up Trailers: http://bit.ly/1z7EtZR
Movie News: http://bit.ly/1C3Ncd2
Movie Games: http://bit.ly/1ygDV13
Fandango: http://bit.ly/1Bl79ye
Fandango FrontRunners: http://bit.ly/1CggQfC
HIT US UP:
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1y8M8ax
Twitter: http://bit.ly/1ghOWmt
Pinterest: http://bit.ly/14wL9De
Tumblr: http://bit.ly/1vUwhH7
See more information on the topic Did they eat rats in the trenches here:
Why did soldiers eat rats in WW1? – Quora
When rats have access to plenty of food they tend to grow bigger, and in the killing fields and trenches of WW1 they feasted on dead bodies left out in the …
Source: www.quora.com
Date Published: 9/22/2021
View: 1229
Rats and the Trenches of WWI – deBugged – Rentokil
Trench conditions were eal for rats. There was plenty of food, water and shelter. With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food …
Source: www.rentokil.co.uk
Date Published: 3/7/2021
View: 6003
Trench Rats – Spartacus Educational
Another soldier wrote: “The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn’t defend himself.” These rats became very bold and …
Source: spartacus-educational.com
Date Published: 3/15/2022
View: 9707
Vintage: Trench Rats Killed by Terriers During World War I
But efforts to eliminate them proved futile. A single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring a year. Cats and terriers were kept by …
Source: monovisions.com
Date Published: 7/26/2022
View: 4950
Rats in the trenches – World War 1 – 5/6LN – Google Sites
Rats crawled around in the trenches, soldiers tried to kill them and eat them for food because they dn`t have much to eat. Some soldiers hated rats so …
Source: sites.google.com
Date Published: 5/30/2021
View: 2782
Rare photographs capture trench rats killed by Terrier dogs …
The trench soldier of World War I had to cope with millions of rats. The omnipresent rats were attracted by the human waste of war – not simply sewage waste …
Source: rarehistoricalphotos.com
Date Published: 3/13/2021
View: 5699
Trench rats – Wikipedia
Trench rats were rodents that were found around the frontline trenches of World War I. Due to massive amounts of debris, corpses, and a putr environment, …
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Date Published: 10/25/2022
View: 3989
Encyclopedia – Trench Rats – First World War.com
Rats – brown and black – thrived literally in their millions among trenches in most Fronts of the war, be it Eastern, Italian, Gallipoli – but primarily the …
Source: www.firstworldwar.com
Date Published: 2/8/2021
View: 5751
Rats! Vanquishing the Vermin Menace of the Great War
There were some creative responses to the rat problem, with rats treated as ‘small game’ and hunted as a trench sport.
Source: blog.maryevans.com
Date Published: 4/10/2022
View: 9495
Images related to the topic Did they eat rats in the trenches
Please see some more pictures related to the topic Deathwatch (2002) – Eaten Alive by Rats Scene (10/11) | Movieclips. You can see more related images in the comments, or see more related articles if needed.
Rate articles on topics Did they eat rats in the trenches
- Author: Movieclips
- Views: 2,747,925 views
- Likes: 16,277 likes
- Date Published: Mar 14, 2017
- Video Url link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_41AKvC_uGk
What did they eat in trenches?
The ‘trench ration’ was designed to feed a certain number of soldiers. It was used when the food prepared in the field kitchens could be delivered. It included corned beef, sardines, salmon, coffee, salt, sugar and even cigarettes. The ’emergency ration’ included highly caloric aliments, such as chocolate.
How did they get rid of rats in the trenches?
Cats and terriers were kept by soldiers in the frontline trenches to help free them of disease-carrying rats. The terriers were actually very effective in killing rats. There is difference between a cat and a terrier when it comes to rodent control.
What did the rats in the trenches eat?
One pair of rats can produce 880 offspring in a year and so the trenches were soon swarming with them. Robert Graves remarked in his book, Goodbye to All That: “Rats came up from the canal, fed on the plentiful corpses, and multiplied exceedingly.
Did the soldiers eat rats in World War 1?
With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps. The rats grew bigger and bolder and would even steal food from a soldier’s hand. But for some soldiers the rats became their friends. They captured them and kept them as pets, bringing a brief reprisal from the horror which lay all around.
What did soldiers in ww1 eat?
By the First World War (1914-18), Army food was basic, but filling. Each soldier could expect around 4,000 calories a day, with tinned rations and hard biscuits staples once again. But their diet also included vegetables, bread and jam, and boiled plum puddings. This was all washed down by copious amounts of tea.
How did rats affect soldiers in ww1?
Rats and lice tormented the troops by day and night. Oversized rats, bloated by the food and waste of stationary armies, helped spread disease and were a constant irritant. In 1918, doctors also identified lice as the cause of trench fever, which plagued the troops with headaches, fevers, and muscle pain.
Do rats eat human corpse?
Such attacks on humans are rare, though hungry rats do sometimes feed on corpses.
Are bodies still being found from ww1?
More than a century after the Armistice in 1918, the bodies of missing First World War soldiers are still discovered at a rate of one per week beneath the fields of the Western Front, unearthed by farmers’ ploughs and developers’ bulldozers.
Which part of the body would the trench rats eat first?
What part of the body would the rats eat first? The trench rats would eat the soldiers’ eyes first.
How did soldiers get rid of lice in ww1?
The British also developed a combination of naphthalene, creosote, and iodoform made into a paste which could be applied to the seams of uniforms with a good result of eliminating lice in just a few hours.
How big did trench rats get?
Most soldiers who served on the Western Front would later recall how rats grew in boldness, stealing food that had been lain down for just a few moments. Rats would also crawl across the face of sleeping men. As they gorged themselves on food so they grew, with many rats reportedly growing to the size of cats.
How were rats used in war?
Rats. These vermin were more valuable dead than alive. During the Second World War, Allied forces attempted to sabotage German factories by stuffing dead rats with explosive charges. The idea was that a German worker would see the dead rat, and scoop it into the boiler fire for disposal.
What did German soldiers eat in ww2?
| Food Item | Ration I | Ration II |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh vegetables and fruits | 250g (8.8 oz) | 250g (8.8 oz) |
| Potatoes | 320g (11.29 oz) | 320g (11.29 oz) |
| Legumes | 80g (2.8 oz) | 80g (2.8 oz) |
| Pudding powder | 20g (0.70 oz) | 20g (0.70 oz) |
What did ww2 soldiers eat in the trenches?
Soldiers in the Western Front were very critical of the quantity and the quality of food they received. The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), bread and biscuits. By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips.
What did French soldiers eat in ww1?
French soldiers would each day get a 300-gram can of boiled beef; 300 grams of hard biscuits, called “war bread”; 80 grams of sugar; 36 grams of coffee; 50 grams of dried soup; 2 ounces of liquor and 125 grams of chocolate as a treat, according to author Silvano Serventi in his book “La cuisine des tranchees.” Many …
What was food in the trenches like in ww1?
The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), bread and biscuits. By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips. The main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat.
What did soldiers eat for breakfast in trenches?
…
Soldiers food in the trenches.
| 20 ounces of bread | 1/10 gill lime if vegetables not issued |
|---|---|
| 4 ounces of jam | 4 ounces of oatmeal instead of bread |
| ½ ounce of salt | 1 pint of porter instead of rum |
What food did they eat during the war?
- Victory Garden Veggies. People were encouraged to grow their own food. …
- Canned Food. Canned foods were staples in almost every home during World War II. …
- Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. …
- Butter Substitutes. …
- Cottage Cheese. …
- Loaf Food. …
- Woolton Pie. …
- Apple Brown Betty.
What did they drink in the trenches?
The beverages provided from the army command were beer, rum, gin and whisky. Especially the ‘barbed wire whiskies’ were rolled out by the barrel. Whiskies like Old Orkney and 9th Hole and later Johnnie Walker were popular among the troops.
World War I Food: Eating in a Trench
A few months after the beginning of the First World War, it became very clear how complex it would be to provide supplies to troops living and fighting along an endless frontline. The distribution problems were worsened by frequent enemy attacks. Even in a situation difficult like this, it was still necessary to feed soldiers regularly, so that, if not bullets, they could at least survive hunger.
Canned food proved to be the best instrument to feed soldiers when normal rations could not be provided.
Read more
Tin cans could contain a wide variety of aliments: meat, fish, butter, soups, ham etc. Their metallic coating and hermetic closure, not only ensured long keeping, but also protected the content from dirt and poisoning caused by lethal gas (*1). Thanks to these particular features, they were often the last resource (*2), that’s why sometimes it was necessary the permission of a senior officer to open them.
During the years of conflict, the armies of both sides used a huge number of tin cans: even today, after more than a century, rusty remnants of them can be found scattered around the old battlefields.
Notes:
*1: Lethal gas was one of the weapons used by the German Army during the Great War.
*2: Soldiers had to carry in their backpack a few tin cans (at least in theory). In some particularly dangerous situations, their life could depend on them.
Vintage: Trench Rats Killed by Terriers During World War I
The trench soldier of World War I had to cope with millions of rats. The omnipresent rats were attracted by the human waste of war – not simply sewage waste but also the bodies of men long forgotten who had been buried in the trenches and often reappeared after heavy rain or shelling. Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse. Trench conditions were ideal for rats.
Some of these rats grew extremely large. It was not uncommon for rats to start gnawing on the bodies of wounded men who couldn’t defend themselves. Many troops were awakened by rats crawling across their faces. These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men.
Disgusted and often feeling a horror of their presence, soldiers would devise various means of dealing with the rat problem. Although shooting at rats was strictly prohibited – it being regarded as a pointless waste of ammunition – many soldiers nevertheless took pot shots at nearby rats in this manner. Attacking rats with bayonets was also common.
But efforts to eliminate them proved futile. A single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring a year. Cats and terriers were kept by soldiers in the frontline trenches to help free them of disease-carrying rats. The terriers were actually very effective in killing rats.
There is difference between a cat and a terrier when it comes to rodent control. When it comes to cats, even the best mousers only go after one at a time, and they often pause to eat. Generally it can take them days/weeks to deal with an infestation because of this. With a good terrier, they will take care of your rat issues in a matter of hours. They don’t stop to eat. They kill, then move on immediately to the next creature. They don’t play with their prey like cats do. They kill immediately. One terrier will also be much harder for rats to overwhelm as well. They are bigger and stronger than a cat, and their jaws are much bigger. That’s what they were bred, to kill rats.
via Rare Historical Photos
Trench Rats
Trench Rats
Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. If a trench subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. These corpses, as well as the food scraps that littered the trenches, attracted rats. One pair of rats can produce 880 offspring in a year and so the trenches were soon swarming with them.
Robert Graves remarked in his book, Goodbye to All That: “Rats came up from the canal, fed on the plentiful corpses, and multiplied exceedingly. While I stayed here with the Welch. a new officer joined the company and, in token of welcome, was given a dug-out containing a spring-bed. When he turned in that night he heard a scuffling, shone his torch on the bed, and found two rats on his blanket tussling for the possession of a severed hand.”
Soldiers on the Western Front (c. 1916)
George Coppard gave another reason why the rats were so large: “There was no proper system of waste disposal in trench life. Empty tins of all kinds were flung away over the top on both sides of the trench. Millions of tins were thus available for all the rats in France and Belgium in hundreds of miles of trenches. During brief moments of quiet at night, one could hear a continuous rattle of tins moving against each other. The rats were turning them over.”
Some of these rats grew extremely large. Harry Patch claimed that “there were rats as big as cats”. Another soldier wrote: “The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn’t defend himself.” These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men. Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse.
One soldier described finding a group of dead bodies while on patrol: “I saw some rats running from under the dead men’s greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured and from the yawning mouth leapt a rat.”
Trench Rats
Trench Rats
Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. If a trench subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. These corpses, as well as the food scraps that littered the trenches, attracted rats. One pair of rats can produce 880 offspring in a year and so the trenches were soon swarming with them.
Robert Graves remarked in his book, Goodbye to All That: “Rats came up from the canal, fed on the plentiful corpses, and multiplied exceedingly. While I stayed here with the Welch. a new officer joined the company and, in token of welcome, was given a dug-out containing a spring-bed. When he turned in that night he heard a scuffling, shone his torch on the bed, and found two rats on his blanket tussling for the possession of a severed hand.”
Soldiers on the Western Front (c. 1916)
George Coppard gave another reason why the rats were so large: “There was no proper system of waste disposal in trench life. Empty tins of all kinds were flung away over the top on both sides of the trench. Millions of tins were thus available for all the rats in France and Belgium in hundreds of miles of trenches. During brief moments of quiet at night, one could hear a continuous rattle of tins moving against each other. The rats were turning them over.”
Some of these rats grew extremely large. Harry Patch claimed that “there were rats as big as cats”. Another soldier wrote: “The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn’t defend himself.” These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men. Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse.
One soldier described finding a group of dead bodies while on patrol: “I saw some rats running from under the dead men’s greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured and from the yawning mouth leapt a rat.”
Vintage: Trench Rats Killed by Terriers During World War I
The trench soldier of World War I had to cope with millions of rats. The omnipresent rats were attracted by the human waste of war – not simply sewage waste but also the bodies of men long forgotten who had been buried in the trenches and often reappeared after heavy rain or shelling. Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse. Trench conditions were ideal for rats.
Some of these rats grew extremely large. It was not uncommon for rats to start gnawing on the bodies of wounded men who couldn’t defend themselves. Many troops were awakened by rats crawling across their faces. These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men.
Disgusted and often feeling a horror of their presence, soldiers would devise various means of dealing with the rat problem. Although shooting at rats was strictly prohibited – it being regarded as a pointless waste of ammunition – many soldiers nevertheless took pot shots at nearby rats in this manner. Attacking rats with bayonets was also common.
But efforts to eliminate them proved futile. A single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring a year. Cats and terriers were kept by soldiers in the frontline trenches to help free them of disease-carrying rats. The terriers were actually very effective in killing rats.
There is difference between a cat and a terrier when it comes to rodent control. When it comes to cats, even the best mousers only go after one at a time, and they often pause to eat. Generally it can take them days/weeks to deal with an infestation because of this. With a good terrier, they will take care of your rat issues in a matter of hours. They don’t stop to eat. They kill, then move on immediately to the next creature. They don’t play with their prey like cats do. They kill immediately. One terrier will also be much harder for rats to overwhelm as well. They are bigger and stronger than a cat, and their jaws are much bigger. That’s what they were bred, to kill rats.
via Rare Historical Photos
Rats in the trenches
Life in the Trenches > Rats in the trenches Rats crawled around in the trenches, soldiers tried to kill them and eat them for food because they didn`t have much to eat. Some soldiers hated rats so much that they use some sort of trick. I will tell you the name of the trick it is called the cheesy trick. So what you have to do is you have to put a piece of cheese on the end of your bayonet and then you have to wait till a rat comes. When a rat finally comes you have to be ready and quick to get your gun out and shoot the rat then you can finally cook and eat the little rat.This is a picture of all the rats they saw and killed. Sometimes they where sent food from their family. When they have nothing to eat they have to wait for a rat to come so they can kill it and eat it. If they can`t find a rat they will have to be left with an empty tummy. Some soldiers who are in the trenchers fight ever some rats because maybe two soldiers are starving and then only one rat comes so then one of the soldiers will be full up and the other soldier will be still starving. Sometimes the rats get so scared that they get a heart attack! The soldiers were desperate to get rid of the rats. The soldiers in the trenchers tried many different ways to try and kill all of the rats that came along. Then the soldiers would eat most of the rats that they caught if they got full up they would save the rest of the rats till another day.
Rare photographs capture trench rats killed by Terrier dogs, 1916
The trench soldier of World War I had to cope with millions of rats. The omnipresent rats were attracted by the human waste of war – not simply sewage waste but also the bodies of men long forgotten who had been buried in the trenches and often reappeared after heavy rain or shelling.
Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse. Trench conditions were ideal for rats.
Some of these rats grew extremely large. It was not uncommon for rats to start gnawing on the bodies of wounded men who couldn’t defend themselves. Many troops were awakened by rats crawling across their faces. These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men.
Disgusted and often feeling a horror of their presence, soldiers would devise various means of dealing with the rat problem. Although shooting at rats was strictly prohibited – being regarded as a pointless waste of ammunition – many soldiers nevertheless took pot shots at nearby rats in this manner. Attacking rats with bayonets was also common.
But efforts to eliminate them proved futile. A single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring a year. Cats and terriers were kept by soldiers in the frontline trenches to help free them of disease-carrying rats. The terriers were actually very effective in killing rats.
There is a difference between a cat and a terrier when it comes to rodent control. When it comes to cats, even the best mousers only go after one at a time, and they often pause to eat.
Generally, it can take them days/weeks to deal with an infestation because of this. With a good terrier, they will take care of your rat issues in a matter of hours. They don’t stop eating.
They kill, then move on immediately to the next creature. They don’t play with their prey as cats do. They kill immediately. One terrier will also be much harder for rats to overwhelm as well. They are bigger and stronger than a cat, and their jaws are much bigger. That’s what they were bred, to kill rats.
Robert Graves remarked in his book “Goodbye to All That“: “Rats came up from the canal, fed on the plentiful corpses, and multiplied exceedingly. While I stayed here with the Welch. a new officer joined the company and, in token of welcome, was given a dug-out containing a spring-bed. When he turned in that night he heard a scuffling, shone his torch on the bed, and found two rats on his blanket tussling for the possession of a severed hand.”
George Coppard gave another reason why the rats were so large: “There was no proper system of waste disposal in trench life. Empty tins of all kinds were flung away over the top on both sides of the trench. Millions of tins were thus available for all the rats in France and Belgium in hundreds of miles of trenches. During brief moments of quiet at night, one could hear a continuous rattle of tins moving against each other. The rats were turning them over.”
Richard Beasley, interviewed in 1993: “If you left your food the rats would soon grab it. Those rats were fearless. Sometimes we would shoot the filthy swines. But you would be put on a charge for wasting ammo if the sergeant caught you”.
One soldier described finding a group of dead bodies while on patrol: “I saw some rats running from under the dead men’s greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured and from the yawning mouth leaped a rat.”
Most terrier breeds were developed in Great Britain and Ireland. They were used to control rats, rabbits, and foxes both over and under the ground. Some larger terriers were also used to hunt badgers. In fact, the word terrier comes from the Middle French terre, derived from the Latin terra, meaning earth. Terrier is also the modern French for “burrow”.
(Photo credit: National Archives).
Trench rats
Rodents found in frontline trenches
Trench rats were rodents that were found around the frontline trenches of World War I. Due to massive amounts of debris, corpses, and a putrid environment, rats at the trenches bred at a rapid pace. The rats likely numbered in the millions.[1] According to some soldiers, these rats could grow to be “as big as cats”.[2] The rats played a role in damaging the soldiers’ health, psyche and morale and were responsible for lack of sleep, adding to the filthy conditions and unsanitary hygiene in the trenches. As such, the trench rats left a lasting impression on the Allied soldiers who served on the Western Front, with veterans who served in the French and British armies speaking about their horrible experiences with rats during interviews.[3] Attempts to solve the rat problem were not effective during the war. Although they could be found in abundance during World War I, these rats appeared to decrease in number and notoriety after the war ended.
The rats’ contribution to the terrible environment in the trenches aided in the avoidance of using trenches in future wars, especially in Europe, where their negative legacy remains to this day, memorialized through media portrayals. Trench rats are often viewed with a pessimistic connotation associated with the worst of trench life and warfare, especially in their depiction in movies. They have also been portrayed in a positive light in poems, such as “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg, as well as in modern fictional history videos as a metaphor for the life of a French soldier living in the trenches.[4]
World War I [ edit ]
One of the most widespread problems that many soldiers of the Allied and Central powers in Europe faced during World War I was the abundance of rats they were forced to live alongside during the war. High numbers of soldiers, both alive and dead, stationed along the trenches dug into the Western Front, in constrained, outdoor spaces with a severe lack of available cleanliness procedures led to trench rats becoming a common occurrence.
In the trenches [ edit ]
When living in the trenches along the Western Front, food and waste created by soldiers drew the rats in. The environment in the trenches was optimal for a rat’s breeding ground: with an abundance of corpses, food, shelter, water and waste, the rats were able to breed quickly.[1] Rats could be found wherever soldiers were; where they ate, where they slept, where they fought. There are estimations that show it is possible there were more rats than soldiers in trenches, with reports from soldiers stating that some rats could be the size of cats.[2] Rats, being nocturnal creatures, would often be active during times when soldiers were trying to rest. Only those with high enough status would be given “anti-rat beds” while the rest of the soldiers would have practically no form of protection against them.[5] It was not uncommon for rats to crawl across the faces of sleeping soldiers or even eat food straight from soldiers’ hands as they became more accustomed to human presence.[6][3] Attempts to separate food from the rats would prove to be futile, as rats were bold and snatched the food from the pockets of sleeping soldiers anyways. In addition to eating the food rations of soldiers, rats also had a proclivity to eat the candles of soldiers, taking away a source of light in an already dangerous environment.[7]
Impact on soldiers [ edit ]
Physical effects on soldiers [ edit ]
Rats are known for carrying various contagious diseases. The close proximity between the soldiers and the rats led to these diseases being spread throughout the trenches. The most common of these would be typhus, bartonellosis (also known as trench fever), and leptospirosis. These diseases could take a massive toll on the soldiers, with trench fever possibly pulling a soldier away from the front lines for months at a time. Rats were carriers of lice. Lice can also transmit disease and played a role in spreading trench fever amongst the soldiers.[2]
Trench rats also gnawed on those who were wounded, sleeping or unable to protect themselves. In one instance, a British soldier recounted in an interview that one of his fellow countrymen had his forehead bitten while he had been asleep, with the wound being severe enough to warrant a visit to the infirmary.[3]
Psychological effects on soldiers [ edit ]
Trench rats contributed to many different psychological effects on the human psyche given their ability to disrupt sleep and reduce the overall quality of the soldiers’ rest. The noises rats made in no man’s land during night would sometimes cause soldiers to believe enemies were mounting an attack, leading them to grow paranoid and shoot out into the empty space between trenches. Rats also scurried across the soldiers’ faces and bodies when they slept, which was another cause for awakening.[6] On top of all of this, rats were known to eat the irretrievable dead bodies of soldiers left in no man’s land, and the nibbling of rats eating bodies could be heard in the trenches during periods of silence between active warfare.[5]
On the other hand, the situation with the rats also allowed some reprieve to the soldiers stationed along the Western Front. Due to long periods of inactivity in the trenches with an abundance of rats, rat hunting became a sport and a source of entertainment for the Allied soldiers to stave off boredom. Because ammunition needed to be conserved for battles, killing the rats with bayonets was acceptable and eventually became a pastime for the soldiers. Rats also served as companions, with some soldiers keeping them as pets to escape the brutality of the war around them.[1]
Overall, the negative experiences with the trench rats that the Allied soldiers experienced on the Western Front far outweighed those of the positive and many British and French veterans who served there would later recall rats as an integral part of their worst experiences in the trenches, amongst the mud, rain, lice, trench foot and death.[3][8]
Attempted solutions [ edit ]
Rat-hunter and dog showing off hunted rats
Ammunition had to be conserved for fighting the enemy, therefore soldiers were dissuaded from using bullets to kill the numerous rats in the trenches.[9] Other methods of killing rats were acceptable, be it through animals or bayonets although other attempted solutions were also implemented. Soldiers were often given monetary incentive to kill trench rats when they could. For example, in the French army, the quartermaster’s office promised a bonus of 50 cents for each rat tail presented.[10] At other times, rat-catchers were also hired by the army to catch the rats in the trenches as soldiers could not and were scared to fall asleep due to the rodents.[11]
Chemicals [ edit ]
One of the first attempted solutions for ridding the trenches of rats was to use chemicals. Widespread use of gases composed of arsenic, carbon sulphide, and scillitine were used. Due to the high toxicity of the gases, these methods were abandoned after they were shown to have more effect on the soldiers themselves rather than the rats they were targeting.[5]
Animals [ edit ]
Rat-hunters with terrier dog
Another method was bringing in other animals to catch the rats. For example, cats and dogs were kept by soldiers in the trenches to “help maintain hygiene” by culling the rodent population.[12] Terrier dogs were especially useful, more so than cats, as they were bred to kill vermin and for hunting purposes which was applied to eliminating rats in the trenches.[13] As such, many terriers were used as ‘ratting dogs’.[13]
After the war [ edit ]
After World War I, the French used Chloropicrin (chloropicrine) to destroy the remaining rat infestation from the trenches, flushing them from their burrows and causing the rats to asphyxiate on the gas.[14] Although the lack of scholarship and media coverage on the topic of trench rats in World War II suggests the decrease in their population, and therefore, the success of such procedures, it is unknown whether all the trench rats had been eradicated at the time after the use of chemicals to flush them out and what happened to the trench rats living within the trench system after the war was over.
Legacy [ edit ]
World War II [ edit ]
Overall, the presence of trench rats likely contributed to the psychological effects on soldiers post-World War I. As such, trench warfare was no longer as frequently used in World War II partly because of its high cost of human life and long-lasting effects on soldiers due to post-traumatic stress disorder. Another reason why trenches were no longer used was because in World War II, military tactics changed to favor aerial combat and with the emergence of improved technology which enhanced mobility on the battlefield, such as the use of tanks and motor vehicles, which then allowed soldiers some form of protection against enemy fire while advancing against enemy lines.
In media [ edit ]
As they could be found in the majority of the trenches along the Western Front, trench rats were an integral part of popular culture at the front both during and after the war, especially in France and among the Allied countries. However, the rats themselves were less commonly referenced because the soldiers often refer to it more generally as an aspect of trench warfare. Although they were often depicted in a negative light, some media used rats as metaphors for the life of a soldier living in the trenches. They were present in music, photos and artistic representations – such was the culture of the trenches.[5]
In fictional portrayal [ edit ]
Trench rats are often portrayed in modern films about World War I, with specific films such as Deathwatch (2002), Passchendaele (2008) and 1917 (2019) showing scenes where the rats chewed off an injured soldier’s legs, came out of a corpse and ate from the rations hung up by soldiers – portraying the rats in a horrifying light.
Contrarily, in Ferdinand: A Country Rat in the Trenches (2016), a short animated film about World War I from the viewpoint of a French soldier, director Jean-Jacques Prunés uses the trench rat as a metaphor for the experience of a soldier living in the trenches.[4] Prunés’ portrayal instead humanizes and generates a sympathy for an animal that is often associated with the worst connotations of World War I and life in the trenches.
In poems [ edit ]
In Isaac Rosenberg’s poem, “Break of Day in the Trenches”, the speaker contemplates the folly of war, viewing the trench rat as an outsider to the conflict while questioning how it understands the destruction of war.[15] There is irony used in the poem as an insignificant creature such as a rat could successfully complete the herculean effort of crossing to the other side, for example, when the speaker depicts of the ability of the rat to touch both a German’s hand and a British soldier’s hand, connecting both enemies and be “cosmopolitan” by being able to cross ‘No man’s land’ to either the British or German trenches.[15] In a sense, the poem portrays the rat in a positive light as the speaker believes it could perform amazing feats, such as crossing ‘No man’s land’ with no repercussions, that no ordinary German or British soldier could on the battlefield.
In song [ edit ]
With numerous trench rats present in the trenches, the infantry who served in the French army created songs about their everyday experiences. One song specifically depicted rats as the only thing that the soldiers were fearful of – “Les canons, les canons, j’men fous. J’ai peur des rats”, which is translated into “The guns, the guns, I don’t care. I’m afraid of rats”. The lyrics suggest that the French saw the rats in a negative light, perhaps due to the actions of the rats – their unhygienic nature as well as their tendencies to steal food and gnaw at corpses.
In scholarly resources [ edit ]
There has been more scholarship and news articles on trench rats from the countries whose troops served in the trenches along the Western Front such as France and Britain. This is because the trenches had been dug by both the Central and Allied armies had been created along the Western Front near France and Belgium, and this front’s military strategy was distinguished by stalemates and trench warfare.[16] More focus has been placed on trench rats by the French, likely due to the location of the trenches, as they had mostly been dug on French soil and as such it would have been easier to send French reporters to report on the issue than those from other Allied countries. On the other hand, there has been less scholarship from the Eastern Front on trench rats as their military strategies have been focused on making breakthroughs with large advances and making sweeping movements rather than on trench warfare.[16]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Control, PGM & SON Pest (2021-11-12). “World War I – Trench Rats”. PGM Pest Control . Retrieved 2022-03-18.
. Retrieved 2022-03-18. Duffy, Michael (22 August 2009). “Encyclopedia – Trench Rats”. www.firstworldwar.com . Retrieved 2022-03-18.
. Retrieved 2022-03-18. “Eastern Front | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1)”. encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net . Retrieved 2022-03-18.
. Retrieved 2022-03-18. FERDINAND A COUNTRY RAT IN THE TRENCHES , retrieved 2022-03-18.
, retrieved 2022-03-18. “Histoires 14-18 : Il y a cent ans, Gaspard, le rat des tranchées”. France 3 Hauts-de-France (in French). Retrieved 2022-03-18.
(in French). Retrieved 2022-03-18. Humbert, Bryce; Bailey, Joseph (2020-07-29). “Trench Warfare in World War 1”.
“La boue, les poux et les rats dans les tranchées de la prmière guerre mondiale”. www.histoire-en-questions.fr . Retrieved 2022-03-18.
. Retrieved 2022-03-18. ‘Life in the trenches’, URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/new-zealanders-in-belgium/a-soldiers-lot, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 20-Sep-2017.
Soppelsa, Peter (2021). “Losing France’s Imperial War on Rats”. Journal of the Western Society for French History . 47. ISSN 2573-5012.
. 47. ISSN 2573-5012. “The trenches and trench warfare”, World War One , Cambridge University Press, pp. 198–203, retrieved 2022-03-18.
, Cambridge University Press, pp. 198–203, retrieved 2022-03-18. “Trench Rats Facts & Information | Free GCSE Worksheet”. School History . 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
. 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2022-03-18. “Voices of the First World War: Trench Life”. Imperial War Museums . Retrieved 2022-03-18.
. Retrieved 2022-03-18. “William Osler and investigation on trench nephritis”. GIN (in Italian). 2016-02-18. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
First World War.com
Encyclopedia – Trench Rats
For many veterans who were asked to recall their memories of life in the trenches the overriding feature that lingered in the mind was the problem – and horror – of trench rats.
Rats – brown and black – thrived literally in their millions among trenches in most Fronts of the war, be it Eastern, Italian, Gallipoli – but primarily the Western Front. Trench conditions were ideal for rats. Empty food cans were piled in their thousands throughout No Man’s Land, heaved over the top on a daily basis.
Aside from feeding from rotting food littered in such cans, rats would invade dug-outs in search of food and shelter. Most soldiers who served on the Western Front would later recall how rats grew in boldness, stealing food that had been lain down for just a few moments. Rats would also crawl across the face of sleeping men.
As they gorged themselves on food so they grew, with many rats reportedly growing to the size of cats. George Coppard, writing in With a Machine Gun to Cambrai (1969), recalled the ceaseless rattling of tin cans during the night, the sound of rats constantly ferreting in No Man’s Land.
However the feature which caused revulsion among soldiers was the knowledge that rats openly fed on the decaying remains of comrades killed while advancing across No Man’s Land. Attacking – and eating – the eyes of a corpse first, rats would steadily work their way through the remainder of the body in a short space of time.
Disgusted and often feeling a horror of their presence, soldiers would devise various means of dealing with the rat problem. Although shooting at rats was strictly prohibited – it being regarded as a pointless waste of ammunition – many soldiers nevertheless took pot shots at nearby rats in this manner. Attacking rats with bayonets was also common. However the rat population was not noticeably diminished by such techniques – a pair of rats were capable of producing some 800 offspring within a single year.
Picturing the Great WarThe First World War Blog from Mary Evans Picture Library
On both sides of No Man’s Land, men were united in the face of a common enemy: the Brown Rat. Aside from the threat of imminent death, life in the trenches had no shortage of daily horrors, which the presence of the rat contributed to greatly.
A plentiful supply of food, water and shelter in the trenches ensured a rat population explosion. The rats fed not only by scavenging for scraps from soldiers’ discarded rations tins, but also from a more sinister and plentiful source: human flesh from the dead and dying out in No Man’s Land. With such an abundant supply of food, rats were reported to grow to the size of cats(a caption to one 1917 sketch in The Illustrated London News describes rats of ‘aldermanic size’), and reproduced at an alarming rate, with ‘swarms’ of rats described in soldier’s diaries and letters home.
Rats destroyed equipment by knawing leather straps; their urine spread disease; they bit men, thieved food and disturbed sleep, making pest control a priority. Attempts were made to control the population using rat catchers and terriers, with the incentive of a cash sum paid per tail. Ferrets were also in demand for ratting, causing their price in Ashford to rise from 1 shilling to 5 in 1916.
There were some creative responses to the rat problem, with rats treated as ‘small game’ and hunted as a trench sport. The Illustrated London News published a double page spread in April 1916, showing British soldiers in hot pursuit of a rat with a fixed bayonet, describing the scene as “sport in self-defence”. Use of ammunition to hunt rats was discouraged, on grounds of wastage.
Perhaps surprisingly, some found there were limited advantages to the presence of rats on the Western Front. The sign of fleeing rats could be a useful indicator of imminent danger, such as gas attacks, and allegedly some rats were even tamed to become pets and companions for soldiers.
Despite the generally unwelcome presence of rats in the trenches, the press portrayed the problem as a cheery everyday irritation in their reportage from the front. A field postcard shows smiling German soldiers posing behind a string of rats they’d caught; an advert for Abudulla cigarettes cheerfully prints a poem about how an otherwise loyal pet rat is unable to stop itself from eating this particularly irresistible brand of smokes from a soldier’s Christmas hamper.
At home too, vermin was a problem: with skilled groundsmen and rat catchers away at war, the rat population was growing unchecked, with serious implications for nation food security. W.P Pycraft, eminent zoologist and contributor to The Illustrated London News, wrote passionately about what he described as the ‘rat menace’ both during and after the war, estimating in April 1918 an astounding native population of no fewer than 40 million rats. The U-boat threat meant food supplies were closely monitored, and the rat’s partiality to grain meant that this valuable resource was under threat.
As the war drew to a close, the rat menace showed no signs of abating. The problem was such that the Rats and Mice Destruction Act 1919 was passed, and a national Rat Week was declared in November 1919, where people were encouraged to kill as many rats as possible. Rats thrived under the challenge of wartime conditions, and continued to flourish in its aftermath: it seems it would take more than a world war to inhibit the adaptable and cunning brown rat.
http://www.maryevans.com/lb.php?ref=27337
Lucinda Moore
Information about keywords Did they eat rats in the trenches
Below are the search results of topic Did they eat rats in the trenches on Bing. You can read more if needed.
The article has been edited from various sources on the internet. I hope you found this article useful. Please share this article if you find it useful. Thank you very much!
Keywords people often search for about the topic Deathwatch (2002) – Eaten Alive by Rats Scene (10/11) | Movieclips
- deathwatch
- deathwatch trailer
- deathwatch battle report
- deathwatch movie
- rifle videos
- drama
- horror
- dan maag
- thriller
- michael bischoff
- sam lavender
- period pieces – 20th century
- united kingdom
- caroline hewitt
- jan fantl
- survival videos
- raidhr conroy
- pvt colin chevasse
- michael j bassett
- rat videos
- ralph kamp
- animal videos
- british movies
- war videos
- jamie bell
- battlefield videos
- period pieces
Deathwatch #(2002) #- #Eaten #Alive #by #Rats #Scene #(10/11) #| #Movieclips
Watch some other videos of topic Did they eat rats in the trenches on youtube
So you have finished reading the Deathwatch (2002) – Eaten Alive by Rats Scene (10/11) | Movieclips | Did they eat rats in the trenches topic article, if you find this article useful, please share it. Thank you very much.
