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ENQUIRY 3

What was life really like for a British soldier on the Western Front?

Key stage 3

This enquiry examines how far the common picture of the First World War soldier is accurate. Students start

with a closer look at trenches, how they were lived in and how the trench system was supposed to work. This

information is then set in the wider context of the routine of a soldier in France and Belgium, and how he

spent his time. This includes taking part in an attack ‘over the top’, but goes on to look at some of the many

jobs that were necessary in order to support the fighting troops.

Students will look at a wide range of sources of evidence, including film, diaries, photographs, letters, memoirs

and secondary accounts. The end product will be a presentation in response to the enquiry question.

NOTE: There are plentiful materials on most aspects of the lives of soldiers on the Western Front in the First

World War. The lessons which follow suggest some issues and pathways to investigate them, with some

examples of supporting resources, but alternatives are easily available

There are ample opportunities throughout this enquiry to relate each section to the visible evidence of

the battlefield sites of the Western Front. These will be referred to in the lessons below, with examples of

activities that could be used on a battlefield site.

There are opportunities through this topic to make links to English (e.g. developing speaking and listening

skills, inferring meaning from text, writing imaginatively, creatively and thoughtfully), and citizenship (e.g.

looking at the actions individuals, groups and organisations can take to influence and provoke popular

opinion) and geography (e.g. interactions between people and their environments, the location of places and

environments).

ENQUIRY OVERVIEW

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STAGE 1 What was life in the trenches really like?

Start with recruits. The first picture in Presentation 1 is a typical example, but an example from the town/

city near the school would be preferable. A picture of a local war memorial would do as well. Explain that this

enquiry is going to look at what life was really like for recruits like these over the next four years.

Use the text of Resource 1 to set up the exaggerated stereotype of the First World War soldier’s life. The first

task is a simple comprehension /note-making task to give students the eight points from Corrigan’s text.

They will confirm or contradict each of these eight points as the enquiry proceeds and collect evidence to use in

a presentation supporting their judgement at the end.

Explain why trenches became the standard defensive technique for both sides in the war (searchable film clips

of the fighting can be found on British Pathé and Imperial War Museum websites).

The slide of the ‘standard’ British trench in Presentation 1 gives students some understanding of what a trench

was supposed to be like. Students could identify the labels:

C/D is a soldier on watch at a ‘loophole’, standing on the ‘fire step’, protected by an earth or sandbag ‘parapet’

(A/B is an alternative position in a shallower trench).

E is the trench floor, later usually covered with ‘duckboards’.

F is the’ parados’, a rear parapet to protect soldiers from shells falling behind.

G is the ‘revetment’, boarding (later corrugated iron) to prevent the earth wall of the trench falling in.

H & K show the trench zig-zagging (See Stage 2).

L is a ‘bolt-hole’, leading to an underground space for eating, sleeping and further protection.

M is the next ‘fire step’.

An alternative task – or differentiating task is to research explanations for the five terms on the last slide in

Presentation 1.

LESSONS

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STAGE 1 What was life in the trenches really like? (continued)

STAGE 2 What was life in the trenches really like?

On a battlefield site:

1. Compare the evidence of trenches visited with the British Army manual of the ideal design.

2. Identify the various parts of a trench and explain their function.

This stage develops students’ understanding of the trench system further.

Start by comparing the Army manual diagram from Stage 1 (and, for convenience, repeated on Resource 2),

with the photograph, Slide 3. What similarities and differences are there between the plan and the reality?

Suggestions for questions are in Resource 2.

An optional further exercise would be to compare the photograph with the two illustrations which follow

in Presentation 2. These would be the impression of the trenches gained by people at home. This is an

opportunity to discuss how far civilians failed to understand what the war was really like, something that many

soldiers commented on.

The second part of this stage deals with the wider trench system.

The three interlocking trenches are described and named, and the photograph shows what a communication

trench looked like: simple, narrow, with none of the features of a fighting trench examined so far.

The film-clip of soldiers being trained to dig trenches gives a good idea of the work involved, but also how

much a large body of men could achieve: the army expected 450 men, digging for 6 hours, to build 250 metres

of trench. At the front, this work would be done at night.

LESSONS

Presentation 1

Resource 1

British Pathé

Imperial War Museum Online Collections

List of resources, worksheets, video clips and interactive activities for use with Stage 1

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STAGE 2 What was life in the trenches really like? (continued)

STAGE 3 Was life on the Western Front always so bad?

The last two show aerial photographs of trench systems. Slide 8 shows practice trenches and Slide 9 front line

trenches at the Battle of the Ancre, November 1916.

Students should identify the types of trench and, from this, no man’s land –the unoccupied terrain between

the two enemies.

Check whether any of the eight points of the impression in Resource 1 have been confirmed or contradicted.

On a battlefield site, try to identify the different parts of the trench system, and the communication trenches.

This stage examines the accuracy or otherwise of several of the eight points from the stereotype of a First

World soldier created in Lesson 1.

Students will have their versions of this stereotype ready.

Start with the slides, Presentation 3. These show a variety of activities involving soldiers away from the front

line and suggest that life away from the front line was not too bad.

Presentation 3 suggests that soldiers did not spend all their time in the frontline trenches. How did this work?

Resource 3 uses some evidence from soldiers’ own words, together with some statistics created much later, to

describe the system, how it worked and its results.

Students should note which of their eight points from Resource 1 have been dealt with in this stage and collect

evidence for their presentation.

LESSONS

British Pathé.com: Kitchener’s army training

Presentation 2

Resource 2

List of resources, worksheets, video clips and interactive activities for use with Stage 2

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STAGE 3 Was life on the Western Front always so bad? (continued)

STAGE 4 What was everyday life really like on the Western Front?

On a visit to the Western Front, try to identify some of the places where troops stayed when they were not in

the front line trenches.

This stage fills in a range of further aspects of the day-to-day life of soldiers on the Western Front. By the end,

students will be able to add more comment on the impression lists in Resource 1.

The film-clip is a compilation of a variety of unrelated shots; however, the first minute shows three ways of

moving people and supplies in the same shot (marching, horse-drawn carts and railway). Soldiers did march a

lot: 20 miles a day was normal. However, as the next slides show, buses (ordinary London buses), lorries and

trains were increasingly used as the War progressed.

After danger and squalor, the thing soldiers most hated about being in the trenches was boredom. Having a

smoke, a drink and some food helped to alleviate boredom and the remainder of slides deal with these.

Slide 6 of Presentation 4 confirms the information from Stage 3 that the men managed well away from the

front line. However, students should think about the problems of feeding a large army living in trenches. Slide

7 lays these problems out and students should provide suggested solutions before moving on, bearing in mind

the level of knowledge – see lower half of the slide.

LESSONS

Resource 3

Presentation 3

List of resources, worksheets, video clips and interactive activities for use with Stage 2

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STAGE 4 What was everyday life really like on the Western Front? (continued)

STAGE 5 What was it actually like to go ‘over the top’?

The rest of the slides show some of the solutions provided and the problems. Slides 14-19 ask students to

judge the effectiveness of the army’s response to their problems.

In the last stage of this enquiry students return to the most familiar aspect of the First World War on the

Western Front: attacking the enemy by going ‘over the top’ towards their trenches.

The film clip referred to in Stage 4 has a scene of soldiers going ‘over the top’ about 8 minutes in.

Resource 4 is an account of such an advance at the Battle of Loos, 1915. It should be read straight through, but

the words in red refer to further examples of the same item (not necessarily from the Battle of Loos) which can

be found on Presentation 5. These are:

• fighting with fixed bayonets

• a soldier’s equipment

• the wire

• machine guns

• junior officers.

LESSONS

IWM: Scenes on the Western Front.

Presentation 4

List of resources, worksheets, video clips and interactive activities for use with Stage 4

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STAGE 5 What was it actually like to go ‘over the top’? (continued)

The combination of one man’s account of a specific attack, and the details of the photos should give rise to

plenty of discussion, for example:

How did the CO expect his men to kill the enemy?

Why did so many die?

Why do you think the Germans stopped firing?

Why was the casualty rate among junior officers so high?

Why did British commanders persist with this form of attack?

And on a different line:

How useful is Private Fellowes’ account, remembered some time afterwards, for someone trying to find out

about the First World War?

Are the photographs more or less useful than Private Fellowes’ account?

What would you need to know about the painting of the officer in order to judge its usefulness?

Students now have enough information to put together their presentations judging the accuracy of the

impression of soldiering given in Resource 1.

On a visit to the Western Front, try to identify No man’s land and the distance between trenches. There will

also be examples of barbed wire entanglements.

The YouTube clip entitled ‘World War One in Color: Slaughter in the Trenches’ (47 minutes) has more

information and some interesting colour footage about First World War battles.

LESSONS

IWM: Scenes on the Western Front

Resource 4

Presentation 5

Sony Pictures Television - World War One in Color: Slaughter in the Trenches

List of resources, worksheets, video clips and interactive activities for use with Stage 5

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STAGE 6 What was life really like for a British soldier on the Western Front?

Students present their judgements to the rest of the class in answer to the enquiry question.

LESSONS

Resource 1

List of resources, worksheets, video clips and interactive activities for use with Stage 6