With soldiers fighting in close proximity in the trenches, usually in unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever were common and spread rapidly. Constant exposure to wetness caused trench foot, a. Life in the trench, the infantry’s home for much of the war, involved a day-to-day routine of work and leisure. “Stand-to” at Dawn. Each dawn, the usual time for an enemy attack, soldiers woke to “stand-to,” guarding their front line trenches.
Weather conditions were also a terrible feature in thetrenches. The trenches were muddy, cold with miserable conditions. Manysoldiers died from simply being exposed to the cold, as the temperature wasoften below zero within the trenches in winter. Soldiers would sometimes lose fingers and toes due to exposure toextreme cold.
The rain often filled the trenches; sometimes, the trenches wouldfill with water up to the soldiers' waists. “Trench Foot” was a terrible fungalinfection that was caused by the submersion. The leg that was affected by thisdisease often needed to be amputated.
As weather conditions, Trench foot becameless common. Soldiers needed good socks and boots so they could survive.