How did ww1 soldiers send letters home?

In 1917 alone, over 19,000 mailbags crossed the English Channel each day, transporting letters and parcels to British troops on the Western Front. Soldiers wrote letters in spare moments, sometimes from front line trenches or in the calmer surroundings behind the lines.

What happened to letters soldiers sent home?

All the letters are addressed to Close Methodist Church in Radcliffe and are now on display at Radcliffe Library. They reveal the heartfelt gratitude of soldiers who were sent simple parcels, small presents and even in many case, just correspondence and good wishes.

What are trench letters?

It is the custom here for troops to take turn about in the front lines of trenches, one regiment taking a number of sections of the front trench for three days then moving back to the second line for another three days and then back to the third line, then back again to the front line. …

Why were soldiers encouraged to write letters back to their families?

Soldiers were also encouraged to write letters to friends and family in Britain. Most men decided it would be better to conceal the horrors of the trench warfare. As a result of the Defence of the Realm Act that was passed in 1914, all letters that the men wrote should have been read and censored by junior officers.

Why was the smell in the trenches so terrible?

Some men disappeared into the mud because it was so thick. The trenches had a horrible smell. This was because of the lack of bathing, the dead bodies, and the overflowing toilets. They could smell cordite, the lingering odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke, and cooking food.

How did soldiers go to the toilet in ww1?

Soldiers Used Either Buckets Or Deeper Holes Within The Trenches As Latrines. In order to go to the bathroom in the trenches, soldiers designated specific areas to serve as the latrines.

How long did it take for letters to be sent during ww1?

Letters mailed from London or Lyons, Berlin or Bordeaux sometimes arrived at the Western front within three days, and although censorship of front-line correspondence and the customary embargoes placed on outgoing mail in advance of major battles often delayed the return mail, families at home could usually expect to …

How were the first letters sent?

The first ever handwritten letter was thought to have been sent by the Persian Queen Atossa in around 500 BC, according to the ancient historian Hellanicus. Their popularity as a way of sending messages grew as more people became literate.

Did they eat rats in the trenches?

This image shows Canadian troops engaged in a rat hunt at Ploegsteert Wood near Ypres during March 1916. Trench conditions were ideal for rats. There was plenty of food, water and shelter. With no proper disposal system the rats would feast off food scraps.

How did soldiers sleep in the trenches?

Getting to sleep When able to rest, soldiers in front line trenches would try and shelter from the elements in dugouts. These varied from deep underground shelters to small hollows in the side of trenches – as shown here.

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.

What made life in the trenches misery?

Poison gas was especially dangerous for the soldiers since it was generally heavier than air and often settled into the deep trenches. This made the trenches terribly dangerous, as the soldiers would suffer the horrible effects from the poison gas.