Our discussion on WWI has had a lot of numbers thrown around, but what do those numbers really mean? This post isn't about training, but about what the men carried with them, and the animals who fought with them in the trenches. I do not talk about horses or mules, but trench animals.
In 1916 the average British soldier carried 60 pounds or more of kit. The list below should also be representative of the other combatants. No lightweight plastics, no light weight fibers everything was metal, wood, canvas or wool. The weight borne by the infantry had gone up from 1914 when the average load out did not have the mask or helmet, and the number of rounds carried was only 50-65.
The list below is admitted exhaustive to give an idea of a maximum. Obviously in summer the soldier won't pack his great coat, mufflers, or mittens.
On top of the list below if the poor soul was a grenadier, part of a machine gun or mortar team, an orderly, an NCO or filled some other specialist role he had to add that jobs kit to his own.
Brodie Helmet (1.3 lbs)
uniform worn plus boots (7lbs)
Lee- Enfield rifle (9.23lbs with sling)
150-200 rounds of ammunition (20 bullets per pound before packaging) (11lbs)
3 days rations* (12lbs)
1908 pattern webbing (2lbs)
water bottle/canteen (2.25lbs)
entrenching tool with handle (5lbs)
spare uniform (wool & cotton- trousers, shirt, leggings) (4lbs)
spare underwear (cotton)^
great coat (wool, fleece lined) (7lbs)
Macintosh/ trench coat (3 lbs)
ground sheet (canvas) (2lbs)
1-3 spare pair of socks (wool) (.5lb)
blanket (wool) (3lbs)
mess tin (1.5lbs)
cutlery ^
mug ^
bayonet (2lbs)
handkerchiefs
gas mask (5lbs)
gas mask canister ^
gas mask carrying pouch ^
towel (.5lb)
canvas carry all (.5lb)
field dressing (2lbs)
soap ^
shaving kit ^
toothpaste and took brush ^
gloves, cap, muffler and mittens (2lbs)
2x grenades or tin bombs (3lbs)
Tommy cooker (1lb)
Tommy cooker fuel 2 tins (1lb)
Package from home (cake, cookies, candy, tobacco) (3lbs)
mail from home ^
paper, envelopes and pencil ^
pocket knife ^
Total weight 91lbs
* iron rations (3days plus normal soldier additions based on diaries)- 48oz of tinned meat, 1.5oz of salt, 9oz of tinned cheese, 36oz of tinned milk, 36oz biscuits, 6oz of sugar, 2 oz of tea, 3oz of bullion, pepper or mustard, 24oz tinned beans, 16oz canned vegetables/fruit
italics= canned good pocketed by soldiers and added to the iron rations.
The weight of the kit was made necessary by the need to get as much as possible across no mans land to allow the assault troops to resist the inevitable enemy counter attack. However, the sheer need to carry so much made the attack that much harder. With 60 plus pounds on your back in broken muddy terrain you can't move fast. At the Somme the heavily laden Tommies, alreadt forced into a close order march got cut down like ripened wheat as they struggled forward under their loads. Part of the order to walk across no mans land was running was impossible.
When you add in the weight of the rifle, helmet, personal items, extra food, extra items by specialty the actual weight added to the solider who average 150lbs could be 80-90lbs or more as long as it stayed dry. The one disadvantage of wool is the way it retains water and thus adds weight. A WWI British greatcoat could hold 40 pounds of water, so a soaked to the skin soldier may have 60pounds of extra water weight. At Third Ypres, the cold wet men were so heavily loaded that if they fell face first in a muddy field or stepped into a water and mud filled shell hole they drowned. Imagine drowning in 3-6" of mud...The British would not attack more lightly encumbered until after Third Ypres.
Yet going with light kit didn't work any better in the long run. The French attacked lightly encumbered just to get across no-mans land, but didn't try to press on, and lacked the ability to resist German counter attacks. However the Germans did try to press on, trying to carry the entire defensive works. The German storm troopers crossed no mans land with machine pistols, helmet grenades, water, mask, bayonet, flame throwers and lots of ammo and little else. The light weight gave them the mobility, and agility to make it across no-mans land, but not the ability to stick it out once they stopped, or the supplies to keep going. The result was that one of the most effective British defenses in the Spring of 1918 was a well stocked dug out or dump that proved impossible for the hungry Germans to pass up. The destroyed terrain of no mans land and the much poorer physical condition of the follow troops carrying a full kit meant they could not keep up with the storm troopers, even though they were not under fire.
The type of kit listed above would remain typical for most armies until the 1980's. Improvements were made in helmet design, how the load was distributed across the body, the uniforms durability, or the boots ability to help the foot breath and avoid trench foot and rot but these were all minor. One of the reasons for this is that until modern fibers hit the scene- wool was the best uniform material going. It retains (some of) its insulating properties even when wet. Likewise canvas is a very durable material. When weight was saved in one area, the savings were immediately negated by adding more kit to another area.
Soldiers also quickly learned what was good kit, and what was bad kit. For example, Normandy France was littered with US gas masks in 1944.
To help with getting supplies and information and even wounded men across no mans land, both sides made extensive use of dogs. A well trained dog doesn't get lost, is hard to hit and all weather. They are also great morale boosters, good sentries and decent gas warning systems. As messengers dogs were targets, but both sides preferred to capture dogs if they could- a trained dog can be quickly retrained as dogs are not nationalists. At the battle of Verdun a "Lost Battalion" of French troops was saved when a messenger dog named Satan made it the cut off French unit despite being shot 3 times, he got his load of pigeons delivered and one of them managed to reach French lines and call for artillery saving the unit.
The most famous American war dog is Sgt. Stubby, a stray pit bull puppy scooped up by a regiment of infantry heading to France. Stubby would turn out to be a guard- he noticed Germans smelled different and would alert his men when he smelled trench raiders, warned of gas attacks, captured a spy, and during battle would go from wounded man to wounded man giving them a few moments of comfort. Wounded in battle he was sent to a French Military hospital where French nurses knitted him a blanket. American Dough Boys then began pinning their medals to him. After the war he was made a life time member of the YMCA, American Red Cross and American Legion, visited the White House and President three times.
Pigeons played an important role in relaying messages. However despite their small size, swift flight and unerring ability to fly home they had one major disadvantage. A pigeon has to fly a circle when released to get his bearings. This would often take them over enemy lines where they would get shot down in a fusillade of rifle fire and reveal the message they carried. Probably the most famous American pigeon of the war is Cher Ami (dear friend) who played a critical role in saving, "The Lost Battalion", he was the last pigeon and the only one not shot down, though grievously wounded he flew to his roost (25 miles in 65 minutes) and the call for support was delivered and the Americans attacked anew and relieved the cut off unit.
One of the strangest animals to go to war was the American great slug (limax maximus). The great slug could detect mustard gas at a concentration of 1 part per 12 million. The slug would then close up its airways and ride the gas attack out, and could in fact survive multiple attacks. Since mustard gas was dangerous to man at 1 part per 4 million the slug provided early warning. The slug served with American combat units from June 1918.
I had not heard of the great slug being employed, very interesting. How did the Americans use it? What visiable signs or clues did it exhibit in the prescence of the gas? It seems curious that a blister agent that attacks moist tissue could be effectively thwarted by a resperitory defense - was this just for very low concentrations?
"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children." -- Confucius
Yes, No, maybe?, said repeated gassing. If the levels are high, I am guessing the slugs slime acts as some sort of shedable barrier so the gas never makes contact with live tissue, but that is just a guess. I know salt which is a descant as opposed to mustard gasses vesicant does really bad things to slugs.Originally Posted by USSWisconsin
The tremendous weight of this kit sheds some "old" light on the reasons for light weight assualt weapons like the M-4, and might be something that some staunch advocates of infantry weapons based on 7.62 NATO might benefit from reading. I'm not referring to long range specialist weapons - just regular infantry standard issue. Even 45# of equipment would limit mobility, IMO. The idea of running across a battlefield, under fire, with 91# of gear is scary - particularly in a time when the average soldier was about 2/3 as large (~120#) as today's combat soldier (~180#).
If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children." -- Confucius
A lightweight weapon just means more ammo or other kit added to the mix. Full kit seems to stay right around 80lbs. Body armor and modern understanding of the importance of hydration has probably added the most weight to make up for weight reduction in other areas. Then things like NVG's ant-tank rockets, batteries...
But ya, making men assault with full kit is stupid, it makes them easy targets for the machine gun, and drowned ducks in the mud. Which is where mechanization has helped- assault with weapons, ammo and water and then bring the rest of the gear up.
So don't feel like goign back in time and being a Tommy, why not try the tank corps. By late in the war there were three dominant designs, the light Renault FT-17, the Medium Whippet and big Rhomboids. Somethings they all had in common however besides tracks was an absence of a wall between the crew and the engine, no muffler and moving metal on metal. The result was a loud hot barely bullet proof machine.
In the big rhomboids the leading cause of injury and disabled tanks wasn't enemy shell fire, but a combination of heat exhaustion and asphyxiation. Another problem the early tanks had was spalling. Machine gun bullets and shell shrapnel hitting the tank would knock slivers of metal off the inside of the tank and into the faces of the crew. The solution was as old as the use of iron itself- chain mail face coverings.
Although often credited with returning mobility to the Western Front and changing the nature of gorund combat forever, they did something else as well. They returned artillery to the direct fire role. From the latter part of 1914 in the middle of 1916 the light field guns most armies took to war were increasingly being replaced by heavier guns better equipped to conduct indirect fire missions. The lighter guns were just too vulnerable to enemy machine gun fire. However with the advent of tanks, suddenly the need for a powerful gun close to the trenches able to support the infantry through the use of direct fire once again became important. Without tanks the entire direction field artillery took may have been different.
I was interested and turned up this page - it doesn't answer all the questions - but has references that might:
Animal Heroes of the Great War (Part II): A Courageous Dog, A Heroic Pigeon, and the Amazing Garden Slug! - Rocky Hill, CT Patch
If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children." -- Confucius
WWI is a fascinating and under reported period in human history.
Terriers, predominantly Airedale and Bedlington. Used as messenger dogs, finding wounded and killing rats. The Bedlington breed, being relatively new, was virtually wiped out.
I did not know that, or even know about the breed.
In 1916 the US printed a poster of each of the major belligerents national dog decked out in its respective nations imagery. In the middle of them wearing a flag bandana was the greatest of American breeds, and probably the most powerful canine [pound for pound and in willingness to DO OR DIE] the American pit bull terrier. A second poster had the dog wearing a naval hat. In both the nations neutrality was proclaimed... but there is something strange about the dog, and I don't know if historians noticed it, it would be a master's thesis amount of work to find out. The dog in both cases is pure white... pure white in mos bite and hold or bully breeds is the single biggest indicator of deafness. Was the dog made white to represent purity, did the artists have a white pit, was it drawn white if indicate deafness to the clamor of the belligerents....
an aside on pits, a game bred (bred for fighting or nowadays weight pulling) pit coming off of a keep (training regime) is pound for pound the strongest dog in the world. 50lb dogs have pulled half ton loads. In Japan where dog fighting is legal (or was into the recent past) the owners of the much larger Tosa (Japan's fighting dog) learned to avoid better against the pit. Bigger dogs will push the pit around for 15 minutes or so, but the pit with his superior endurance and love of combat does not quit. Other dogs fight for dominance, the pit fights to fight. other breeds end up tucking tail and giving up and going belly up, if the handler/owner doesn't step in the bigger dog dies, game bred pits do not accept submission, its been bred out of them.
Respectable owners rarely use a pit bull for shutzhund work, although the dog excels at it, the danger of training a pit to see a human as a target just isn't work it. A pit in its prime can easily overpower a grown man in his prime. Which is why the thug dogs kill kids- they get trained to see people as prey and that combines with their drive and its all over.
However, properly raised where the person is never prey, the pit is among the most stable of breeds, after all in a pit dog fight there are two dogs but three people and no one wants to get bit. The breed was bred to be able to maul a dog while being handled and not bit a person. it also makes pits one of the few breeds that can generally be handled unmuzzled after a serious injury by its owner.
Oh and the whole concept of pedigree and puggalism comes from the dogmen (dog fighters) of England, Ireland and the US.
One of the most popular breeds in the world the German Shepherd/Alsatian gained its international fame following WWI when British dog fanciers who had seen the dog in German service raved about its abilities.
The only reason I knew about them is we bought one for the kids as a pet. The breeder told us their story and how they were only now making a comeback.
At first I simply considered it a loveable cuddly toy for the kids but then one day I got what was a semi-regular phone call that i had to come home from work to deal with a bush rat that the cat had a habit of bringing into the house but not killing.
Flash-of-light time, the dog had only ever shown a desire to make friends with cats, guinea-pigs and other small furry animals but I suggested putting the dog in the room with the rat, since the breeder had said they'd first been bred as a ratter.
Much to my wife and wee boys delight it took 5 seconds for the Bedlinton to ferret out the rat and kill it with one bite and flick to the neck. Never barks either, just does the lassie thing of getting your attention and waggling until you follow it, including waking me up in the middle of the night if it hears something. Chased off someone trying to break into my car that way.
Nice,
We got Nikki a Neopolitan mastiff for home defense (she has now given Claudia away), 27" at the shoulder, 125lbs, massive jowls, the bark of a hell hound, and a deadly desire to kill any intruder not scared away by the bark. But as submissive and soft as a down pillow with even Alex (when new born). Neos are considered the worlds best natural guard dog, training actually interrupts their normal traits. Bred in Italy to be ferocious, lazy with a very small territory with no desire to roam, and completely bonkers when it comes to even basic trust of outsiders, and a metabolism that slows down when growth stops so their dietary requirement is that of a dog half their size.
So just how deadly was the battle of the Somme, Verdun, WWI in general?
In 1932 the monument at Thiepval was dedicated to the 73,000 men who entered the trenches and never came out, but who have no known grave.
From 1915 to 1918 but with an emphasis on 1916 the Somme battlefield would kill men, blow the bodies apart, bury, uncover and rebury the pieces. Raiding parties, wire parties even men manning what had once been a trench line would be taking position next to, crawling over, crawling through and if going under wire- under the bodies of their comrades.
Artillery near misses would un-bury corpses and fling bits of bodies down on the guys the next crater over. The sheer amount of flesh lead to rats the size of cats and all water was instantly putrid. In warm weather massive swarms of bloated flies turned the air dark, flitting from rotting corpse to a Tommies mess tin. The very ground was toxic and even simple scrapes could turn into deadly infections.
To make things even worse, the Germans held the high ground, troops would move in or out at night and if a soldier picked a spot that revealed a smiling corpse as a foxhole mate the soldier had to lay there, perhaps lay on the body.
But the Somme stands nearly alone in the impact it had back in England. Kitchener's New Army that went over the top in 1916 had a number of Pals battalions- whole factory shifts, school classes, or rafts of men from a single neighborhood or village enlisted and served together. The German maxim gunners made sure they died together as well. In a single afternoon an entire block or village would get the news, all the young men, the hope and promise of tomorrow were gone, most never ever to return, even as corpses to be buried. Whole communities robbed of their children, an entire neighborhoods mothers forever in black.
Even now in 2012 the frost pushes bit and pieces of these brave but tragically doomed young men to the surface. A macabre event shared in particular by one other battlefield- Verdun. I don't know about 2012, but in the late 1980's feral swine roamed the Verdun battlefield and would root out the winters crop of bone pushed to the surface. But bones are not the only things pushed up. France is littered with once verdant fields that once held crops, but are now only pasture, or that have been overgrown with forest. Fighting occurred in the former fields, or the trench line ran through them, and now to plow means to risk giving a war nearly 100 years old at it start- another victim, the last WWI veteran is dead, but the war kills people every year. The ground is still fighting - bombs, shells, grenades, bullets, rifles, helmets kit its all an easy find in France.
For the most part the castoff implements of war stay where they are, but one weapon from WWI actively hunts for victims, it won't stay where it fell. Mustard gas from the soaked toxic ground has been taken up by trees. If that tree is then felled and a person sits on the sap base, the mustard gas strikes again. In other places where the ground once was as deadly as the enemy during the war, has now begun to yield up incredible treasures. In Flander's Fields not far from where the poppys blow between the cross row on row, Mother earth has revealed at least 2 Rhomboid tanks, buried and forgotten.
One in particular has an amazing story, knocked out a 1/4 mile from where it was found. The Germans recovered it, drug it back to their lines, buried it and used it as a bunker. When it was found, the interior void remained as it had been when the Germans abandoned it in 1918. A machine meant to kill Germans had instead sheltered them from harm for over a year.
No discussion on the horror of WWI would be complete unless it mentioned a single corpse, buried the length of the front line across every inch where blood was spilled- across this narrow band of dread lays the body of Jesus Christ. Crucified again when millions of his children filled with fear and a desire for a world never to return, each praying for His Mercy, killed each other with a satanic abandon. Buried along side Christ are 6 million other Jews and tens of millions of persons of countless faiths from every land, forced to die because the survivors tales of horror and woe got drowned out by nationalism, ego and the ever renewing belief that this time it will be different, this time war will be good.
Last edited by zraver; 16 Jan 12, at 17:17.
I would ask this to be checked but one of the producers of the movie "horse story" of WWI had claimed that not only were 10 million men killed during WWI but an estimated 10 million horses were killed in battle as well. If that is true, it would by far make the horse one of the greatest war machines although mammal ever IMO.
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
Horses are frail creatures but that is a lot of dead horseflesh.
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