GREATWAR-L Archives
Archiver > GREATWAR > 2001-10 > 1001985236
From: janice duke <>
Subject: [WW1] Xmas Ditty and TUTU
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 21:13:56 -0400
References: <E15oD89-00090m-0V@anchor-post-31.mail.demon.net>
Dear Taff,
Thanks so much for the wonderful story and the lovely pictures. I'd be
careful about drinking alcohol though, because it is a vasoconstrictor and
is contraindicated in the cold weather especially in situations with
hypothermia. It's a bad combo. because it is also very dehydrating.
Did I mention that after June 1917, a foul-smelling grease made of whale oil
was supplemented with a French mixture of talcum powder and camphor? Can't
imagine what that must have smelled/felt like! I thought it was interesting
that trenchfoot was first noted during Napoleon's retreat from Russia.
During the Falklands, 14% of casualties were also due to trenchfoot. Sorta
makes me wonder if we learned anything from WW 1.
Thanks for all your work in the military. You are appreciated,
Janice
USA
----- Original Message -----
From: Taff Gillingham <>
To: janice duke <>
Cc: <>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 8:09 PM
Subject: Re: from Janice @
>
>
> Hi Janice,
>
> Thank you for all the gory details. The treatment notes may well come in
> useful.
>
> I already have some personal experience: I suffered a minor form of trench
> foot after Christmas 1999 when I led The Khaki Chums to Plugstreet to
> commemorate the Christmas Truce of 1914. After 5 days of having our feet
> continually submerged in freezing cold mud and water (and despite
> thoroughly drying our feet and changing our socks every day) several of us
> lost all sensation in our toes. I did not recover all the sensation in
mine
> until mid-February.
>
> For an overview of the Christmas Truce commemoration see:
>
> http://www.hellfire-corner.demon.co.uk/chums.htm
>
> From a historical point of view, the Standing Orders regarding Trench Foot
> changed throughout the war (and of course depended on the time of year
> too). Regulations tend to vary from Division to Division too. Whale Oil
was
> a 'Trench Store' and was administered daily in the presence of an Officer
> by some unfortunate whos job it was to rub the oil in to the men's feet.
> Feet were inspected once a day and every man's kit was checked to make
sure
> he had two spare pairs of socks as well as the ones he was wearing.
>
> The Standing Orders for 41st Division, December 1916 say:
>
> "Section IV Standing Orders for Trenches.
>
> 13. TRENCH FEET. -
> It should be a point of honour and pride for a platoon commander to be
able
> to say no member of his platoon developed "Trench Feet" during the
> brigade's tour of duty in the front line.
> Once daily the platoon commander will see that each NCO and man has 3
pairs
> of socks (1 in wear and 2 in kit), that boots are loosely laced, and when
> not actually on duty removed for a period; that puttees are not too tight,
> that when wet socks are taken off the feet are cleaned, dried, and rubbed
> thoroughly with whale oil before dry socks are put on, that circulation is
> kept up by a few moments' occasional exercise, particularly after the men
> have been stationary while on duty, and that wet socks are collected and
> sent to company headquarters."
>
> Thank you once again for your help - and the photographs and website
details.
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Taff
>
>
>
>
> >trench foot, 1914-18, ww1
> > TRENCH FOOT
> >
> > Trench foot was one of the most widespread and debilitating that
affected
> >men from both sides of the lines, it is linked with WW1 hence the name
"Trench
> >foot". The disease's origin isn't in WW1 but was first noted in Napoleons
army
> >in 1812. It was on the retreat from Russia that it became prevalent, and
was
> >first described by Larrey. He observed that this condition didn't occur
during
> >the freezing cold of the campaign but when the temperature was near to
zero
> >degrees with the presence of moisture. Here lies the clue. During the
First
> >war men were exposed to Cold but not freezing conditions often up to
their
> >ankles in water that was permanently in the bottom of the trenches. The
feet
> >would swell, appear red and blood blistered, the pain would be severe,
until
> >the sensory nerves had been damaged and would then be numb causing the
man to
> >be evacuated hopefully. The treatment would be basically to elevate the
limb,
> >some modest warmth and wait. After a few weeks the limb would return to
normal
> >in most cases, but some severe ones that became gangrenous could result
in
> >amputation, with all the complications that went with that, some of those
that
> >did recover would have nerve damage. . As for the battalion pride in
having
> >low trench foot rates, some cases could be prevented with care. Some
> >situations made trench foot more likely, such as poor fitting boots
> >restriciting the circulation, immobility, amount of water and temperature
of
> >water in the base of the trench. Some of the preventative measures used
were
> >the issuing of gumboots where possible, but keeping feet dry was
impossible. I
> >have read accounts of men being forced to apply whale grease to the feet
i
> >presume to impart some waterproofness to them. Either way I believe some
cases
> >were practically unavoidable, and must have been the devil itself if you
got
> >it. The army went to great lengths to find out how to prevent it,
employing
> >hygienists, doctors all sorts and the general conclusion was military
> >discipline and good hygiene. That meant where possible boots off and foot
> >inspections carried out, greasing, and charging men who appeared to be
> >neglecting these instructions, remember that there would be individuals
who
> >would deliberately contract this illness to get out of the line. Nowadays
this
> >illness is still known as trench foot or immersion foot, on the Falklands
> >campaign it amounted to 14% of casualties. It is now mainly seen in the
> >homeless street dwellers.
> >
> >For those interested there is a good article in the Western Front
Association
> >Journal "Stand to" 30 page9 which went into detail about the effect of
Trench
> >foot on the Australian 5th Division on the Somme in 1916 where the
Division
> >suffered 37% of it's casualties inflicted upon it were classified as
Trench
> >foot, as opposed to an average of 25%. it was thought that these figures
were
> >on the low side as Trench foot rates were monitored and many Trench foot
cases
> >were called something else and missed the stats.
> >
> >return to disease page
> >
> >return to main
> >
> >
> ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
> ><HTML><HEAD><TITLE>trench foot, 1914-18, ww1</TITLE>
> ><META content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv=Content-Type><BASE
> >href=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kylet1/tfoot.htm><;!--
Created by
> >AOLpress/1.2 -->
> ><META content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=GENERATOR>
> ><STYLE></STYLE>
> ></HEAD>
> ><BODY background=green.gif bgColor=#80ffff link=#0000ff text=#000000>
> ><DIV> </DIV>
> ><P align=center> <BIG><BIG><BIG><BIG><U>TRENCH
> > FOOT</U></BIG></BIG></BIG></BIG>
> ><P align=left><IMG align=left height=306 src="foot.jpg" width=253>
> > <BIG>Trench foot was one of the most widespread and debilitating
that
> >affected men from both sides of the lines, it is linked with WW1 hence
the
> >name
> >"Trench foot". The disease's origin isn't in WW1 but was first noted in
> >Napoleons army in 1812. It was on the retreat from Russia that it became
> >prevalent, and was first described by Larrey. He observed that this
condition
> >didn't occur during the freezing cold of the campaign but when the
temperature
> >was near to zero degrees with the presence of moisture. Here lies the
clue.
> >During the First war men were exposed to Cold but not freezing conditions
> >often
> >up to their ankles in water that was permanently in the bottom of the
> >trenches.
> >The feet would swell, appear red and blood blistered, the pain would be
> >severe,
> >until the sensory nerves had been damaged and would then be numb
causing
> >the man to be evacuated hopefully. The treatment would be basically to
elevate
> >the limb, some modest warmth and wait. After a few weeks the limb would
return
> >to normal in most cases, but some severe ones that became gangrenous
could
> >result in amputation, with all the complications that went with that,
some of
> >those that did recover would have nerve damage. . As for the battalion
pride
> >in
> >having low trench foot rates, some cases could be prevented with care.
Some
> >situations made trench foot more likely, such as poor fitting boots
> >restriciting
> >the circulation, immobility, amount of water and temperature of water in
the
> >base of the trench. Some of the preventative measures used were the
issuing of
> >gumboots where possible, but keeping feet dry was impossible. I have read
> >accounts of men being forced to apply whale grease to the feet i presume
to
> >impart some waterproofness to them. Either way I believe some cases were
> >practically unavoidable, and must have been the devil itself if you got
it.
> >The
> >army went to great lengths to find out how to prevent it, employing
> >hygienists,
> >doctors all sorts and the general conclusion was military discipline and
good
> >hygiene. That meant where possible boots off and foot inspections carried
out,
> >greasing, and charging men who appeared to be neglecting these
instructions,
> >remember that there would be individuals who would deliberately contract
this
> >illness to get out of the line. Nowadays this illness is still known as
trench
> >foot or immersion foot, on the Falklands campaign it amounted to 14% of
> >casualties. It is now mainly seen in the homeless street dwellers.</BIG>
> ><P align=left><B>For those interested there is a good article in the
Western
> >Front Association Journal "Stand to" 30 page9 which went into detail
about the
> >effect of Trench foot on the Australian 5th Division on the Somme in 1916
> >where
> >the Division suffered 37% of it's casualties inflicted upon it were
classified
> >as Trench foot, as opposed to an average of 25%. it was thought that
these
> >figures were on the low side as Trench foot rates were monitored and many
> >Trench
> >foot cases were called something else and missed the stats. </B>
> ><P align=left><BIG><A href="trench.htm">return to disease page</A></BIG>
> ><P align=left><BIG><A href="kthp.htm">return to main</A></BIG>
> ></P></BODY></HTML>
> >
> >Content-type: image/jpeg; name=foot.jpg
> >Content-disposition: attachment; filename=foot.jpg
> >Content-Location:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kylet1/foot.jpg
> >
> >Attachment converted: Taffs Own Mac:foot.jpg (JPEG/JVWR) (0001E8E4)
> >Content-type: image/gif; name=green.gif
> >Content-disposition: attachment; filename=green.gif
> >Content-Location:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kylet1/green.gif
> >
> >Attachment converted: Taffs Own Mac:green.gif (GIFf/JVWR) (0001E8E5)
>
>
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