Source: File: Ratting: The New Sport in the Trenches.
[online] see an original image at: <http://www.rentokil.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Trench-rats-3.jpg>
Accessed: 13 January 2016].
Source: File: Ratting:
A heap of 600 Rats. [online] see an original image at: <http://www.rentokil.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Trench-rats-3.jpg>
Accessed: 13 January 2016].
Another dire
factor of trench existence
Came with the
presence of rats -
Any shelter or
ditch, dug into earth,
Cut into rocks or
amid woods,
All suffered
sights of such creatures.
Such were the
menace of the rats
Being were known
to retaliate,
At those chasing
them along a trench -
To snap and bite
their feet;
Such cases were
not isolated events.
Brown or black types
of rats became
Ever bolder, like
unwanted pets -
Ready to snatch a
piece of bread from
Any unwary
soldier's hands;
Or crawl over men
who fell asleep.
Rats tested their
luck on the living,
To leave possible
plague
Of Wiel's disease
- likely keeping
Away by day, the chance
Rats emerged at
night for hunting.
Rain, filth and
mud had provided
Ideal places for
rats to breed,
Alongside the
human inhabitants -
At times being so
bad
To drive living
souls out of holes.
The sight of such
things had once
Sent a French
officer to flee
From a
comfortable dugout to live
In a damp shelter,
where
Corrugated iron
kept rats at bay.
A new force
dispatched to front
Were presence of
terriers,
To back a new
type of sport - while
Prohibition of
shots did not
Stop the game of bayonet
practice.
Likely encouraged
by dead rats
Numbers making
for
Rewards, at halfpenny
each - 8000
Kills by one
corps, made
Earnings to a
total of 16 pounds.
A tale could be
told, how one lucky
Officer had been
given
A sprung bed - as he retired he heard
A scuffle, to
shine a light on
Two rats,
fighting over a severed hand.
A wounded man
might find danger,
If lacking
strength or ability,
To be attacked by
rodent types - while
At night food cans
thrown
Over trenches
would rattle by rat noses.
Brown or black,
the rats became as big
Cats as they
gorged on dead -
The corpse rat
breed having feasted
On the unburied,
to unnerve
The living in
knowing what they did.
Out on patrol one
young soldier saw
How they came
upon some
Dead, from under
greatcoats scurried
Rats - saw closer a grimace face
Lost of flesh; a
rat ran out of the mouth.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Trench
Improvements - What The French Have Done. The Daily Telegraph,
[online] 12 January 1916.
P.4. Col.6. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12085387/Daily-Telegraph-January-12-1916.html
[Accessed: 12 January 2016].
Source: File:
Encyclopedia - Trench Rats. Online. Available at:
<http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/rats.htm> Accessed 13 January 2016
Source: File: Rare
Historical Photos. Trench rats killed by a terrier, 1916. Online. Available at:
< http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/trench-rats-killed-terrier-1916/>
Accessed 13 January 2016
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication,
12 January 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1trenches
No comments:
Post a Comment