The Trench

Accompanying the BBC documentary series, this volume recreates in extraordinary detail the experience of day-to-day life for soldiers in World War I. Volunteers have been recruited from the streets of Hull, exactly as the "Hull Pals" (the nickname of the 10th battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment) were recruited in 1914. After being trained just as the original recruits were trained and taken to a carefully reconstructed trench in northern France, they are subjected to as many of the privations suffered by their great-grandfathers as can realistically be recreated. It is an extraordinary challenge, physically, mentally and historically. Based on hours of original research and interviews with surviving veterans of the Great War, as well as the regimental diary which describes every hour of every day in painstaking detail, "The Trench" aims to give an honest and accurate picture of what it actually felt like to be a soldier on the front line in 1916. What was it like to see the trenches for the first time? What did you do to pass the time once you got there? How did you deal with trench routine? And the deaths of your friends? How did you treat injuries? And trench foot? And lice? What did you eat? How did you sleep? How did you stay alive?