WW1: Life in the Trenches

**Please note, this scene depicts elements of warfare and teacher discretion is advised.**

Send your students back in time on an immersive journey into the front-line trenches of World War One. In this VR experience, they will meet soldiers and officers from both Allied and Central Powers. They'll explore the juxtaposition of trench life - writing letters, sentry duty, resting, and fighting in mud-soaked conditions. From digging new trenches to enduring constant bombardment, students will witness the courage of daily survival and the devastating impact of warfare, all while analyzing how weather and bombing transformed the battlefield.

**Note to Teachers:**

This experience has been created to give students an understanding of the realities of warfare during World War One. It has been designed to represent the diversity of soldiers from around the world who fought bravely in WWI trenches and has drawn inspiration from primary sources and research to create a rounded learning experience for a global audience. For the best experience, we recommend using single-player mode and asking students to enter the scene individually.

# Learning Objectives

1. Experience daily life on the front-lines, using visual evidence to gain insights into a soldier's daily routine and trench conditions{.info}
2. Explore the diverse groups in the front-line trenches and their contributions to the war effort{.info}
3. Develop an understanding and appreciation of the psychological effects of warfare on soldiers{.info}

# Preparing for the Experience

Before entering the WWI: Life in the Trenches experience, engage your students by asking what they know about the war.

Explain that soldiers from both sides of the conflict, Allied and Central powers, dug trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire, giving them somewhere to rest, fight, and live. This line of trenches, which was later called The Western Front, stretched around 440 miles (700 km) and was vital in halting enemy advances while enabling the movement of troops and supplies.

**Preparation Questions**

Encourage your students to think about the following questions to help guide them through the experience:

What do you already know about how trenches were built and why they were used in WW1?{.task}

What do you already know about the daily life of a soldier in the trenches?{.task}

What do you know about the roles of different people in the trenches?{.task}

As you explore the trench, take note of the different objects and locations around you. How many distinct areas can you spot?{.task}

# Step-by-Step Experience Guide

Teachers can use this step-by-step guide to lead students through the experience once they are in the headset. Alternatively, students can use the guide below independently, or in a group.

## Meet Your Fellow Soldiers!{.objective .objective1}


You are a soldier, and you have just arrived on the Western Front and found your way to the front line. Ahead of you, you see a British soldier signaling for you to advance forward. Behind you, a Sikh soldier with a Tulwar sword has just arrived on the front line. By the end of the war, around 100,000 Sikh soldiers volunteered for the British Indian Army, wearing turbans instead of steel helmets, believing they offered protection while honoring their sacred hair.

As you move forward, you'll see a soldier from the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR) helping to move sandbags, essential for trench construction. BWIR troops took on various support roles on the Western Front, including digging trenches, building roads, and serving as stretcher-bearers for the wounded or dead.

Looking around, you will notice that trenches were very basic constructions, but they were vital for survival. There were spaces to sleep, eat, shelter, perform sentry duty, or perhaps play cards or write a letter home.

Along the trench lines, troops would also dig out small rooms in the walls for officers, medical care, and storage. Sandbags were stacked along the parapet to protect soldiers from enemy snipers. The muddy floors of the trenches were paved with wooden planks or duckboards, and they were often fortified with barbed wire, wood, and metal sheets.

## Quick Fire Questions

What materials or tools do you think soldiers used to build trenches?{.task}

How is the trench designed to protect soldiers?{.task}

How effective do you think these elements were? What were some of the roles/responsibilities within the trench?{.task}

## Officer’s Dugout{.objective .objective2}


Carry on walking, and you will meet the commanding officer. This is the British officer's dugout, dimly lit with gas lamps. Step inside and observe the Western Front trench map, a recreation of maps that officers in command would have used to coordinate their troops' movements. On the officers’ planning table, you will be directed toward the officer compass. Since there wasn't any modern technology like GPS tracking, compasses were vital to find bearings and plan offensives effectively.

On the shelving units, you will find food tins, mess kits, helmets, and some British-issued water bottles. Drinking water was transported to front-line trenches in petrol cans and purified with chemicals. To disguise the taste, a lot of water was drunk as tea carried in a soldier's water bottle.

In the corner, you’ll find a Fullerphone Trench Line Communication Radio, a 1915 Morse telegraph for secure communication. Used by the British Army in WW1, it was nearly immune to eavesdropping and effective over 15-20 miles, even allowing simultaneous use with telephone lines.

## Quick Fire Questions

What items do you recognize here? What might they have been used for?{.task}

## Soldier Eating {.objective .objective3}


Moving forward, you’ll meet a Gurkha soldier carrying a kukri blade and eating his cold ration straight from a tin can. The British first encountered Gurkhas, from Nepal's hill people, during the Anglo-Nepalese War in 1814. Impressed by their skills and honor, the British began recruiting them in 1815, and they fought alongside the British Army in WW1 and continue to do so today.

No matter where you came from, life in the trenches was tough and vastly different from today. Front-line trenches, closest to the enemy and leading into *No Man's Land*, were battle zones where soldiers spent 24 hours a day for four to six days before rotating to secondary trenches. They lived, slept, and worked in harsh conditions. Food was rationed and basic, with each soldier receiving about 4,000 calories a day. In this trench, you’ll see tin cans and biscuits representing what soldiers would have eaten.

Cooking in the front-line trenches was also challenging, forcing soldiers to eat most of their rations cold. When they could cook, they often created a stew with tinned meat and biscuits, cooking it over a charcoal or wood fire in pots.

## Quick Fire Questions

Can you see any self-sustaining methods of obtaining food? Find a soldier to focus on.{.task}

Describe what they're doing and how this would have helped them survive trench conditions.{.task}

Where would soldiers eat and rest?{.task}

## Writing Home{.objective .objective4}


Look ahead; there’s an Australian soldier writing a letter to his father. In their spare time, many soldiers would write letters to their loved ones back home. Letter writing was the main form of communication between soldiers and their loved ones, who they might never see again. Censorship also limited what soldiers could reveal in their letters. WW1 letter collections and diaries worldwide have since provided us with a personal and powerful first-person view of the war.

Australian troops began to arrive in Marseille, France, at the end of March 1916. These soldiers traveled by train from the port of Marseille to northern France preparing to fight for the British Empire. By 1917, more than 76,000 Australians were injured on the Western Front, including some 40,000 who died.

## Quick Fire Questions

How did troops find normality on the front line?{.task}

What would troops write home to loved ones?{.task}

How would you describe the trench conditions and your daily routine?{.task}

## Horrors of Trench Foot {.objective .objective5}


As you turn a corner, you will see the trench floor get progressively filthier and muddier. Terrible trench conditions, with deep, thick mud and cold, wet weather, made it almost impossible to stop soldiers from getting sick.

Here you will see a wounded British soldier with trench foot. Trench foot was a condition resulting from having cold, wet feet for a long time, which was typical of life in the trenches. It caused painful, swollen feet and sometimes led to soldiers having their feet amputated.

Next to him is a Mercy Dog. Animals played crucial roles throughout WW1. In this experience, you will see animals in various roles. Dogs were often trained as Mercy dogs and sent out to assist the wounded, sometimes wearing a vest with the Red Cross symbol. Pigeons were employed for their incredible homing abilities, while poultry was occasionally kept to provide eggs, which helped soldiers boost their rations.

## Quick Fire Questions

What do you think caused and made trench foot worse?{.task}

What could have helped soldiers avoid trench foot?{.task}

What personal objects would soldiers have with them in the trenches?{.task}

## Polish and French Soldiers on Sentry Duty {.objective .objective6}


Next, get ready to spot Polish and French soldiers on sentry duty, easily recognizable by their striking blue uniforms! Perched on an improvised step carved into the trench's back slope, these soldiers are vigilant, scanning the horizon for any signs of the enemy.

The Polish Blue Army, or Haller's Army, was formed in France to fight for Polish independence under French command. Soldiers of Prussian or Austrian origin used French names to avoid execution. By spring 1915, these Legionnaires were actively engaged on the front lines.

Climb up the ladder and hear the roar of a British Mark V tank as you scan for enemy snipers over No Man’s Land, the area between two opposing armies’ trenches. It’s dangerous and unprotected, filled with obstacles like craters, barbed wire, and mist.

You’ll see one soldier using a periscope, a long tube with mirrors that allow him to look over the parapet without revealing his position. Soldiers also used other methods to detect the enemy, like raising their steel helmets above the trench. If snipers were nearby, the helmet would quickly attract fire, exposing their location.

## Quick Fire Questions

Can you find ways or places to try and stay dry?{.task}

Everybody in the trench had a job to do. What can you infer about a soldier's daily routine from the experience?{.task}

## Shell Shock {.objective .objective7}


Can you hear explosions? Next to the crater, you will see a soldier from the Harlem Hellfighters Infantry Regiment with his Winchester Trench Gun preparing to enter the crater area. What do you notice about his hand? Trench warfare heavily impacted soldiers' mental health. Living in cramped, muddy conditions with constant danger caused stress and anxiety, leading to conditions like shell shock, now known as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

Over 350,000 African Americans served in WW1, with the Harlem Hellfighters spending an incredible 191 days in front-line combat - believed to be more than any other U.S. unit their size. In 1918, they trained under French command and never served under American command during the war. It's believed they were named by their German foes, who dubbed them "Hellfighters" because of their courage and ferocity.

## Quick Fire Questions

What do you notice about the changing conditions of the trench?{.task}

How do the sounds of explosions make you feel?{.task}

As the trench gets louder, what emotions are you experiencing?{.task}

## Grenades! Gas Attack! {.objective .objective8}


A mustard gas bomb has detonated! As you approach the crater, notice the impact of heavy rainfall. Here, you’ll meet two German soldiers wearing M1917 gas masks, ringing the gas bell to warn of incoming poison gas. Many types of poisonous gas were used in WW1, including:

- **Chlorine gas** (first used in 1915)
- **Phosgene gas** (first used in Ypres in 1915)
- **Mustard gas** (first used in 1917)

These gases caused suffocation, a range of symptoms, and even death. Before gas masks were issued, soldiers soaked cloths in urine and held them over their faces for protection.

From here, you can wade through the water-filled crater and climb the mud bank to the other side. As you ascend it, you will see mist, hear gunfire, see a replica British Mark V tank, and get a sense of what it was like to be sent into No Man’s Land. A soldier knew that once they were sent there, they faced extreme danger and uncertainty, with little cover and the constant threat of enemy fire.

## Quick Fire Questions

Fighting has a psychological impact on many soldiers—what do you see, hear, and feel that illustrates this?{.task}

Think about innovations like gas masks, tanks, and radios. How did each change life on the front line?{.task}

# Extended Learning

Use these extended research ideas to enhance your WW1 Trench Experience and gain a deeper understanding of the conflict.

1. Send your students back into the experience and challenge them to identify soldiers from different parts of the world. They can choose one for further research, focusing on their background, contributions during the war, and the impact of their service on their home country.
2. Can your students identify the roles of animals using the trench experience as a basis for a research project?
3. Can students explore the impact of shell shock using the trench experience as a basis for a research project? They can investigate the causes, symptoms, and treatment of this condition, as well as its long-term effects on veterans.

# Cross-Curricular Links

**English**

Explore wartime letters or personal stories from soldiers, focusing on how their views differ based on rank, nationality, or role. Look at how they express their feelings and experiences, and compare how censorship, location, and background influenced their stories.

Use this research to write a fictional wartime letter to a loved one from the point of view of a soldier on the front-line trenches.

**Art**

In WW1, mass-produced porte bonheur (good luck) postcards became very popular. The style of the postcards varied, but they often had silk embroidery and featured a good luck symbol like horseshoes, four-leaf clover, flags, or florals. These were then sold to passing soldiers, as a good luck charm. Ask students to think about how these would have helped soldiers on the front line.

Show students some reference images of porte bonheurs. Ask them to create their own versions, either on paper or have a go at embroidering one!

# Teacher Resources

### Download the Teacher Notes Below

[](https://avnfs.com/C3TMbZwU7os-e2pJgGYvKdoQs70dkZgN3mNBGBjOJMc?size=3270360&type=application%2Fpdf&name=WW1+Life+in+the+Trenches+-+Teacher+Version.pdf)

### Download the Student Notes Below

[](https://avnfs.com/jgQr0zlOVxyjISfyvW9M_zBFSRttvOFYw7WNKEhI4XY?size=2794807&type=application%2Fpdf&name=WW1+Life+in+the+Trenches+Teacher+Notes+-+Student+Version.pdf)