Returning World War I Soldiers

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When the United States Returning soldiers came home from World War One, it had a big impact on everyone. Overall thousands of once normal men who had families of their own would go off to war and experience trauma they would never forget and would be coming home disabled, both mentally and physically, and having no treatments to help them. Additionally, World War One brought new medical advancements that helped them return to the life they had before, and these advancements are ones we still use today.
What World War One soldiers faced during the war was unimaginable for anyone to go through. A lot of the fighting was trench warfare. The conditions of the trenches were horrible and disgusting. Trenches smelled like chemicals like creosol and chlorine that was used to keep diseases and infections from spreading. The smells of dead rotting flesh of men who died, men who had not showered in weeks or months, and the smell of sweat and sour feet odor was prevalent throughout the trenches. The stability of the trenches was not the greatest establishment for men to be living and fighting in because they could easily collapse due to rainfall. The thick mud that they would constantly have to stand in was causing many soldiers to develop trench foot..A constant battle they faced in the trenches were rats and mice. Rats would grow to sizes of cats and crawl across the chests of men when they were sleeping. Lice would never stop breeding; they would nest in the seams of clothing and they would never go away, they would cause the men to itch. In the western front during World War One, at least one third of allied deaths happened in the trenches. (Life in Trenches). The fighting and death they saw would be hard for anyone to see. In the article...

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Allan,tony.the causes of world war1, Chicago,Illinois, 2003. Print

"Life in trenches" . Firstworldwar.com. Print. 5/2/14

Randle,Julie. "Life after war: returning soldiers cope with peaceful world" veterans today, jan 21.2005. Web. 5/4/14

Ross, Stewart. "Causes and consequences of world war 1. Austin Tx, 1998. Print

Scott, W. J. (1990). PTSD in the DSM-III: A case in the politics of diagnosis and disease. Social Problems. Web may 11-2014

Smith,Walter "the effects after world war 1" 18, March,2007. Web. 5/8/14

"World War I." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. Vol. 5. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 2751-2766. World History in Context. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

"World war 1- experiences on th western front" weebly.com web. Print

World War I « History of PTSD. Web may 11/2014

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