Trench rats were rodents that were found around the frontline trenches of World War I. Due to massive amounts of debris, corpses, and a putrid environment, rats at the trenches bred at a rapid pace. The rats likely numbered in the millions. The rats played a role in damaging the soldiers' health, psyche and morale and were responsible for lack of sleep, adding to the filthy conditions and unsanitary hygiene in the trenches. As such, the trench rats left a lasting impression on the Allied soldiers who served on the Western Front, with veterans who served in the French and British armies speaking about their horrible experiences with rats during interviews. Attempts to solve the rat problem were not effective during the war. Although they could be found in abundance during World War I, these rats appeared to decrease rapidly after the war ended. The rats' contribution to the terrible environment in the trenches aided in the avoidance of using trenches in future wars, especially in Europe, where their negative legacy remains to this day, memorialized through media portrayals. Trench rats are often viewed with a pessimistic connotation associated with the worst of trench life and warfare, especially in their depiction in movies. They have also been portrayed in a positive light in poems, such as "Break of Day in the Trenches" by Isaac Rosenberg, as well as in modern fictional history videos as a metaphor for the life of a French soldier living in the trenches.
World War I
One of the most widespread problems that many soldiers of the Allied and Central powers in Europe faced during World War I was the abundance of rats they were forced to live alongside during the war. High numbers of soldiers, both alive and dead, stationed along the trenches dug into the Western Front, in constrained, outdoor spaces with a severe lack of available cleanliness procedures led to trench rats becoming a common occurrence.
In the trenches
When living in the trenches along the Western Front, food and waste created by soldiers drew the rats in. The environment in the trenches was optimal for a rat's breeding ground: with an abundance of corpses, food, shelter, water and waste, the rats were able to breed quickly. Rats could be found wherever soldiers were; where they ate, where they slept, where they fought. There are estimations that show it is possible there were more rats than soldiers in trenches. Rats, being nocturnal creatures, would often be active during times when soldiers were trying to rest. Only those with high enough status would be given "anti-rat beds" while the rest of the soldiers would have practically no form of protection against them. It was not uncommon for rats to crawl across the faces of sleeping soldiers or even eat food straight from soldiers' hands as they became more accustomed to human presence. Attempts to separate food from the rats would prove to be futile, as rats were bold and snatched the food from the pockets of sleeping soldiers anyway. In addition to eating the food rations of soldiers, rats also had a proclivity to eat the candles of soldiers, taking away a source of light in an already dangerous environment.
Impact on soldiers
Physical effects on soldiers Rats are known for carrying various contagious diseases. The close proximity between the soldiers and the rats led to these diseases being spread throughout the trenches. The most common of these would be typhus, bartonellosis (also known as trench fever), and leptospirosis. These diseases could take a massive toll on the soldiers, with trench fever possibly pulling a soldier away from the front lines for months at a time. Rats were carriers of lice. Lice can also transmit disease and played a role in spreading trench fever amongst the soldiers. Trench rats also gnawed on those who were wounded, sleeping or unable to protect themselves. In one instance, a British soldier recounted in an interview that one of his fellow countrymen had his forehead bitten while he had been asleep, with the wound being severe enough to warrant a visit to the infirmary.
Psychological effects on soldiers Trench rats contributed to many different psychological effects on the human psyche given their ability to disrupt sleep and reduce the overall quality of the soldiers' rest. The noises rats made in no man's land during night would sometimes cause soldiers to believe enemies were mounting an attack, leading them to grow paranoid and shoot out into the empty space between trenches. Rats also scurried across the soldiers' faces and bodies when they slept, which was another cause for awakening. On top of all of this, rats were known to eat the irretrievable dead bodies of soldiers left in no man's land, and the nibbling of rats eating bodies could be heard in the trenches during periods of silence between active warfare.
On the other hand, the situation with the rats also allowed some reprieve to the soldiers stationed along the Western Front. Due to long periods of inactivity in the trenches with an abundance of rats, rat hunting became a sport and a source of entertainment for the Allied soldiers to stave off boredom. Because ammunition needed to be conserved for battles, killing the rats with bayonets was acceptable and eventually became a pastime for the soldiers. Rats also served as companions, with some soldiers keeping them as pets to escape the brutality of the war around them. Overall, the negative experiences with the trench rats that the Allied soldiers experienced on the Western Front far outweighed those of the positive and many British and French veterans who served there would later recall rats as an integral part of their worst experiences in the trenches, amongst the mud, rain, lice, trench foot and death.
Attempted solutions
Ammunition had to be conserved for fighting the enemy, therefore soldiers were dissuaded from using bullets to kill the numerous rats in the trenches. Other methods of killing rats were acceptable, be it through animals or bayonets although other attempted solutions were also implemented. Soldiers were often given monetary incentive to kill trench rats when they could. For example, in the French army, the quartermaster's office promised a bonus of 50 cents for each rat tail presented. At other times, rat-catchers were also hired by the army to catch the rats in the trenches as soldiers could not and were scared to fall asleep due to the rodents.
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