Military historian recounts tedium of life in the trenches during visit to Staindrop

Life in the trenches wasn't all action. Special advisor to the Great War blockbuster Warhorse, Andy Robertshaw, paints a more mundane picture. Alex Metcalfe reports. 

MILITARY history expert has dropped in on Teesdale to bust myths about life on the front line.
Andy Robertshaw told students how life in the First World War wasn’t all gunfire and “going over the top” – with more pressing everyday tasks often at the forefront of trench life.
The author of no fewer than 12 books on the Great War visited the area a fortnight ago with talks at both schools in Staindrop, Teesdale School and Scarth Hall.
The former teacher also recalled his experience as a special advisor and acting extra on Steven Spielberg’s Great War blockbuster Warhorse – telling one tale of how Mr Spielberg had carried on filming all morning on one occasion despite wandering into a waste high puddle of mud and icy cold water. 
Before stories of life on set, Mr Robertshaw told Staindrop Academy pupils how his passion for history had been kindled by talking to Great War veterans in childhood.
Mr Robertshaw said: “I have been studying the First World War for about 46 years in one way or another and I am still learning more and working on new projects.
“I’ve used field walking, archaeology, talking to veterans and studying film shot in the First World War – there’s still more to learn. It’s the detail I find interesting.”
A Yorkshireman by birth, Mr Robertshaw used to visit Catterick Garrison three times a week to teach today’s forces men and women about war history. Now he works for the BBC, the Imperial War Museum and the Army, revealing his research about life in the Great War.
“From the very beginning of the war we face the Germans and sometimes fight battles – but they don’t happen very often,” said Mr Robertshaw. “Most days are spent in the trenches. For every day of the war, with or without battle, 250 soldiers will die. You live in a hole in the ground.”
Mr Robertshaw told students how he and a team of soldiers and enthusiasts built their own trench, abandoned it for six months and then got a team to spend 24 hours in it.
Volunteers dressed in full Tommy gear to match the experience – with tins of corned beef and porridge oats for company. 
“Altogether uniform was around 30kg of kit,” he said. “It would contain everything he would need for five days – every day a sandbag will come through with enough food for all the men.
“I know there was more food than soldiers needed because of the full tins left in the ground – 3,400 calories-worth per day.”
Toilet paper tended to be in short supply on the front line – therefore any paper to hand would often serve a second purpose.
Mr Robertshaw added: “Museums have many things from the war. There are many letters from soldiers but you will find virtually no letters from home.”
The death rate among Allied soldiers in the First World War was 11.8 per cent although it was closer to 20 per cent for officers.
Trench mortars, snipers, infections and accidents were daily threats but trench life was mundane for the most part.  Mr Robertshaw added: “Most days were boring. I spoke to a veteran when I was 14 – he said he was 90 per cent bored stiff, nine per cent frozen stiff and one per cent scared stiff.
“In films we just see the one per cent – we don’t see the reality of war.”
Eating, drinking and basic hygienic measures had importance in the close quarters of the Western Front.
Apples were more popular than oranges as after one day in the trenches, men often had one “dirty hand” and one “clean hand”.
Regular shaving with a cut-throat razor was enforced as gas masks or “respirators” needed a tight seal to keep out deadly fumes.
“One in every 100 men was the assigned cook and doctors did feet inspections to stop people getting trench foot,” added Mr Robertshaw.
“Afternoon is when you sleep – normally taking it in turns because the only one in ten soldiers is on guard duty. You probably got about four to six hours’ sleep a day. At the end of five days you would be exhausted.”
Soldiers would typically spend five days in the front-line trenches and 25 days out either training, working or going off on leave.
If you were wounded by shrapnel or shot in the upper leg at the start of the war, there was an 80 per cent likelihood you wouldn’t make it through.
By 1916, there was an 80 per cent chance you would live.  Although the war claimed millions of lives, necessity meant technology accelerated.
“In 1914 there was one doctor in New Zealand doing blood transfusions, by 1916 every army unit is doing it. Before the Great War, if a man was wounded you would sew it up.
“In the Boer Wars in South Africa that was fine as the ground was sterile.
“If you got shot in dirty uniform on the Western Front and sewed it up – it would fester and get infected.
“They learned to stop people getting gangrene to keep wounds open and flush them out with EUSOL (Edinburgh University Solution of Lime) liquid.”
Mr Robertshaw told pupils he struggled through school but his passion and keenness for the minutiae of life in wartime saw him through.
He added: “I now have an MA, and a career FSA (Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries) but I was not successful at school as I was dyslexic.
“If you are really keen on a subject, you will go a long way.”