Students Learn Horrors of WWI ‘Firsthand’

Laurel Hill Connection: Students Learn Horrors of WWI ‘Firsthand’

Chances are, some 600 seventh-graders at Robinson Secondary won’t soon forget what life was like for soldiers during World War I. That’s because they recently participated in a simulation of life in the trenches.

"This is an awful, inhumane period of time," middle school Social Studies Department Chairman Susan Reade told her students at the outset. "I need you to use your imaginations and commit to this. I need you to think, ‘What if this were real and there were bullets flying and bombs going off? How would I feel?"

She and four other social studies teachers recreated an hour-long, battle-zone atmosphere over three days, while students huddled together on the floor, under long tables in a darkened room. Images of war were projected on a screen while the teacher read excerpts from Erich Maria Remarque’s "All Quiet on the Western Front."
"We’re trying to communicate the horrors of the living conditions relevant to WWI and the weapons of destruction created then," said Reade. "This piece gives them the opportunity to really feel, hear and believe they’re in a battle situation. It should be uncomfortable and thought-provoking. Anytime you have kids in an interactive situation, where they can put themselves in that state and time, it’ll be more meaningful for them and they’ll really remember it."

One session involved 31 students in Reade’s sixth-period class, and she prepared them beforehand for life in the trenches. She said the border between Germany and France contained 475 miles of trenches, which were fought over for three years.

"Ten million people died in WWI because we had the bullet and bomb capability to do it," said Reade. "Soldiers dug trenches in the dirt, underground, with tree roots, insects crawling all around and rodents. This is a filthy, dirty place, and this is where you live, eat and try to sleep, 24/7, no matter the weather."

"Your uniforms are wool, so they itch, and lice are a tremendous problem," she said. "Rain turns the dirt into mud and your feet are always wet, so you get trench foot. It’s almost unlivable, and the noise of the bombs overhead is continual.

Soldiers will have shell-shock and uncontrollable ticks. Some were hospitalized and traumatized for months and years afterward."

The worst thing, said Reade, was the poison gas created for that war. "If you get it in your eyes, it causes blindness," she said. "If it gets in your throat, the acid burns your lungs and you take days to die."

For the simulation, students wore surgical masks, but social studies teacher John Perriello had one girl briefly don a real gas mask for illustration. Then, while students crouched under tables in their "trenches," Reade had them write down everything they saw, heard and smelled during their experience.

With battle scenes projected onscreen, Reade would intermittently yell, "Incoming!" as she and Periello smacked the tops of the tables hard with mop handles and big blocks of wood, while a soundtrack of shooting and explosions played loudly.
"Write for me what you’re afraid of," Reade told the students. "What are the dangers? How are you preparing yourself to face them? What are you thinking about? You’ve been shelled for three days in a row; how does your head feel? You’ve been on the ground awhile now; how do your legs and back feel?"

The teachers also blew shrill whistles, from time to time, and rang cowbells to simulate the bells warning that a gas attack was coming. "It’s poisonous, chlorine gas," shouted Reade. "Is your mask on tight enough? The mask itches and scratches and covers your whole face. It gives you claustrophobia. How do you feel?"

Detailing more about what the soldiers went through, she said, "Besides protecting your head, your helmet was your bathtub and what you ate meals out of. One piece of bread and one tin of meat is your ration for 24 hours. How will you make it last? The rats have nibbled on your bread. Will you still eat it? The meat is spoiled, but you eat it anyway and feel sick."

They also had mail call, with some "soldiers" receiving mail, and others, nothing. Again, students wrote how they felt. Afterward, they shared their thoughts about the whole experience.

"It was like it was real," said Brendan Benning. "You could hear the bombs exploding and the machine guns. It was like you were right there. My back was sore and the cramped position hurt. It feels like the ‘bang, bang, bang’ would never go out of your head." He said he would have tried trading his spoiled meat for smaller pieces that were better, but "It would be disgusting living there. I’d have to have a stick to beat up the rats."

Charlotte Hyland said it enabled the students to put themselves in the soldiers’ places. "You had a good sense of what they felt," she said. "The positions we were sitting in, the noise and the screaming were almost scary, and it was much worse in the actual war. I don’t think I could have coped with it. Those soldiers must have been really strong to have gone through that."

In her "letter," she received a Starburst candy with a note saying, "A treat from mom and dad."

"It made me happy that they didn’t forget about me," said Charlotte. "It also made me remember I wasn’t dead, but was still alive and who I was."

During the simulation, she said, "I was scared. Everything was loud, it was hot and it hurt lying down. I just wanted to get out of there. It’s hard to imagine what it was like doing that for years."

John Anderson said it was fun, but that he could see how bad it was for those actually there. "It gives us a real picture of what it would be like," he said. "A lot of people go off to war not realizing how bad it is." He added that the simulation would leave more of an imprint on the students than just reading from a textbook.

John, too, was happy to get mail. "My mom and dad told me what was going on at home," he said. "It made the problems of war lift up for a couple seconds so I could remember the good parts of life."

Lucas Puranen also liked the simulation. "It was very loud," he said. "It must be annoying always having bombs and planes overhead. It was also disgusting, but real soldiers have to live with it. They’d be stronger mentally because of all the things they’d gone through, if they were still sane. Having to sleep in the mud with the constant sound of rats was gross." Lucas also wondered how well the gas masks really worked. "I have to respect the current U.S. troops for all they do," he said. "I don’t know how they do it."

For homework, the students had to write as if it were 1916 and argue that the U.S. should or shouldn’t enter WWI. They had to give three reasons supporting their statement and list a factual event backing up one of their reasons. Reade also shared with them a letter her grandfather wrote home from that war, July 24, 1918.
A medical officer, he treated patients in a field hospital in France. Describing a German air attack on the hospital, he expressed contempt for anyone who’d do such a thing, but was confident the war would be over soon. "The spirit, courage and morale of our boys is the most wonderful thing," he wrote. "We know that victory is ours, sooner or later."