Army
Blackadder Life In Trenches ‘Not Accurate’
A study that came together with the help of 27,000 volunteers, has found First World War soldiers may have spent significantly less time in the trenches than previously thought.
Artillery soldiers spent 62% of their time either at the front or fighting, with the cavalry spending just 20% of their time at the front or fighting.
The findings come after the National Archive’s collection of war diaries for the entire British Army on the Western Front, were digitised and put online.
People, who are being dubbed Citizen Historians, are asked to go on to www.operationwardiary.org and add information about the pages digitally using specially designed tags, including names, dates and weather.
The volunteers produced over half a million data classifications for six infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions, which was then analysed. The largest previous study looked at just one infantry division.
Professor Richard Grayson from Goldsmiths, University London who is working on the project, said:
“Even with less than half your time spent at the front and around one out of five days actually under fire, nobody should doubt that conditions were horrendous.
“It is also worth noting that these average figures mask some remarkably lengthy periods at the front by some units. For example, among the battalions examined so far in OWD, the 1st East Lancashires were almost entirely in the line between 21 October 1914 and 11 April 1915.
“But our research shows that popular representations of soldiers spending all day and night in the trenches – whether it’s in Blackadder, on the BBC Schools pages, or popular histories and broadcasts – do not properly represent the broad pattern of the daily lives of soldiers.”
Professor Grayson also notes it is likely the percentage figures quoted are a maximum, as war diaries tended to be less detailed about their activities during ‘time off’ or training.
Operation War Diaries is an on-going project with more documents continuously being added.
If you want to take part and become a citizen historian log on to www.operationwardiary.org
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