User:Carmlos009/sandbox

The Battle of the Somme was an Anglo-French offensive of July to November 1916. The opening of this offensive (1 July 1916) saw the British Army endure the bloodiest day in its history, suffering 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead, on the first day alone. The entire Somme offensive cost the British Army some 420,000 casualties. The French suffered another estimated 200,000 casualties and the Germans an estimated 500,000. Gun fire wasn't the only factor taking lives, the diseases that emerged in the trenches were a major killer in the was on both sides. The living conditions made it so that countless diseases and infections occurred. Trench foot, shell shock, blindness/burns from mustard gas, lice, trench fever, cooties (body lice) and the ‘Spanish Flu’ Since constant rain kept pouring into the trenches and accumulating, the soldiers had to constantly walk in them and their feet would keep getting submerged in mud. The constant moisture created fungi infections that wouldn't heal, leading to the skin dying and in turn meant soldiers aren't only fighting for their country but also for their survival.