The trench foot – Suffering in wetness and mud - How does the trench foot develop?

How does the trench foot develop?

The conductibility of water is 20 times as high as the one of air. This is one essential condition for the development of the "trench foot". Basically you have a humid environment meeting low temperatures. If the soldiers did suffer from the "trench foot" in the end, depended on the conditions of their mission and also of their own preconditions. Usually the front troupes in the trenches had the highest morbidity.

Yet military doctors see the problem also with sharp, dry frost, in which cases frostbites of course are a result. But it was additionally dangerous for the soldiers if wetness was added to the cold. If the soldiers' feet were exposed to a muddy milieu more than 10 days, without being able to wash, dry and warm up their feet, the danger was extremely high. Temperatures above the freezing point were more than sufficient. If mud and snow could get into the boots via the surface of the boots, and if this melted, the skin became soft and additionally bacteria could increase the danger of infections. Those were the conditions in the fall of 1914 along the whole front line in France. If this added to constitutional vascular inflammations, tight boots, a squatting position, scleroses in smokers, lack of hygiene and alimentation that was bad and poor in vitamins in individual soldiers, you had the dangerous combination facilitating the "trench foot".