Frank Sears, a Corporal in the A.E.F., put pen to paper and explained for all posterity the filthy conditions of living in a W.W. I trench:
"We had heard from fellows who had been there before us what we thought were jokes about cooties and trench rats, but it was no joke to me when I looked, for the first time, at a rat as big as a cat... I threw a heavy hobnail shoe at him and he merely changed his position and looked around to see who had interrupted him. But I will say that if it were a matter of choice, I would select a hundred rats in preference to two cooties."
"We became so used to mud up in the lines that if our chow did not have some mud, or muddy water in it we could not digest it. It was just a case of mud all over: eat, drink, sleep and wash in mud."
More articles about W.W. I trench warfare can be read here.
