Did you know that apart from the Germans, the New Zealanders' biggest enemy at Passchendaele during WWI were the terrible living conditions in the trenches?

The muddy and wet conditions gave many New Zealand soldier's trench foot! Trench foot was caused by soldiers having their feet in damp, unsanitary, and cold conditions for really long periods of time. It made their feet go numb, turn blue, and then begin to swell! If it got really bad the soldiers feet would get covered in open sores and blisters as well. Sometimes their feet had to get amputated too!

The hard living conditions in the trenches also gave soldiers trench fever, from the HUGE amount of lice that lived in the trenches. The lice weren't the only creatures to enjoy living in the trenches ... Rats were reported to grow as large as cats, as they thrived in the gross conditions.

Read more about the soldiers experience in the trenches at NZHistory!