Sabel, 108th Ammunition Train, 33rd Division. Titled An Ode to a Cootie, it was drawn by Private First Class Walter R. This recently processed illustration depicts an American soldier reading his shirt for cooties. British soldiers called this process of delousing “chatting,” the origin of the word “chat.” American soldiers referred to it as “reading” their clothing. Many soldiers resorted to laboriously picking the cooties off themselves and their clothing one at a time. These basic shapes will form the basis of many harder shapes as you continue drawing. Baths and delousing stations provided relief, but those luxuries were not always available. Practice with basic, elemental shapes of gas mask in the beginning. It was a challenge to avoid cooties in the trenches. I suppose a good dose of mustard gas would kill them, but I think I will stay in the dugout just the same.” The enemy at home is truly the more insidious. “Unfortunately the cooties or shirt squirrels as they are vulgarly called, are not confined exclusively to the trenches and I have had many battles with them at the same time that Jerry was dropping bombs around me and I was trying to be comfortable in a gas mask. Image of a German soldier, with gas mask hanging from his neck. For many soldiers, cooties were as relentless as their human enemies.Īs Captain Francis Bangs, MP Company, 77th Division, wrote in a letter home to his father: German WWI poster: Tretet der Antibolschewistischen. ‘Cooties’ was the nickname American soldiers gave to body lice – the itchy little bugs that burrowed into skin, hair, clothing, blankets and just about anything made of natural materials. What is a cootie? Ask a World War I soldier, and you’d get a much more serious answer about a much more serious problem than you might expect.
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