How many people died in the trenches during World War I?

An estimated 200,000 people died in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I. The deaths occurred for many different reasons in addition to the actual war, including lack of sanitation.

A portion of the deaths were caused by the war itself, since soldiers were subjected to gunfire and poisonous gases. The unsanitary conditions of the trenches, however, lead to many deaths due to diseases such as dysentery. The trenches were overwhelmed with rats that fed on the corpses of the soldiers. The rats spread many diseases, including rabies. Trench foot, the name for a fungal infection soldiers dealt with as a result of standing for days in water, also caused many deaths