World War I Delousing
When we say something is lousy, we mean it's very bad. But originally, it meant infested with lice. During World War I, soldiers on both sides, living in crowded, unsanitary conditions, became lousy (infested with lice) and had to be periodically deloused. In addition to causing itching with their bites, lice spread diseases like typhus.
Above, German soldiers in 1915 being deloused by washing with a disinfectant.
A photo of German delousing at the front. The soldiers had to strip, and their clothes were put in a device that killed lice either with heat or with poison gas. Meanwhile, the soldiers' naked bodies, especially the hairy parts, would be treated with a disinfectant to kill the lice.
Officers of the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment undergoing delousing in El Amara, Egypt in 1916. This Australian War Memorial photo identified the man at right as their commanding officer, Lt. Colonel T. J. Dodd. Nice ass, Colonel!
Soldiers lined up by a "delousing train" in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, 1916 or 1917. The train held the equipment to treat the men and their clothes.
An undated photo taken in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, captioned "Egyptian Labour Corps going through creosol bath for delousing." Creosol is a disinfectant extracted from creosote.
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These are American soldiers in the "undressing room" of the 166th Field Hospital in Baccarat, France in 1918, waiting to be treated for lice.
The soldiers at the 166th Field Hospital line up for delousing.
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The men take showers at the 166th Field Hospital. The hairy parts of their bodies were sprayed with a disinfectant to kill the lice.
American soldiers undressing at a delousing facility in Audenarde, Belgium, 1918.
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American soldiers undressing at another delousing facility in Brest, France, in January 1919.
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And here are the soldiers showering at that Brest delousing facility in January, 1919. World War I had ended in November, 1918, but it took months to ship all of the American troops back to the U.S. Meanwhile, they still had to be fed, clothed, and treated for lice.
When you were a little kid, did other kids on the playground scream about catching "cooties" from touching each other? Originally, cooties was a slang term for lice in World War I, and they were very real, not an imaginary thing for kids to catch.
We end with this 1918 photo labeled "Men of the (U.S.) 103rd Field Artillery undergoing de-cootie-izing at Condetz, France."
6 comments:
Did the men in WWII also have to be deloused? Or Korea and Viet Nam, and Iraq?
Just think...over 100 years later, crab lice has been all but wiped out due to manscaping. They should've thought about shaving everything to deprive the lice a place to thrive....at least until the hair grew back.
These are excellent pictures. I wonder how many of these photographers later developed these picture and used them to pleasure themselves? They are certainly giving me pleasure!
I always enjoy seeing the young men and their gorgeous butts.
@Big Dude - Delousing did occur in WWII, but lice were not as much of a problem as they had been in the crowded trench warfare conditions of WWI. The worst lice infestations happened in Nazi concentration camps. The U.S. used the newly developed insecticide DDT for delousing in WWII. Despite its later problems (it is harmful to wildlife), DDT is an extremely effective insecticide, working better than anything used in WWI.
I don’t know about military delousing after WWII or what was used.
Never get enough of these classic military photos. The men all look so good. There is an innocence the men and their commeraderie.
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