Lice

Discussion in 'General' started by Owen, Apr 14, 2006.

  1. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Lice, "chats" call them what you want. In WW1 everyone in the Front Line was lousey, it didn't matter whether they were on the Western Front, Gallipoli, Salonika or Italy. It didn't take long once they were out in the field for those little chats to make the soldiers life miserable.
    In nearly every memoir on that war the soldiers mention them.

    Now, why don't we hear or read of LICE being a problem in WW2?

    I've just read "Tank Alert" by Ivor Astley (59th AT Regt 43rd Wessex Div.)
    Preparing to go to Normandy he was(page 13).... "fitted with 'anti-vermin' battledress."

    Was there an insecticide in this which added to more frequent baths than in WW1 keep them lice free?

    sapper, can you help?
     
  2. 39thmilitia

    39thmilitia Member

    I have heard of lice being a problem. In fact, I've heard of a game Australian soldiers made from lice.

    Everything was worth lice points. Obviously every louse you found and killed on yourself was worth 1 Lice Point. Killing the wild life was worth a few hundred, a German soldier a lot and an Italian soldier was worth all the lice found on him :)
     
  3. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Lice friends? Not one single instance of them bothering us..It was unheard of, What I find interesting is that (I am aware of that now). WW were so clear of infestation that it never once made itself felt....Ever. I can say that hand on heart mates!

    But Crabs? In our training battalion we had straw mattresses, and the "Crabs spread like wild fire, We were all shaved and "Blue Unction" was spread all over us. Did the trick! Me? I was an innocent Country lad that had no idea of what "Crabs" were. I Did after! Itch like hell... But never any lice, I think the uniforms must have been treated. Though we used denims, much lighter, and can move faster.Still no lice... Odd it is a question i never thought about.
    Sapper
     
  4. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    :lol:
    Makes me think of Spike Milligan.
    "They can jump six feet you know!"
     
  5. smc

    smc Member

    :lol:
    Makes me think of Spike Milligan.
    "They can jump six feet you know!"

    I was working in a hotel during an outbreak amongst staff in the mid 1980s and that statement was still doing the rounds then.
     
  6. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  7. Kiwiwriter

    Kiwiwriter Very Senior Member

    Is the title of an article in Mliitary History Quarterly's book on WW2, taken from an article in the magazine about the trouble a Soviet soldier had with lice.

    THey were also a menace in POW camps, and, of course, concentration camps.
     
  8. Run N Gun

    Run N Gun Discharged

    Gee im sure lice are a whole heck of a lot better than crabs.
     
  9. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    I was working in a hotel during an outbreak amongst staff in the mid 1980s and that statement was still doing the rounds then.

    I did a session at Butlins in Ayr back in the eighties, we had a outbreak of human fleas in the staff quarters!

    before you ask anything, i was not a redcoat but my jokes were better than theirs!:p :)
     
  10. plant-pilot

    plant-pilot Senior Member

    Gee im sure lice are a whole heck of a lot better than crabs.

    Why? Both feed of the host's blood. Lice are larger than crabs and will infest any hairy part of the body or clothing. Crabs tend to stay around the warmer parts of the genitals or armpit areas.

    I wouldn't want either, but I can't see body lice better than pubic lice. :confused:
     
  11. Kitty

    Kitty Very Senior Member

    Why? Both feed of the host's blood. Lice are larger than crabs and will infest any hairy part of the body or clothing. Crabs tend to stay around the warmer parts of the genitals or armpit areas.

    I wouldn't want either, but I can't see body lice better than pubic lice. :confused:

    Plant Pot, i am currently working on a psychology essay, and having waded through some Freudian theories of Eros and Thanatos, that was far too much information for my imagination to take. I thank you for putting my brain into meltdown.
    Kitty
     
  12. plant-pilot

    plant-pilot Senior Member

    Plant Pot, i am currently working on a psychology essay, and having waded through some Freudian theories of Eros and Thanatos, that was far too much information for my imagination to take. I thank you for putting my brain into meltdown.
    Kitty

    Psychology, is of course seeking what the human brain's perception of reality is and why it sees things the way it does. Perceptions, voluntary or involutary will not however change those realities. I shall stick with my comments if you don't mind, and just hope that the reader is mature enough to understand my concerns that on parasite, can be classed as better than another when its larger and likely to infest the whole body rather than a small area.

    I just hope you are not eating anything crunchy while thinking about that or you'll need more than psychological help :mellow:
     
  13. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    :lol:
    Chocolate lice-Krispie cake anyone?
     
  14. plant-pilot

    plant-pilot Senior Member

    :lol:
    Chocolate lice-Krispie cake anyone?

    Snap and crackle I could probably live with.... but the little 'pops' as you bite through them?
    :sign_sorry:
     
  15. Kitty

    Kitty Very Senior Member

    :sign_rofl: Oh flamin' 'eck! i can't concentrate now! Good job i've just completed that essay. Lice-Krispie cakes! Oh lord. The cake that bites back!
    I need to lie down.
    Kitty
     
  16. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Trust you lot to get silly on me.
     
  17. adrian roberts

    adrian roberts Senior Member

    As a father of little girls, its nits that worry me.

    The school says that they thrive best in clean hair, not dirty hair. Therefore, is a nit a middle-class louse? :confused:

    The ones here in Kent have developed immunity to all known insecticides. The only way is to comb them manually. They make a nice crunching sound if you squash them between your thumbnails. [the nits not the little girls].

    Adrian
     
  18. plant-pilot

    plant-pilot Senior Member

    Lice and nits, althogh the same animal, are actually different things.

    Lice are the adult of the animal. Nits are the eggs, which are glued to the hair near the root until they hatch. If you get rid of the lice and leave the nits you'll soon have lice again.
     
  19. Kitty

    Kitty Very Senior Member

    I am beginning to worry about Plant Pot's entymological knowledge concerning nits, chats and crabs.
    And Owen, do tou really think i am going to allow a serious thread to continue in that vein? Especially one with so much potential to it?
    But seriously, considering the conditions they were fighting in, particularly after D-Day, why didn't they get infested? And what effect did the insecticide proofed clothing have on the wearer?
    Kitty
     
  20. plant-pilot

    plant-pilot Senior Member

    I am beginning to worry about Plant Pot's entymological knowledge concerning nits, chats and crabs.
    And Owen, do tou really think i am going to allow a serious thread to continue in that vein? Especially one with so much potential to it?

    I've already had to tell one uninformed person that one thing that is taught to soldiers on a regular basis is LoAC. Something else that is taught is Field Hygiene. That's being hygienic in the field, not how to look after fields, although one does involve the other.

    So I know about lice, and many other far more worrying things you can get of the people you may have to live with if you don't have the correct facilities. Know thyne enemy.
     

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