Photos of animals in World War One: rats

So far we have considered the animals in World War One as friends or somehow close partners of soldiers. But we cannot but consider the other side of this story of animals crowding the trenches. And of course it is not actually a story of friendship and cooperation. It's quite easy to realize how many pictures of rats were taken during the war. In the trenches at night the rats could gnaw the soldiers' feet and of course they were responsible of many other annoyances and diseases, beside worsening an already poor hygiene. Here below is a selection of what you could find searching for pictures of rats in World War One. It's not infrequent to read about rats in diary or letters and from this we deduce they were an important presence in the soldier's life. All the below gathered images share a common sense of pride for the rich outcome of the hunt.