Personal health
The infantrymen of World War 2 slogged across Europe from the spring of 1944 through the early spring of 1945. He encountered the open fields and farmlands of France, the dense woods of the Ardennes, the mountainous terrain in Italy, Les Voges, and Alsace, in all weather conditions. While at the front he faced not only a determined enemy, but ice, snow, rain, mud, bitter cold and stifling heat. Through it all, he carried all of the gear he needed to survive in the field, protect himself from the elements, and defend himself from the enemy. Of all the gear he carried, other than his weapons and ammunition, none was more important to him than clean socks.
Marching through rain and mud, or in snow, soaked the feet, making them susceptible to blisters and trench foot. The Army provided waterproof boots and galoshes, which made the feet sweat on marches and could cause the same problems. Besides being painful blisters could easily lead to infections. Care of his feet was paramount to the infantrymen since they were his primary means of conveyance. Tired, footsore soldiers experienced difficulty keeping up with the rest of their unit, and traveling alone was far more dangerous than within the unit itself, for both the straggler and the rest of the unit. In some conditions, infantrymen would change their socks at any opportunity.
Bathing and shaving were unheard of luxuries at the front, and when units did receive an opportunity to shower it was often through the use of a lister bag shower. A lister bag was a large canvas bag with a shower head attached to the bottom. Holding approximately 36 gallons of water, the bag was suspended about five feet above the ground. The infantrymen would have just enough time to wet down, lather up using GI soap, and rinse off. The shower usually occurred at the same time as an opportunity to obtain fresh clothing, and the soldier would run from the shower to the clothing distribution center to receive an issue of clean clothes.
Since the shower and clothing issue often took place in the dead of winter and outdoors, it was an invigorating experience, but a not very frequent one. During some periods of intense combat more than a month could go by without clean clothes or a shower. Shaving could be accomplished in the field during lulls in the fighting, often with water heated inside a helmet, using a camp stove or the heat canister from a rations pack as the heating source. Since infantrymen spent a lot of time on or digging in the ground, most rotated out of combat for rest and recreation as a grimy, gritty, and unshaven lot, unconcerned with their non-parade ground appearance.
Toothbrushes and tooth powder were included in ration packs, and the teeth could be brushed using water in canteens, except for during the colder periods of the winter of 1944-45 when the canteens froze solid. Infantrymen used undisturbed snow as the source for the water to brush their teeth, as well as for drinking water and for mixing the powdered drinks from their rations. The ration packs also included tablets for the purification of water they encountered in the field from streams, ponds, and even wells, since it was unknown if the Germans had taken any steps to contaminate wells as they withdrew.