Read With The Old Breed by E B Sledge. He’s very straightforward about how filthy and miserable the front line soldiers were in the Pacific campaigns, and wonders why nobody ever writes about it. And Studs Terkel recounts a classic story of a British officer complaining about his front line toilet paper ration, “Three sheets? I can’t possibly get clean with only 3 sheets!” And the EM handing them out answers, “Oh yes sir, 3 is plenty, one up, one down, one polish.”
Yeah, what was the campaign in WWII that turned into a protracted siege on a hot, rocky island? Very little water, no toilets, no way to dig latrine trenches. The marines were basically living in their own shit and piss. Don’t have With The Old Breed handy to check.
Don’t forget soldiers in the Civil War were also suffering with wounds in unhygienic conditions. I’ve been amazed by how badly a non-infected, carefully treated injury can stink.
Also, at the LA Zoo you can get fairly close to the gorillas, who obviously don’t bathe at all. Closest smell to that funk would definitely be a homeless person. We’re talking not about going without a shower for five days, but for months.
I was born in 1958. I’ve lived all my life in rural southern Tennessee, and we had an outhouse until I was four years old. Until we got an indoor bathroom, I bathed in a wash-tub in the den, in front of the wood stove, once a week. My mom and dad bathed more often, because they went to work every day. My grandmother and I stayed home, so…
After we got an indoor bathroom, I still only washed my hair once a week, until I was in my teens.
Iwo Jima ? Not *super *protracted (the battle lasted a month, give or take) but I’m given to understand it was light on fun regardless.