Lice are small and very unpleasant insects that accompany people wherever they go. Wars are not an exception, of course. Huge crowds of people who cannot take a shower or do their laundry make these tiny fellows feel really good. Indeed, an army is a kind of a restaurant for them.
Itching is definitely not the best thing infantrymen may face in their life, but it is the lesser evil. Lice carry diseases, and typhus fever is the deadliest one. A lice-infested army is always exposed to the risk of losing a significant number of soldiers even if they haven’t reached the battlefield yet. Unfortunately, that was what often happened.
Prevention measures against pediculosis, or head lice infestation, were always a piece of cake. Do not forget about personal hygiene, visit a doctor regularly, change clothes or at least expose probably infested clothes to intense heat, for example, to fire. Soldiers themselves were responsible for a significant part of the concerns. That is why prevention of lice infestation received much attention during both World Wars. You can see some posters created to support this uneasy fight below.
On the right, poster, published in London by some Jewish Victims of World War I Support Foundation. The poster was created to support the fight against lice and typhus they spread around
On the right, the British World War II poster:” How is it spread? Lice. Were do lice come from?”
On the right, the poster says:“ Don’t let lice make a monkey out of you”. It offers to report immediately if you itch or find lice
On the right, the poster issued in 1945 in Germany says: “Typhus! Kill lice or they will kill you”.
