Battle of the Somme
Because there were so many corpses in the trenches, rats were a serious problem. The rats carried disease and ate the corpses of dead soldiers. They ate the eyes first, then burrowed into the corpse and ate the insides. One soldier, Harry Patch, claimed the rats in the trenches were as big as cats. Another said: “The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn't defend himself!"