Final answer:
Jobs for soldiers in the 'digging gang' during World War I often entailed constructing and fortifying trenches under life-threatening conditions, including enemy fire, disease, and the presence of deceased soldiers. The physical and psychological toll of trench warfare made this a particularly arduous and dangerous endeavor.
Step-by-step explanation:
The tasks assigned to Edwin and the other soldiers in the "digging gang" during World War I typically referred to the construction and maintenance of trenches on the front lines. This work was incredibly arduous and dangerous, involving deepening shallow trenches while under the constant threat of enemy fire and bombings, as elaborated in the text with phrases like "clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench" and "The place was rotten with dead."
These soldiers had to contend with brutal conditions of trench warfare, plagued by disease, rats, mud, and hunger as reflected by "disease, rats, mud, and hunger plagued the men" in the sources. Moreover, the psychological stress of handling the corpses of fallen soldiers, reflected in the graphic descriptions of the battlefield, made the task of digging and fortifying trenches a difficult and traumatizing experience.
The first American volunteers experienced warfare that was in stark contrast to the glorified views back home. The difficulty of their tasks in the trench warfare environment was intensified by the ever-present danger of death and the harsh living conditions, which included relentless rain and the likelihood of being bombed even while working in the relative safety of the dugouts.