What is Crotch Rot?
Soldiers sometimes spend weeks, even months, in the field without the chance to wash or shower. Even in peacetime this happens, especially overseas. The longest time I have personally seen is 3 weeks. In hot climates the old skin particles around the crotch and armpits and in the crack of your bum mix with the dirt and sweat to form a foul smelling goo that eventually gets infected and attacks the flesh and turns it “proud”, that is red, inflamed and very itchy turning to painful. It is to be avoided at all costs in my opinion. The treatment is worse but of shorter duration. The treatment is an ointment called “Whitfield’s Ointment”. It contains a fair dose of benzoic acid and when applied to proud flesh or the very tender parts around the crotch, burns with a pain that has to be experienced to be believed. I can assure you that it takes a fair bit of talking to get a Digger to voluntarily rub acid on his knackers. Short, true story. Malaysia 1969. I am a Rifleman/Stretcher Bearer (now
