Life in the Trenches - Original Writing

Life in the Trenches - Original Writing

Today, we were once again heavily bombarding the German lines. It was

a routine thing nowadays. Some of the more experienced soldiers didn't

even notice the heavy German response bombardments that were every

second posing a threat to their lives. As we heard a shell landing, we

heard attentively just to make sure it wasn't coming direct on us and

then, the colossal roar burst from the ground. Life here was getting

rather monotonous, always the same routine, four days on the frontline

then four days behind lines and then the same thing the following week

or so. It wasn't what the papers said up in England, they were written

to hide the truth of the massacring that occurred at the battle of the

Sommes for one example. Hundreds and thousands of corps lay motionless

on the ground. General Haig believed that with heavy bombardments we

could break through their lines. He was mistaken. Men were crushed by

the machine-gun fire as if dry leaves and they lay there, untouched,

rotting away in the muddy earth which emitted an incredibly pungent

smell.

The mud made it almost impossible to live in these trenches. The water

was right up to my knees and there was nothing I could do about it. A

lot of my comrades managed to get trench foot which was a disease

which made your feet rot due to the fact that they remained submerged

for hours if not days.

Life was incredibly tough in the trenches, nothing like I had imagined

it to be. I thought I'd come back as a war hero but from the English

articles we read, it seemed to me as if none of our letters had been

dispatched or if they had been intercepted i...

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After a while, the trenches, with the wet weather deteriorated. There

was no more a 4" thick bullet-proof parapet to save your life; the

walls of the trench had collapsed to make the trench into a mud bath

with water which was to reach your knees. During the wet weather it

was truly disgusting.

Overall life in the trenches is pretty gross and unhygienic although,

some officers did get treated rather well and the food that the

English were given which was usually bully beef and jam was of a much

higher quality than any other front line army. Diseases spread and

people suffer of lack of sleep without forgetting the fact that

everyone was homesick and wishing to see their families so basically,

apart from making good friends and fighting for your country, the

trenches must have been a rather appalling experience.