The Western Front

The photo above shows the Verdun sector of the Western Front. Millions of exploding artillery shells completely stripped the land down to bare ground. In some places, hilltops ended the war several meters lower in altitude than they were in early 1914. In the middle foreground of this image can be seen three tiny figures moving across the man-made moonscape.
5 words I think that would best describe war would be Disturbing, Disgusting, Terrifying, Rotten and Terrible.

Dear Mum

How are dad and the rest of the family going? I’m having the experience of a lifetime but in this case it is not a good experience. It is an experience I don’t want any of you guys to go through. The things I have seen and heard will send shivers down your spine.

Our living conditions are absoloutly terrible. Our food and water are in short supply and the supplies that we do get are often of poor quality. We are literally walking in our filth. In the bottom of our trenches is about a foot of water. But this water isn’t all water. It contains a lot of blood, urine, bullets and other disgusting features. The lice and flies are just too bad to explain. Lice are everywhere, in our clothes, hair and every possible place. And the flies feast on our dead buddies. There are numerous diseases going around one of which is trench foot. The soldiers get trench foot from standing in the freezing water at the bottom of the trenches and often lead to amputation. I’m extremely lucky that I haven’t contracted the disease. I find myself living and sleeping in a mini cave I have made in the side of the trench. I’m one of the lucky ones; most soldiers just sleep on the side of the trenches.

The enemies that lie outside the trenches are even more deadly than the ones on the inside. There are mountains of dead bodies and body parts in our trenches and mainly in no man’s land where most of the men die. We must get up early in the morning to ready ourselves for a possible enemy offensive.

My main fear is that I may not make it back alive to see you guys and my friends. I also fear that we will lose the war and the Germans will win the war.

The British soldiers are all good blokes. Most of them are in the same boat as us. They have left family and friends behind to defend their country. The British officers on the other hand are not on my good list. They are the reason for the death of thousands of good men for no reason. Their offensives have no structure to them. Pretty much our offensive plan consists of running at the enemies machine guns.

The enemy are just as dumb as us. They always attack in the same formation and attack us when we know they are going to attack. I’m pretty sure most of the enemy are just like us.
I end this letter by wishing you all well and hopefully I will see you soon.

Your loving son, Matt.