“ The rain is a constant companion flooding the trenches and turning the floor into mud it is so bad that some of the men are getting sores on their feet and can hardly walk with the pain.”

“Sleep his so hard to come by with the constant booming and banging of the shells from both sides, my bed is a bunk which has been placed in a dug out section of the trench, a mud roof a mud floor and the constant threat of a stray shell keep me awake at night.”

February 14th 1915 My darling and loving wife Emily, It is Valentines Day and my thoughts are with you as always, I wish that I could be with you on this special day of love instead of being here in this hell hole which Belgium has become.

“I am scared my darling Sarah, my life is under constant threat, bullets randomly fired at us, shells exploding every minute of the day, men are dying all around me if not from a stray bullet or shell they are falling with fever and disease.”

France August 13, 1918 My Dear Carl, For four nights we worked from dark to dawn preparing our position. It rained quite a lot, and the heavy mud made a good silencer for the traffic. The battle opened up at 4:20 AM the morning of the 8th of August under a heavy mist which lasted until 10:00 AM. It was the sort of ideal morning for a battle which one seldom sees. Every gun shot together.I never heard anything like it in my life! Several times I could not hear my own gun fire. After 3 hours, I was practically deaf. We fired our first shot at 4:20 AM at 800 yards and in three hours, the enemy was out of our range ( 6,500 yds). Within ten minutes of the start, the tanks, by the hundreds, and cavalry, by the thousands, were passing our guns. By 5 AM, the prisoners began to go by and this procession continued all day. The thing that struck me as being most, was, the way the prisoners would dangle right along by themselves, no escort, to the prison cage about a mile away. They nearly cleaned us out of cigarettes and emptied our water bottles. They all seemed tickled to death to be taken prisoners. They said the attack was a complete surprise. They were used all day, as stretcher bearers. The Major brought up some of them, to watch us fire our guns. Must have given them an awful feeling to think those shells were going over to kill their own flesh and blood.

Summarizer Step One: List words to describe what you think life must have been like for these soldiers. Step Two: Write a letter home as a French soldier battling in the trenches. Be sure to include in your letter what life is like in the trenches, the new weapons you are using, and the horrors of World War I. The letter should be at least 2 paragraphs in length.