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Germany, 1918

            8 months and still living the life underground with the heavy artillery and gunfire. Wounded all over the battle ground, dead to even up the ratio. We’re in the front line of the battle for the French. The enemy is approximately 900 feet away; between the two battlegrounds lays “no-mans land”. Our trenches are about 8 feet high and 3 feet wide. One word to describe the life of the trenches: cramped. It’s terrible here from the dead lying in the mud to the feet problems.

            The trenches were hastily built to support shielding for soldiers; the German trenches are a bit better than ours, but then again, ours had to be built quickly. The trenches main purposes are to shield, and no more. Which is why it’s too crowded in here; there’s barely enough space to stretch, let alone breathe. There seems to be many infections and diseases running amok as well. Hygiene might be the last thing in the trenches; the diseases spread so easily since the men are so cramped up together as well as the number of dead lying around.

When it rains, water piles high on the muddy ground. In fact, I can’t remember a time when there hasn’t been water stored in these tunnels. The water comes up to our ankles; I think this is what contributes to the feet problem many of us soldiers have. All the time spent in the water must not be good. The pain is beyond imaginable.

All these problems are added to the already given death warrants from the enemy. Bombs thrown in suicide missions along with mortar explosions are an everyday thing. I find myself lucky to still be alive with all the bullets whizzing by. Gas attacks used to be a problem but mask were implemented; there’s a rumor going around that they’ve found a new gas with results that’ll force us to remove our masks and then we’ll be bombarded with the mustard gas. I hope the gossip is false…