write a letter home detailing what life is like in the trenches?

Question

you are a WW1 soldier serving in the trenches on the western front write a letter home detailing what life is like in the trenches

thank you

Answer 1

September 11, 1914

My dearest mother and father,

I am pleased to report that I am well and doing fine here, beside the river Marne. Though at times, I fear I may lose my mind for so much I have seen and heard.

Yesterday we fought the hard battle once more in a nasty rain. It has been like this for the last seven days. Attack and counter attack. Artillery barrages, machine gun fire, rifle assaults. The worst of it however, is those bloody German snipers. Forget for one careless moment where you are and lift your head above the trench and you die.

I realize I should not be telling you all of this, but I assure you, I am well and uninjured. My only thought was to tell you how it is fighting over here. Then you would know that I am taking all pre-cautions and further know that I anxiously await the day this war ends so that I might come home once more.

God can only know how long it shall last, but reason tells me it shall be a short war. Neither side can sustain this kind of action for long.

September 17, 1914

Hello again,

The Germans are retiring from the West toward the Northeast. We have pursued at great cost to our units. All around us, we find the sign of battle. Dead horses, freshly dug graves. All of it is ugly to see, but that is the cost of war.

September 18th, 1914.

I have time to tell you further of how it is over here. First, let me start by telling you that both sides have dug in. Trenches stretch along the whole front, or rather, it is a series of trenches which are off set so the enemy cannot overrun us and just shoot down the line killing everyone.

Before us in the frontline trench, stretches the no mans land. It is the area of the dead and the dying. To reach either side, one must rush across this ground dodging the artillery shells, machine guns and other weapons. Then there is the barbed wire, thick and virtually impassible.

The trench itself is nearly seven feet deep and six feet wide. In front, the parapet, a line of thick sandbags with openings for shooting our weapons. Behind, the parados, another thick line of sand bags, piled slightly higher than those in front so that no one is outlined against the sky. On the side wall, a firing step so we may reach up high enough to see where to aim.

Inside the trench itself, we have a system of dugouts and funk holes, small area's in which we might escaape the weather and catch a few winks. Then there are the duck boards, a wooden walk a foot or so above the bottom of the actual trench.

This is neccessary because the land we occupy is just barely above sea level. Water invades us constantly and we must gaurd against trench and other diseases. Then there are the rats. Huge, ugly beasts, drawn to the trenches by the smell of death and decay, feasting on the bodies of those who remain unburied.

Behind the forward trench, is the support trench and the machine gun bunkers. Further behind this trench, lay another known as the reserve trench. All of which are connected together with other trenches and behind all of this, is the artillery.

Well, my dearest mother and father, it grows late, I will tell you more tomorrow. Until then, all my love and may the good Lord watch over you.

23 September, 1914.

Just got back from digging a sapping. This is a small trench about thirty yards long that we are cutting into the no mans land. It is a difficult and long endeavor, but it has its advantages. It allows us to send men forward to act as listeners and hopefully, in time, we will expand outward and thus take more territory back from the Germans.

Sorry, to cut this short, but our daily ration of food has arrived. It is not great, generally bully beef and boiled vegetables like potatoes and turnips and it is never enough to fill one's hunger and usually it is cold, but one gets while the getting is good, or he may go without until the next day. So until I have finished my meal and a cup of tea, I will say farewell. Love and know, you are in my heart always.

Hello once more. I have just come back from eating my dinner. I have great news and now I must really hurry and finish this letter. Mail call will be in one hour and the soldier handling the post will be collecting as well as handing out letters. So you see, I must go now.

I promise, I will write again soon. Do not worry to much for me. I am safe and I will come home safe if it is Gods will. Until then, may the good Lord bless and keep you well. Your loving son, David.

Answer 2

You need to do your own homework or you will end up working at MacDonalds.

If this is any help, my grandfather was in the trenches in WW1. He said it was cold and always muddy, always wet, and everyone had lice. The enemy shells were falling all around and you were freezing, wet, terrified and deafened by the noise.

One day a Salvation Army man crawled on his hands and knees across No Mans Land where my grandfather was. He had a big tank strapped tohis back to bring the men a hot cup of cocoa. They had not had anything hot to eat or drink for weeks. My grandfather lived to his 80s but he never forgot that cup of cocoa. (This is a true story).

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

in the trenches, lots of mud and standing water all the time,
trench foot (swollen gross diseased soldier feet),
they piled dead bodies on the ground to keep their feet dry,
more bodies along the edges to make the sides taller
that way they could stand up without their heads being shot off,
they could hear soldiers in the enemy trenches talking with such close proximity