“We went up into the front-line near Arras, through sodden and devastated countryside. As we were moving up to our sector along the communication trenches, a shell burst ahead of me and one of my platoon dropped. He was the first man I ever saw killed. Both his legs were blown off and the whole of his face and body was peppered with shrapnel. The sight turned my stomach. I was sick and terrified, but even more frightened of showing it.
That night I had been asleep in a dugout about three hours when I woke up feeling something biting my hip. I put my hand down and my fingers closed on a big rat. It had nibbled through my haversack, my tunic and pleated kilt to get at my flesh. With a cry of horror I threw it from me.”
Victor Silvester – WWI Soldier
Source: World War One - Footage, killtron, YouTube
This was life for the soldiers of World War I. The war was the deadliest in history at this time and had become a war of attrition. The fighting, which began in 1914, had become a stalemate by 1915, with both sides exchanging small areas of land back and forth.
The primary reason for the deadly stalemate was the use of modern weapons, such as the machine gun, with old-fashioned tactics. Both sides dug fortified positions and took turns directly assaulting the other side. Each attack would get repelled because the new weapons were brutally efficient at killing an onrushing army. Thousands of soldiers would die in each attack, but the combat lines remained undisturbed.
Imagine yourself as a soldier in World War I. How would you feel fighting a war in which neither side makes advancement towards victory for years?
Write a quick response in your notes.