German Trench Book Report

World War 1 was the start of the biggest fight the world had faced this war was mainly based in Europe and the middle east which began in 1914 and ended in the year 1918. Within the fighting trench warfare was introduced to World War 1 and the living conditions, tactics and the technology used in the trenches. To know how trench warfare had an impact on the Australia soldiers and their experiences during World War 1, it is important to discuss what sort of living conditions were in the trenches, some advanced technology used in the trenches and the tactics used by other countries around the world.

The skins on my toes are turning black. The doctor says if I stay in this trench for more than 2 days I will have to cut off my feet. It scares me that I might have to have my feet amputated but I will stay strong, as I am proud to be serving my country. The other day my best friend Johnny was sleeping in the dug out while the enemy was firing and a missile hit right behind us. The dug out collapsed and Johnny was stuck in the pile of mud. We spent 30 minutes digging him out and we were able to pull him out just before it was too late.

“It was dirty that’s for sure. The rats ate at your toes and the smell was horrible.”

Trench warfare was implemented to provide cover for soldiers during battle in WW1 seeing that most battlefields were open field & farms, so soldiers had little or no cover from rifle fire. After suffering thousands of casualties, soldiers began to dig into the ground creating cover. Over the months the trenches grew & evolved to hold barracks & equipment. Within a few months trenches were equipped with all essentials to ensure there was no need to leave them unnecessarily. Trenches were first dug by hand but soon soldiers would be equipped with shovels to increase productivity. Trenches were also mainly built at night to avoid detection by enemy troops.

Aspects of Trench Warfare 1. Trenches were built in an attempt to continue the war as both sides had reached a stalemate. There was a rush for the sea and then they found nothing else could happen so they dug in. The resulting trench system on the Western Front not only covered the equivalent of 25,000 miles (enough to encircle the world) but also stretched non-stop from Belgium to Switzerland.

Bodies flailing, ripped apart by machine guns. German Panzers destroying everything in their path. A blood soaked forest; the Ardennes. The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944. It was a hard fought allied victory that pitted American, British, Australian, and South African forces against the battle hardened Panzer and SS German divisions. In the heat of the battle, the American 101st division was surrounded by German forces at Bastogne. When asked to surrender, General Anthony McAuliffe only replied with one word; “Nuts!”. The 106th division was almost annihilated. This was a gallant allied victory, showing the force of the American soldiers. However, it came with great cost. Influenced by the beginning of the war and how the war turned against the Nazi’s, the Battle of the Bulge was a bloody battle, in which German defeat lead to their surrender soon after, proving to be an extremely significant event in WWII.

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you all, but I do hope you all are well. It has been a rough three months since I've joined the other nurses in aiding this war and needless to say I have settled in and adapted to the conditions. Since the beginning, nothing has changed within these 3 months, neither side had gotten much advantage of the war. It would be as if a back and forward tug of war between the two sides. Everyday I watch from the tent as hundreds of men rot away in the horrid conditions of the trenches. Many were brought in but many doesn't mean all. After barely being treated and having about a week of recovery soldiers were sent back to suffer in the battlefield. A few weeks ago a huge storm crossed the battlefield. The trenches

The war has been dragging on for far longer than predicted. Life in the trenches is dreadful. The constant bombardment from the enemy causes many to run and hid, along with many getting what we are calling shellshocked. We use it to describe when one can’t move with no visible injury or when they mentally can’t fight. But the worst has to be the rats, the rats are over the size of our house cats, we call them corpse rats for the soul reason that the rats eat the dead that laid in no man's land. Some of us shoot them for sport. The lice and trench foot is minor. But the Storm Troopers that we’ve been hearing about are fighting, their lightning quick attacks that demolish the line is one thing I don’t want to see. I hope Erik is okay, and well.

In World War One, on the Western Front, soldiers served and lived in trenches for days, weeks or even months on end. Alone with the daily essentials needing to be done in these small, enclosed spaces, men also had to work hard in the mud and filth, sometimes for hours without rest, all the while being prepared for attacks or trench raids at any moment. This was what life was like for hundreds of thousands of soldiers during the period of World War One. This lifestyle throughout the First World War had an enormous effect on the European soldiers, both physically and mentally.

All is going very bad for us in the trenches. No one was really prepared for what this war has brought us. The war has many factors that are very terrible and for most, unbarable. I can not think of a time where I have been more scared.

The Battle of the Bulge is the largest and deadliest battle for U.S. troops to date, with more than 80,000 American deaths.The Enola Gay became well known for dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, but few people know the name of the B-29 that bombed Nagasaki. It was Bock’s Car, named after the plane’s usual commander, Frederick Bock. Dr. Josef Mengele also known as the “Angel of Death” used about 3,000 twins, mostly Romany and Jewish children, for his painful genetic experiments. Only about 200 survived.It is estimated that 1.5 million children died during the Holocaust. Approximately 1.2 million of them were Jewish and tens of thousands were Gypsies. Now onto the Nazi flag. Hitler designed the Nazi flag. Red stood for the social idea of Nazism, white for nationalism, and the Black Swastika for the struggle of the Aryan man.

This was when people were in essentially big holes in the ground with barricades in front of them. Trench life was very hard because you watched your friends die, and had to just see them lie there when it wasnt safe to move their bodies, you were in the trenches for hours on end, and typically were attacked straight in the trenches instead of in the middle of the battlefield. There were rats that picked at human remains, and the smell of rotting flesh. "No Man's Land" was the land between two fronts, not claimed by either

The soldiers begin to lose track of days and weeks, counting time only by season and time spent at the front. Paul Bäumer feels that "it is as though formerly we were coins of different provinces; and now we are melted down, and all bear the same stamp." However, Paul still takes solace in the brotherhood of the soldiers. All their energy goes toward the same goal—survival. The violence and death that surround them feels as common to them as a case of the flu.

All of the years following World War I, half of the world was anti- war. When soldiers enlist into the army they are never told the truth. Being a witness to a close friend in the army or to a family member actually fighting in World War II they didn’t think they would actually be fighting in a war. Guys and Girls normally enlist into the army for the money and the benefits, thinking that they will eventually come home to their love ones. When the soldiers signed up and experienced a war both sides were screaming they wanted to go home and they would never go through this again.

If only I knew what I was in for sitting in this trench all alone last man in my battalion with my two best mates lying dead beside me.