The Trench Monologue

The readers of the article “Liberating the First Nazi Camp,” an interview with Jim Martin, WWII veteran will begin to understand the personal hardships that service members experienced through the war. In the given article the reader can begin to see just how bad the conditions where for people that opposed the Third Reich, and where thrown into these concentration camps. The interview also show the haste that the Nazis would get into when the Allied forces, leaving helpless victims in the gas chambers, hastily executing them via machine gun, and even storing the remains in warehouse to be disposed of at a later time. The article also shows a more human side of the rough and tough solider who literally had to do this depressing job every single

The rain had just stopped pouring, and we had all gathered in a park nearby, as a makeshift memorial for Johnny. It wasn’t really a funeral, we didn’t have the budget for that, and it wasn’t like his parents cared enough to give him a proper goodbye.

The pearl, in my opinion, was not evil, it was bait. It lured bystanders in as a test. It reminds be of the trails to get to heaven; it was made to entice the greedy and selfish so they may be punished. Those who can keep away the destructive thinking of power and riches get rewarded. It was a standard to leech out the sinners.

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

A 4 foot deep trench was dug into the ground miles wide. Swerving through trees and hills. The smell of worms filled my nose as the fresh earth lay behind the trench. Proper defences were created to give us a better chance at defending the German attack. At 10:00 a.m. the first German soldiers were spotted. I held my rifle at my shoulder and looked through the small cut out in the trench. Thousands of Germans were running through open fields. Red mist coming out of most. A deafening array of gunfire to my left and right. With the rifle’s sight up to my eye, German soldiers were put into picture, and with a squeeze of a trigger, and a loud scream, they would fall over. Flashes of light came from 300 meters away. German snipers were picking out targets from an almost unreachable distance. Helmets were flying off left and right. My friends dying in front of my eyes. A single bullet was forced through the barrel of a Gewehr 98 rifle. Traveling at 878 meters per second, an 8 millimeter cartridge hit my helmet. It continued through into my skull, shredding my brain. Feeling nothing, my body lay on the ground dead. Blood spilling from the side of my head out of the helmet. The rats came running. Dead meat attracted hundreds of them. Crawling in and out of bodies, getting free meals along the way. A funeral wasn’t held for myself and the other casualties until after the war. The Treaty of Versailles was signed 5 years

You will not believe what's happened this month. Before I proceed with my usual banter, I would like to greet you and follow through with the formalities in our monthly letters. How are you and Pa? What are you up to during this time of despair? Anyways, on with my stories. This month I encountered one of my biggest personal achievements yet; I single handedly went into a German Aerodrome and was able to rid of three of their planes and fly back to our base intact. I know you and Pa always tell me that I should know that these are people that we are fighting against. But sometimes it is so hard to view these Germans as people. It's the pain and anguish that they cause us that fuels the hatred that's depicted in most slurs and the overall attitude

How have you been. These past few months have been really tough. Have you ever heard of trench foot. If we stand in the water for long periods of time without changing our socks we can get it. The pain is indescribable,but some were lucky and lost all feeling in their feet. A friend of mine stuck a bayonet straight into his foot and didn't even feel a thing how almaring. Ooh don't get me started with the lice,all the men have short hair cuts. It's easier to take them out that way,we take the blunt edge of the knife and scrape it across our scalp. I'm missing home,the nice bed,the homemade meals, and the moment of peace. The living conditions aren't the best ,we must look out for our bread,the rats have been coming in huge waves. They are truly

Emotion and reaction is part of human nature; it is absolutely natural for one to be traumatized by the harming and killing of fellow comrades. War is still with horrific events that cause soldiers to this day to have post-traumatic stress disorder. Erich Remarque exhibits a soldier’s perception of how the value of Life can change when put on the front. German soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front face abysmal conditions. They partake in extremely violent tasks in order to defend themselves.

The trenches is where we fight, AA with gun shots flying died at night. AA We fight as soldiers together as one BB but in the end there will be none. BB Bang Bang, I've been shot, I lay hear slowly dying, AA thinking about all the things I’ll miss trying. BB Not seeing my family for that one last time,BB while I'm at war committing this victimless crime. BB War, what a horrific thing, people killing people for what, AA just to feel like some sort of king?

All bullets were counted, beds made, uniforms cleaned, this occurred until suddenly 03:45 arrived. “Men, the time is nearly here,” my words choked as self-hatred flooded my body, “What we do here today will be remembered for generations to come, we fight today not only for ourselves, but all who we know. All our mates and family who live back home!” A faint cheer followed my speech as I steadied myself for what was to come. “We charge in 5 minutes. We charge not only for our freedom but for the freedom of our country. For the freedom of the world!” Spit filled the air from the cheer which erupted from my unit this time. A unity formed over the men, a cold malevolent sweat captured me. Who was I to send these boys to their death? A resolve set inside me, I would fight alongside my men, their lives are worth the same as mine. 04:00 “THIS IS IT MEN! WE FIGHT FOR THE WORLD!” I screamed as I led the charge. Vaulting out of the trench I saw no man’s land clearly for the first time. Death was everywhere, flies swarming the pools of blood. The land so barren of life no greenery was seen. A cold resolution set over me, it was the Germans fault, they caused

I lived through the end of the world. Quite the conversation starter isn’t it? It came fast and quickly, wiping the human race out in huge numbers. It snuck up on us like a dark shadow and no one saw it coming. Most people reading this would think that aliens invaded, or a huge disease spread throughout the world and knocked us all out. As cool as that would’ve been i have to admit, that's not what happened at all. We ended from our own destruction.

My teeth chatter, and my heart races as I step onto the battlefield. I finally take a deep breath and muster up my courage. Not only this, but also when I kill a German, although it feels relieving at first, a sense of guilt dawns upon me. I wonder, if I met that person’s family, how sorrowful and infuriated they would feel to find out that I murdered their son.

From afar a sea of white crosses stood before me, and it took my breath away how many there were. As I walked past each grave no longer was it a an objective experience but personal. I watched people find their great grandfathers and fall to their knees and place red poppies before the crosses. It was in doing so, I found the grave of Private Robert ‘Bobby’ Johns, the youngest soldier to parachute into Normandy on D-Day, who was just 14 when he ran away from home to join the army, two years

Imagine sitting in the trenches of a British bunker on Christmas eve, when across the field from you, the German enemy breaks into song. You hear the faint sound of Christmas joy during a time of war, but cannot believe what your hearing. You feel as if your ears have betrayed you, until the cavalcade of Silent Night becomes so overwhelming, that you can no longer deny the experience. This moment is one of several reported Christmas exchanges between soldiers, that occurred during the unofficial truce of 1914 Christmas.

First off, of the things briefly aforementioned earlier, is the general humane activities of many people. During the war there were many noble individuals and groups that rose above the conflict and extended a hand of simple human decency to their fellow man. As covered in A German Deserter's War Experience a few striking examples of kindness can be seen among the disillusioned ranks of the German forces. An example of which is expressed when the soldiers were going door to door for provisions. Where summarily the narrator himself expressed that they had found kind good souls and befriended these Belgian people. Even going so far as to write in German the lines, “Please spare, here live good and decent people” on their door as a means of trying