The Trench Monologue

Trench warfare was adopted to maintain an area of land, to prevent the enemy from capturing that land. The importance of this investigation was to show the significance of trench warfare during the First World War and how effective it was on how it had prevented many full on, front lined, assaults. World War I could have had a great impact in history with the amount of war casualties, which would have been historically shocking, but instead it created the stalemate, which prevented such numbers of deaths from happening.

As you know I am writing to you from the trenches of the western front in France. The United States of America joined this heinous war in the spring of nineteen hundred seventeen. We joined the fight because of the sinking of the Lusitania and when the German Kiaser sent the note to Mexico to convince them to put themselves against us to assure we will not go to war in Europe. That did not go through because the economic condition of Mexico is not that good enough to fight in a war with the United States.

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.

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?

I remember the smell, the sounds, the taste of blood. I remember seeing my comrades fall beside me, the sting of the cuts. The numbness as I fell alongside them, the sadness, the tears. The price of war, I believe my father said that to me before he died. I remember being lifted and carried, I remember a laugh. Then I felt my mind slowly becoming numb, and soon my mind was consumed by the darkness. Like a wildfire it spread from the farthest of places, destroying everything in its’ path. It was over, the war was lost, hope gone; at least until today….

We all sleep and rest and eat in the trenches, but it’s not paradise. One night, the sound of loud booms woke us up. We were being attacked by some very dangerous artillery. We could feel every boom and every crack in the dirt above us. Many soldiers were not prepared for this and got sick. The attack come out of nowhere and frightened all of us.

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

Shadowy clouds hover over No Man’s Land, they were all fed up with the war, the lives it had already claimed, the unburied dead and the smell, oh my god, the smell. Life in the trenches was unbearable, cold, muddy, vermin and parasites that consume your skin for food. Every man entombed in the trenches dreaded the day they would hear the whistle, the whistle to move forward into No Man’s Land.

What was interesting about John was that he was very good at hiding his pain. When he was being treated the only way to tell that he was hurting was the tears in his eyes. He immediately felt better when Louisa started comforting him. This shows the significance physical contact had on him. According to Louisa, she had to be a substitute for mother, wife, or sister to make these soldiers feel at home while in the hospital. John was in a similar position when he had to take on a fatherly role at home for his younger siblings. With his mother’s permission, he joined the war because he wanted to help people. “I went because I couldn’t help it, I didn’t want the glory or the pay; I wanted to get the right thing done, and people kept saying men who were in earnest ought to fight. I was in earnest, the Lord knows!” When he was told he was going to die he was surprised at first but accepted it as fate. He knew his first battle was his going to be his last. When his time came he was very grateful to Louisa for staying by his side until the

The wartime lives of the soldiers who fought in the war were in a state of mind of mixed feelings. Happiness and devastating are two adjectives that can describe the soldier’s feelings in the war because at one second they can be happy that they succeeded on a mission, but on the other hand, it can be very devastating because one of their own soldiers could have been killed during the war. Aside from physical danger losing one of your own soldiers or having your family worry about you every day and night are some negatives and unpleasant parts about fighting in a war. For example, soldiers loved ones worried each day, and hoped that they would not get a knock on their door by someone who was going to tell them that their fathers, husbands, sons, or brothers have died in the war.

“Why don’t you wait out here,” Spears said, recognizing the emotional exhaustion and guilt that so often torments the children of the dying. “I’ll sit with him for a while.”

Today was one of the hardest days I have experienced in my lifetime. We dug trenches, moved equipment, and repaired broken equipment from sun up until sun down. To make this even worse, all day the wind blew fiercely towards our trenches forcing us to endure the horrific stench of the soldiers who have lost their lives in no man’s land. I feel so horrible for the families of those lost brothers of mine. They will never have the opportunity to give their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers a proper burial. It can get depressing here in these trenches as I do nothing but stare at the sky for hours on end with no sign of life in sight. I try to keep my mind busy, but every still moment my mind goes back to my brothers I have lost. I try to justify

I was really down before reading this, I really savored this book and I made me switch views in society. I was in a trench with doing homework, studying, and volleyball repeatedly. Reading this book made me look up from this eternal trench and explore out of it. When I was reading your book I thought I was in the book. Who would have known royalty have problems

        The soldiers come from all walks of life and therefore vary in their opinion towards war.  John for example, "never forgot" about the horrors he had been exposed to even after going back to England which is depicted by "the green black water of nightmares."  Therefore, he is constantly reminded and haunted by the harrowing images of the war.  He calls it a "mess" and his only defence mechanism to protect himself against it is "detachment" as he says "that all of it has nothing to do with you."  This contributes to his alienation as "everything around and within him was remote."  His first encounter with death is seeing "forty bodies" on top of each other "like sandbags."  Gradually, John realises that wishful thinking is useless and that "you cannot feel every man's death completely and all the time" as it would prevent him from functioning.