Times have been hard at home since the start of the war that I have begun a journal. In hopes to boost my spirits during this eerie period. “Ration cards were issued” (WWI Food Shortages) this past month to help with war efforts. On my way to the slaughterhouse where I picked up mother’s rations for the week I could not escape from the signs. Propaganda mounted the walls of every street side building trying to persuade young men to enter the war. Smothered all over the signs with the phrase “Britons wants you” (Recruitment). Perhaps I will enter the war. It is projected to end soon and Henry and Richard already passed inspection. Getting this past mother will be a different battle itself. “The Labor Party was opposed to the war” (Opposition
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There were men in uniform holding guns around the booth looking like the generic solider. Officers inspecting the men and even children did not look very passionate. There were “boys as young as 13 or 14” (Recruitment) in line trying to pass inspection. A few hours passed before I made it to the front of the line. The boy in front of me could not have been a day over sixteen and he was trying to pass for eighteen or nineteen. “The minimum height requirement was 5’3” (BBC IWonder) so most of the children here have a chance to pass. The inspection process was a joke. They took my height, weight, name, and age. I filled out the paperwork: 6’2, 170, Arthur D. Bailey, 19. Without any hesitation, I was stamped and instructed to pick out my uniform. Basic training would begin at the end of the week. We were all informed to report back here to leave for camp. I have to somehow tell mother that I will be leaving and going to …show more content…
The start of the battle was a disaster, “18,800 soldiers were killed on the first day” (World War I Timeline). The plan was to surprise the Germans by attacking in the morning just after we detonated planted mines. The mines were poorly placed and the artillery from the week before was done horrendously. The battlefield was practically unscathed and the Germans were prepared for our attack. The barbed wire that made up “no man’s land” was destroyed only pieces at a time, creating narrow passage was to run through. Hundreds died by the second from getting “mowed down by German machine gunners” (World War I Timeline). I watched in horror as bullets whistled by my head, taking out men behind me. It took us over a week to “secure the first line of German trenches” (The Battle of Somme 1916). My attack didn’t stop until I took a round from an opposing “Mauser M98G 7.92mm” (Weapons of World War I) and was sent to the infirmary were I lay now. I had made an offensive surge to a nearby fallen tree where I was shot in my side. I laid staring up to the vacant sky waiting for my final breath, and then a soldier came and helped me be “collected by stretcher-bearers” (Wounding in World War One). I am expected not to return but to be discharged due to the severity of my injury. I am supposed to return home by the end of the
There were men in uniform holding guns around the booth looking like the generic solider. Officers inspecting the men and even children did not look very passionate. There were “boys as young as 13 or 14” (Recruitment) in line trying to pass inspection. A few hours passed before I made it to the front of the line. The boy in front of me could not have been a day over sixteen and he was trying to pass for eighteen or nineteen. “The minimum height requirement was 5’3” (BBC IWonder) so most of the children here have a chance to pass. The inspection process was a joke. They took my height, weight, name, and age. I filled out the paperwork: 6’2, 170, Arthur D. Bailey, 19. Without any hesitation, I was stamped and instructed to pick out my uniform. Basic training would begin at the end of the week. We were all informed to report back here to leave for camp. I have to somehow tell mother that I will be leaving and going to …show more content…
The start of the battle was a disaster, “18,800 soldiers were killed on the first day” (World War I Timeline). The plan was to surprise the Germans by attacking in the morning just after we detonated planted mines. The mines were poorly placed and the artillery from the week before was done horrendously. The battlefield was practically unscathed and the Germans were prepared for our attack. The barbed wire that made up “no man’s land” was destroyed only pieces at a time, creating narrow passage was to run through. Hundreds died by the second from getting “mowed down by German machine gunners” (World War I Timeline). I watched in horror as bullets whistled by my head, taking out men behind me. It took us over a week to “secure the first line of German trenches” (The Battle of Somme 1916). My attack didn’t stop until I took a round from an opposing “Mauser M98G 7.92mm” (Weapons of World War I) and was sent to the infirmary were I lay now. I had made an offensive surge to a nearby fallen tree where I was shot in my side. I laid staring up to the vacant sky waiting for my final breath, and then a soldier came and helped me be “collected by stretcher-bearers” (Wounding in World War One). I am expected not to return but to be discharged due to the severity of my injury. I am supposed to return home by the end of the