KS3 / KS4 History: Soldiers in action during WW1

FRANK BRENT: As the war progressed and stunt followed stunt, it required that we should live in animal conditions and, in doing so, it was inevitable that we developed the animal characteristic of killing. And apart from the short feeling of nervousness as you knew that you were moving up to carry out another operation, there was a feeling of exaltation that, once again, you were going to be able to extract retribution from the fellows that had killed your mates.

STEFAN WESTMANN: I was confronted by a French corporal, he with his bayonet at the ready, and I with my bayonet at the ready. For a moment, I felt the fear of death. And, in a fraction of a second, I realised that he was after my life, exactly as I was after his. I was quicker than he was. I tossed his rifle away and I ran my bayonet through his chest. He fell, put his hand on the place where I had hit him, and then I thrust again. Blood came out of his mouth and he died. I suddenly felt physically… I nearly vomited. My knees were shaking and I was, quite frankly, ashamed of myself. My comrades, they are absolutely undisturbed by what had happened. One of them boasted that he had killed a French soldier with the butt of his rifle. Another one had strangled a captain. A third one had hit somebody over the head with a spade. But I had in front of me the dead man, the dead French soldier. And how would I liked him to have raised his hand? I would have shaken his hand and we would have been the best of friends. What was it, that these soldiers… stabbed each other, strangled each other, went for each other like mad dogs? What was it that we, who had nothing against them personally, fought with them to the very end, in death? We were civilised people, after all.

ALAN E. BRAY: One evening, I was warned that I had to go on a firing party, six of us, to shoot four men of another battalion, who had been accused of desertion. Well, I was very worried about it because… I didn't think it was right in the first place that Englishmen should be shooting other Englishmen. I thought we were in France to fight the Germans. I thought that I knew why these men had deserted, IF they had deserted, because I understood their feelings which…and what would make them desert. The fact that they had probably been in trenches for two or three months without a break… absolutely broke their nerve.

JOHN W. PALMER: We never had a night's sleep for several nights, and, when you hadn't had rest, and sometimes hardly a meal, it gets you. And you reach the point where there was no beyond. You just could not go any further, and that's the point I'd reached. I was tired of all the carnage, of all the sacrifice that we'd had, just to gain about 25 yards. And then I began to think of those poor devils who had been punished for self-inflicted wounds. Some had even been shot. And I began to wonder how I could get out of it.

ALAN: An old soldier in our battalion told me that it was one thing in the Army that you could refuse, so I straightaway went back to the sergeant and said, 'I'm sorry, I'm not doing this.' And I heard no more about it. I think one reason why I felt so strong about it was the fact that, a week before, a boy in our own battalion had been shot for desertion. Well, I knew that boy and I knew that he'd absolutely lost his nerve. He couldn't have gone back into the line. And he was shot. And the tragedy of that was that, a few weeks later in our local paper, I saw that his father had joined up to avenge his son's death on the Germans.

JOHN: In the distance, I heard the rattle of harness. I couldn't hear much of the wheels, but I knew there were ammunition wagons coming up. And I thought to myself, 'Well, here's a way out. When they get level with me, I'll ease out and put my leg under the wheel. I shall phone to get away and I can plead that it was an accident.' Well, I waited, and the sound of harness got nearer and nearer. Eventually, I saw the leading horses' heads in front of me, and I thought, 'This is it.' And I began to ease my way out. And, eventually, the first wagon reached me. And do you know, I never even had the guts to do that. And I found myself wishing to do it, but hadn't got the guts to do it.