World War I is often considered the second worst war in history. In the view of past warfare we typically focus on the death total that flashes over twenty million. However consequently in doing so we often forget the sheer horror of the warfare and the life of the soldiers on the front line. The soldiers faced many hardships both mentally and physically that shouldn’t be neglected. The journals of Quiren Grossel, Reese Russell, and George Sheppard highlight the extreme difficulty of the hardships they faced while on the front of the vast battlefield. The first noticeable extreme example that highlights the difficulty of the hardships faced by WW1 soldiers is Quiren M. Groessl. Groessl was a part of the Fifth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment serving …show more content…
Sheppard served in the 29th Division as a First Lieutenant. During his time overseas in France he has seen fellow soldiers blow their last dollars gambling and drinking as they gloomed about their doom. Furthermore he has seen how two American officers faked orders as a part of a ruse that made his men spend hours waiting for the enemy that was never to come. During Sheppard’s time on the front line he has experienced vast trama’s and challenges. An imploring example of this is in his journal. “ The second night we tried to sleep… I remember waking several times with Bill’s feet resting upon my stomach. Furthermore this shows the difficulty on the front lines as it is cramped and extremely difficult to sleep. Another example is when he writes '' The biggest man physically in the platoon was continually suffering from hallucinations. One night he insisted that three Germans in long black cloaks were moving stealthily from tree to tree not seen yards in front of his post… The French Corporal got out of the trench, walked to the tree in question, and fired into it with no result, he still saw Germans gliding on. '' This consequently shows the extreme conditions of being in the treacherous trenches on the front line as itr causes soldiers to have
Most of those who fought had not experienced much outside of their home life, and the gruesome details of war shocked them. For many of the young men, the deaths that they saw from their bedsides in camp were the first they had witnessed (Chadwick, 24). The deaths that surrounded the soldiers on the battlefield were especially horrifying. John Greenwood wrote of Bunker Hill, saying, “Everywhere the greatest terror and confusion seemed to prevail.” (Chadwick, 7) Soldiers who were captured often got treated terribly, and they were placed in terrible conditions.
Their accounts showed the “underdog story” of being an Indian, while being a part of the war, and their courageous war story. For All Quiet on the Western Front, there was a notion that the war was being broadcast a great, patriotic event to be a part of on the home front, but in the trenches life was extremely hard for soldiers. Social and economic poverty ran rampant through the German army and the trenches, was filled with discontent. The two accounts tell the story of a courage, each in diverse ways. One with the courage to fight for triumph and the untold stories of heroism.
Hardships faced in World War 1 War can be compared to an everlasting fever with tremendous side effects, no one, in particular, wants it, but, all at once there it is. Combat before World War 1 had the usage of inefficient had to hand weapons like knives and regular bayonets. Killing mass numbers of people was not as effective as during World War 1 as technology developed to kill more efficiently. Knives and bayonets turned into machine guns, slow marching troops were transported by tanks and submarines, poison gas and barbed wires replaced shields. The novel, ’All Quiet on the Western Front’, written by Erich Maria Remarque, who served in the German army during the war.
In All Quiet on the Western Front Paul Bäumer and his friends of the second company experience the brutality of trench warfare from a first hand perspective. In the story they had to spend time digging in the mud to get the trenches they needed. After they would fight through enemy bombardments, where hundreds of shells destroy the front line leaving them woke with a constant uncertainty if they would be killed. It is even stated by Paul that in the trenches life is no more than an avoidance of death. Each person must not think about anything but to kill or be killed.
During the First World war, soldiers all around the world were met with a plethora of long-lasting injuries and challenges. The novels, Generals Die In Bed by Charles Yale Harrison and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque portray the similar wartime experiences of Canadian and German soldiers. The historical concept of causation is shown throughout these novels, particularly in how the soldiers experienced extreme violence, which led to the desensitization to such violence and the dehumanization of their allies and enemies. Both Canadian and German soldiers were psychologically affected which was caused by the horrors of the war, highlighting the mental effects the war had on soldiers. World War 1 was home to extreme violence, which soldiers had frequently met face to face during
The Effects Of War War is a terrible thing, everyone can agree with that. It will leave a mark on everyone who was involved. Either physically or even worse, mentally. In the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” by a World War 1 veteran Erich Remarque describes the effects of not just WWI, but of what war in general can do to a man.
If we come back late from the Soldiers’ Home we have to show passes” (Remarque,1985,1929,p.187).Although the soldiers were not under the same exact confinements as the prisoners some of their restrictions flowed over into the lives of soldiers. The soldiers were confined and watched under the guards along with the soldiers unknowingly. The separation from their families is something both men had to deal with unwillingly due to the circumstances they were placed in. In war, men are separated from their family for months at a time.
Throughout the first world war, both Canadian and German troops were challenged with a variety of hardships, the most prominent being the poor living conditions of the trenches. When reading the books, Generals Die In Bed and All Quiet on the Western Front, we can see the lack of sleep, lice in clothing, and subpar equipment that the German and Canadian troops were required to deal with. The quality of life in the trenches over the four years of war exhibits the historical concept of continuity. Hence, both the German and Canadian troops were confronted with poor living conditions due to the lice, absence of sleep, and inadequate equipment.
From Browne’s first person experience, the American soldiers had no idea of how ill prepared the United States were in entering the war and how terrible the living conditions will be. These small details are important to fully understand the life of an American soldier in World War I. It is evident that David L Snead uses George Browne’s letters as factual information that greatly enhances the experience of what it is like to be an American soldier in World War I. Not only is there a first person perspective of what happened during the war, David L. Snead incorporates George Browne’s letters to Martha Johnson into a wider narrative about life, combat, hope, and service among the American troops and places context on the real horrors that the American soldier endured during World War
During World War I from 1914 to 1918, soldiers in the front line their main priority for survival was getting some sleep, something to eat, a way to move their artilleries, themselves, their gear, and even the wounded from one location to another. Some soldiers with different ranks were allowed to write diaries. Sergeant Elmer F. Straub wrote in his diary how he was able to get some sleep through artillery barrage. Corporal Eugene Kennedy wrote in his diary how tents had to be taken down, roll packs, and leave with in fifteen minutes; not to mention the loaf of bread that he shoved in the breast of his overcoat. And Captain John Trible, who register in his diary that his medical unit had moved to a "pretty civilized" village, and secured a
This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.
There were flares and mortar rounds, and the stink was everywhere- it was inside him, in his lungs- and he could no longer tolerate it”(149). Since the war the soldiers get flashbacks of different scenarios all the time. It takes a toll on how they think and the trauma, guilt, and grief they felt in that
War damages a man's soul. Tim O'Brien writes about the horrifying impact of war in his life, and in the lives of his comrades in The Things They Carried. The book shows the stories of O’Brien’s fellow soldiers before, during, and after the war. These short stories that were collected after the war told us the innermost thoughts of various members of his platoon. The soldiers told us how the war impacted them throughout their lives.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
“In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae, “All Quiet on the Western Front” produced by Carl Laemmle, and Storm of Steel by Ernest Junger all describe the gruesome setting and effects that were a reality for soldiers fighting in World War I. Each piece presents this information through different medias: “In Flander’s Fields” through poetry, “All Quiet on the Western Front” through film, and Storm of Steel through prose. Although they are all of different medias, they evoke a similar sense of pathos in the audience through their use of similar rhetorical strategies. Each work compels the reader to realize how fragile life really is through its employment of diction and imagery.