WWI Journal
Claude Boucly
Nice, France
December 21st 1915:
Hello Journal, I am Claude Boucly, I am nineteen years of age, am a writer, and have enlisted to the Army of France an destined to become
a junior officer. The excitement to travel the world and fight loads my body with exhilaration but also it is heartbreaking.
I come from the southern coast of France where I was born and raised, Nice to be exact. Farewell Nice, I have called you my home for numerous years. I will miss you dearly. You have witnessed me mature
and trek into the unknown, adulthood. You have been there when I was joyful, miserable, disheartened, angry, lonely, and much
more. I will miss the sea of southern France, the sea gleaming and sparkling in the sunlight, each individual sparkle shining brighter than a star
on a clear summer’s night, the sea I shall miss. Father, a quiet stout man, Mother, a women frail from the grievances
of life but compassionate, and Oliver, a short, easygoing little brother, will all be left in Nice going on with daily life
while I fight to keep France safe. Someday I shall return, no matter the state of being am will be in, to live the old life
before all this has occurred. I will return.
The mail has come, but alas
I am not fighting on the battlefield, but positioned on a mail boat “Persia”. A mail boat!
December 22nd 1915
Today I set sail, and so far,
the sea is quite relaxing, the calm waves gently rise and lower the boat as the winds puff, puffing ever so lightly at my
a ready tanning face. Though I feel somewhat sea sick, I will last. Started on iron rations again, a far cry from mother’s cooking, but still better than none at all. There were not enough rations for all the
crewmembers, and all of us so hungry, threatened our cook that we would make him soup. After the confrontation we are ordered
to clean the ship, though boring we did it. During this period I met a few fellows and made good company with them. I made
friends with Édouard, a skinny, lanky slip up from northern France, Gaston, a short, fat entertainer
from western France, and Paul, a tall, built man with great knowledge about the world, all of us decided that we would un
officially run the ship. We would decide who, would be first to get their rations, who got the best places to sleep and so
on. But this did not even last us a half-day, we were reported and soon we were cleaning the ship for our actions. We were
directly in line with Mecca and so all the Indians were allowed to pray on deck from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. It was an interesting site to see what and how
other cultures and religions worshipped. At 9 p.m. I watched the water, which was quite splendid to say the least. The full
moon was our enormous lantern, guiding us safely through unknown waters like a mother duck guiding its progeny through a new
pond. The night is beautiful.
March
7th 1916
Journal-forgive me for not writing in so long for it has been excessively hectic. So far I have had to sail to
many different parts of the Middle East like the Suez canal. Now I am in camp two miles from the Western Front. I have not yet been to the Front but I have a feeling that I am about to trek to the Front in the very near future. In my camp there are many soldiers that have been on the Front and their stories of the smell of
dead men, rats, bombardment, cramped quarters, and the injuries are horrific and gruesome. I was hit with the reality of the war. I have not in the war at all for the last few months I
have been merely traveling the Arab world experiencing different areas, cities, cultures and religion. I have been a tourist.
But now it is time to fight and I am very nervous. For the first timers to the Front you can feel the nervousness in the air,
no one walks with their head up, none smile, or play games. The older more experienced soldiers seem more relaxed and have
a little fun. I have walked around the camp and seen people who have come back from the hospitals and have seen their injuries.
I have seen legs missing, arms lost, and parts of faces that were devastated by the shells exploding close to them. I cannot stop thinking about what, how, when, and where some of these horrors may find me. Death
is very sly and I feel as if it is following me where ever I go, though I have not met him yet I feel his presence and I pray
to God each night that he will protect me for another day from Death. Tonight I will not sleep well.
April
7th 1916
Journal-I have just returned from the Front. On the Front I experienced so many terrifying thins that I cannot
explain. I hate war. It is hard to write without thinking about all the young bodies being mutilated by shells, gunfire, and
barbed wire. I had to murder many men but one of the men is imprisoned in my thoughts and will not escape. I had to use my spade to kill this man because I had lost my rifle. The man I killed was not a man at all he was a German boy. He was a boy younger
than I. Excuse me, but I can no longer write about this. The condition that I was living in the last month was horrid. The
constant bombardment pounding the roof of our bunker like a blacksmith pounding against an anvil, drove me insane. I am wearing
the same wet boots I have been for months. I think I have contracted a condition called trench foot. The pain is unbearable but I fight through it because I’d rather run and walk and run on trench foot than be blown
to pieces by the artillery. I am cautious to
mention this as I may end up in the hospital, which would be worse than on the front. I
hope we are served a large meal, as I am growing very hungry. I want to be
on leave very much so because I miss France and I received a letter from my brother recently that my mother has grown ill
and stays in bed for most of the day. I have grown so homesick that all I dream of is just to be back to regular life. But
the thought of leaving my comrades is unbearable and I feel the obligation to stay here and fight along side them for victory.
May
1st 1916
Journal-I am on leave for now and going to return back to nice to visit. I got leave because i was in a hole and
my gas mask had a hole and i swollowed some gas. I am glad to be away from all the dull thugs of bombardment, the dry rattle of a machine gun, the shrilling screams of fallen soldiers. I have received some heartbreaking news; my dearest of friends Édouard, Gaston, and Paul have all been kidnapped by Death. Édouard was killed when he went over the top and was met by a sneaky German baronet. Gaston, I was told, died two months ago when
he went insane inside the bunkers during a bombardment. None of the other soldiers could stop him; he darted out in the open
like a mouse fleeing from a cat. And when outside supposedly he shelled in the back. Paul was killed while trying to save
Gaston; he ran out after Gaston, the same shell that took dear Gaston killed sprinting out he. I wish that I were right next
to both of them when that shell hit, I would rather die a ghastly death than remain alive, alone without any true friends.
Now that I am back in Nice I want to go away. Today my brother asked how much people I had killed. I paused and marched away
to the beach to be unaccompanied. How could he ask a question like this? Then I knew that I have changed. They think they
know what I have been doing for the past few months, but in reality they have no idea of what war is and what it makes of
men. I have decided that I will not come home again for a very long time.
1. What
were the underlying causes of WWI?
There were tangled alliances, distrust among different nations
and aggressive nationalism.
2. What
was the specific cause of WWI?
When the Serbs assonated France Ferdinand
3. How
did the soldiers react as they went off to war? Why?
The soldiers were excited to go to war because Europe hadn’t
had a war in over a hundred years and going to war was highly romanticized.
4. What had been Himmelstoss's profession before the war?
A postman
5.
What does Kropp say happens to little men like Himmelstoss when they get stars or stripes?
Kropp said “As sure
as they get a stripe or a star they become different men, just as though they’d swallowed concrete.”
6.
What reason does Kropp give for officers' making drill exercises so difficult?
Kropp says that the difficult drills
the officers give are to strengthen the bonds of the soldiers.
Chapter 4:
1. What is the importance of the "earth
to a soldier?"
The earth is like a caring mother, a solider will dig his body into her soil and she protects the soldiers
from shell-fire.
2. What influence does the front have on soldiers?
Paul says “To me the front is a mysterious
whirlpool. Though I am in still water far away from its centre, I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly,
inescapably into itself.”
3. What two situations in battle serve a comic relief from the grim battle
being waged?
The “fireworks” and the young solider who soiled himself during combat
4. What does
the death of the horses represent?
The deaths of the horses represent the soldiers fighting along side with them
5.
What does the graveyard scene say about the value of human life?
The graveyard scene shows the irony of human life
because the coffins were meant for the dead but the troops crawl inside for cover from death.
6. Why is this such an
important chapter in the novel?
It was the first time Paul and Kat had to kill their own comrade so he wouldn’t
suffer the agonizing pain in the future
Most camps trained in close to actual war conditions and there were multiple
of them because of the many volunteers enlisting in the army. There were different types of training camps such as the regular
military camps, officer training camps, military training camps for aviators and special military camps for special positions.
The military and camps were supported by the Red Cross for there injuries
and operations needed.
Mustard gas also knows as Pyrite is an extremely harmful chemical first used
by the Germans. This almost odorless gas took about 12 hours to take affect and once it was in the soil it would stay there
for many weeks. It was usually added to bombs in small amounts. When the soldier’s skins were exposed to it, they would
experience blistering and eyes would become very soar followed by intense vomiting. Once inhaled mustard gas would burn away
the mucous membrane of the lungs causing the victim to withstand a long 3-5 week death. In the story the mustard gas and training
camps come up and are portrayed very accurately compared to the real thing.
Taishi Kato
Krucli
English
18 May 2006
Life in the trenches
During the First World War, the soldiers had to fight in trenches. Even though the trenches protected the soldiers
from unforgiving bullets and shells but the conditions in the trenches were very uncomfortable. There were many dangers beside
the weapons that threatened the soldier’s life, such as rats, disease, infestation, insects, and many more. Many people
were killed on the first day form varying things like a sniper’s bullet. It is said that up to one third of the Allied
casualties on the western front were from the trenches. Rats were a large problem in the trenches, many men were often afraid
of him and various ways were used to exterminate the vermin, such as gunfire, bayonet, or even clubbing. The rats would crawl
over the soldier’s faces and eat the men’s food. The trenches were also water logged which eventually could cause
trench foot. They had lice, and because of this they would spend hours picking it
off one another. The trenches were not a forgiving or comfortable place to send three years fighting.
Journal #4
In many ways an unp;easant or a frightening situstion can draw characters together
that have expiranced with each other. In the movie Saving Privet Ryan a team is made to rescue a solider that is lost.
While trying to find the privet the group goes through many unpleasant situatons. For example the deaths of members and the
conditions they go through. Tbrough all these situations they had to keep going and find Ryan. Eventually they find Ryan attempt
to go home. After all of this many of the original memebers are dead but while they were alive they were a tigtly knit groupbecause
of the sitiuaions.
