What the Boys Did Over There

Life in a Trench
(What the Boys Did Over There, 1919)

Corporal Frank Sears of the American Expeditionary Force put pen to paper and explained for all posterity the unsanitary conditions of <b.living in a W.W. I trench in France:

Life in the trenches is made up of cooties, rats, mud and gas masks…
We became so used to mud up in the lines that if our chow did not have some mud, or muddy water in it we could not digest it. It was just a case of mud all over: eat, drink, sleep and wash in mud.

A German Sniper Captured
(What the Boys Did Over There, 1919)

Attached is a remembrance that was written by a Canadian infantryman who participated in the capture of a German sniper in Flanders:

We wasted no time on the return journey but hustled Fritz along at a brisk pace…Like most of his breed there was a wide ‘yellow streak’ in this baby-killer and he cried ‘Kamerad’ instantly. By the time the lieutenant had secured his prisoner’s rifle our barrage was falling and, under its protection, he began his march back with the prisoner, and met us before he had gone twenty-five yards…The prisoner expected to be killed at once and begged piteously for his life, saying ‘he had a wife and three children.’ One of the men replied that if he had his way he would make it a ‘widow and three orphans.’

Life in a Trench(What the Boys Did Over There, 1919)

A German Sniper Captured (What the Boys Did Over There, 1919)

Life in a Trench
(What the Boys Did Over There, 1919)

A German Sniper Captured
(What the Boys Did Over There, 1919)