WWII Soldier’s Diary Reveals Life In The Trenches
WWII soldier John T French kept a journal while holed up in a muddy trench with German sniper bullets whizzing over his head every day. And the story that it tells is quite remarkable. In his diary he tells horror stories of the killing and death. He describes ‘piles of men’ who had been killed in the firefight, and he describes ducking those same bullets who killed his countrymen.
He also talks of downtime in the fighting when he and his comrades would shout good natured insults to the opposing Germans, who would throw their own back. 30 minutes were spent in verbal sparring involving cultural cliches from each country. Then they would duck under the trenches and get back to fighting.
French survived the horrors of the Second World War, but succumbed to TB at age 37.
I always find it fascinating to see items such as these diaries. As I know I’ve mentioned in a previous post, for me, seeing these words written, and photographs taken, so long ago really brings the people involved to life. While in school I always found it so easy to tune out and simply memorize the dates. I did these brave people an injustice by letting them remain just names on a piece of paper.
But they weren’t just names. They were people with hopes, dreams, and lives of their own, and not just some name to memorize in order to pass a test. This is something we all need to remember.
If you are interested in reading more of French’s diary, click here.