Trench Journal- Interviews

Questions
1. Who are you writing to?
2. What is the condition of the weather?
3. How is the supplies?
4. Where are you writing from?
5. What are you doing at the time of writing the letters?

Letter

‘Army City' Garnett, Kansas August 6, 1917
My Dearest Mary,
We are in the Army now. I am sitting inside our little old tent listening to the gentle patter of the raindrops on the canvas. It began raining here this morning and it is still at it. No drill today, so I will have time to write a letter or two. We got into the city all O.K., marched up to the armory and had dinner. They have mess in the armory. We have to march back and forth to eat. Eats are pretty good so far as they have some women helping with the cooking.
Set up camp in the afternoon. Shoemaker has been Acting Corporal in our squad. We got the tent up all right under the direction of one of the old heads who has seen service on the border. Some equipment was issued in the afternoon. As my name is down well in the list, I have not received anything yet in my own name.
Corporal Hilton is staying in town so he let me have his stuff. Got pack, gun, poncho, and numerous other things I don't know what are used for. Slept on the ground last night in a tent with just an even dozen in it. Some of the fellows are staying in town at hotels, rooming houses, and private houses. Taken altogether, things are in rather poor shape as yet, but I suppose it takes a little time to get around. A few of the bunch act like a bunch of bums instead of soldiers, but they will get that taken out of them when they get to a real camp.
They got Parker Melliush for kitchen duty the first thing. Walter Anthony was stuck for guard duty last night. It must be fine walking up and down in front of a row of tents watching the other fellows sleep. One thing they did do, everybody had to quiet down at ten-thirty last night. We had a good entertainment before lights out. (We had a light, too, as some of the bunch got hold of a lantern.) A fellow in our squad by the name of Donald gets off some pretty good comedy -- original stuff, too. He is a rather rough nut, but not as bad as some of this crowd.
There was some crowd at the station yesterday, wasn't there? I think I shook hands with everybody in town three or four times. Not a very pleasant task under the circumstances, either. Well, I got so much company in here that I can't think straight. This is rather a poor excuse of a letter, but I will write again soon.
With best of love to my own little girl,
Lloyd S.


This is a letter home from one of the soldiers going to the front line. At the top are some questions that I would ask the soldier if I had the chance, they are simple questions easily answered.

Self Reflection

I believe that this project was really good, it was interesting and I learned an in depth of the goings on during WWI on the front line for both the Allies and the Germans.
What I really like about this project is that I can create the project to fit my opinion about war, and that it is easily changed and viewed, so that when I want to look at what I have done I just click a button.
My work is a visual project with many pictures and detailed descriptions, this reflects my learning because when I learn, I like it to be simple and easy to understand, just like my project.
When I read this book I learned about myself that I am a free-thinker, I do not follow blindly a country or anyone else, I always question everything and try to have an open mind. In the end Paul starts to question the reasons of the war and who it could possibly benefit, because it certainly did not benefit the soldiers, instead it destroyed them for society. What he realized was that the only reason for war was so the few in power could gain more power, that while all his friends were dying around him the politicians were vying for power.
I learned from this and other books that war is useless except for those in power to gain more power, that when they did so they threw away the lives of the people who had no idea why they were fighting. Life is hard; and life is even harder for those with no power, for they are pawns to be used by those with power, as it has always been.

Writing Extension- Political Cartoon

This picture depicts a old man holding a sign saying no war with Syria and Iran, and no war so America can have world control. This relates to Paul because he starts to realize that the only ones who benefit from war are those who are behind it (the politicians).

Writing Extension- War Poem

Nefarus War by Li Po

Last year we fought by the head-stream of the So-Kan,
This year we are fighting on the Tsung-ho road.
We have washed our armor in the waves of the Chiao-chi lake,
We have pastured our horses on Tien-shan's snowy slopes.
The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home.
Our three armies are worn and grown old.

The barbarian does man-slaughter for plowing;
On his yellow sand-plains nothing has been seen but blanched skulls and bones.
Where the Chin emperor built the walls against the Tartars,
There the defenders of Han are burning beacon fires.
The beacon fires burn and never go out.
There is no end to war!--

In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.
So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,
And the generals have accomplished nothing.

Oh, nefarious war! I see why arms
Were so seldom used by the benign sovereigns.


This poem is similar to how Paul feels due to the fact that the author finds war to be wasteful except for the killing of men.

Writing Extension- Letter Home

Dear Mother,
```I hope that you have been felling better, I wish you to know that all is well here, me and my friends are having extreme fun, right now Kropp is as always argueing with Kat, Kat himself has come up with a rhyme, "Give 'em all the same grub and all the same pay. And the war would be over and done in a day." It can get annoying due to the fact that Kat cannot sing worth a lick. But I wished to write to you and let you know that things are all right here. Plese dont send any more food here to me for I know that things are very scarse there and we have plenty of food here. Tell sis and dad that I love them and that I will see them soon.
With lots of love, Paul

Battle Orders- Pal Battalion

The Pal battalions were battalions formed of people near each other, instead of just accepting the recruits into the main army the people of towns and schools were formed as one battalion, ensuring that they were all friends. There was a success in the fact that many joined but when there was heavy loses of a battalion there were heavy loses of a certain area. Due to this the pal battalions were dropped.

Battle Field Orders- Hellen Burry

Helen Burrey was an army nurse for the Americans, one of the first to volunteer to go over to the western front. In her diaries, Helen writes about her experiences on the trains as a nurse during her time of the war.

Battle Orders- The Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The Causes of WWI were complex and included many factors, including the conflicts and antagonisms of the four decades leading up to the war. The immediate origins of the war lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during the July crisis of 1914, the spark for which was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian irredentist. The crisis did not however exist in a void; it came at the end of a long series of diplomatic clashes between the Great Powers in the decade prior to 1914 which had left tensions high almost to breaking point.