The diary: 

The Somme, Northern France. August 3rd 1917 Well, this is not what I thought life would be like when I was sent to the front. Some of it is what I expected – the constant danger, the noise, the terrible smell and the rats. What I didn’t expect, though, was that it would be so boring to be in the trenches.  I thought I’d spend my days risking my life fighting the Germans. But instead, our days are spent doing very little apart from chores. Mornings start before dawn, when the commander wakes us up for the stand to, when we have to defend the trench against an attack from the enemy. Attacks are common at the beginning and end of the day, even though everybody expects them to happen. The morning hate comes next –when we fire at the Germans, with machine guns and shells. It helps get rid of some of our stress before the day starts. After stand to, we’re all given a ration of rum. It’s a good warming drink, especially when the water isn’t always safe to drink. Before breakfast, we have to clean our rifles and other equipment and have them inspected by the commander. Breakfast is usually the only quiet part of the day – we have an unofficial ceasefire with the other side – we all want to eat our breakfast in peace and so no one fires on each other. This doesn’t usually last for long though. As soon as the commander finds out about the ceasefire, he tells us to start shooting again!  Another inspection comes after breakfast – this time it’s the men who are inspected. The platoon commander checks our feet to make sure we don’t have trench foot, which is a painful foot disease caused by the dirty wet conditions in the trench. During inspection, the commander gives out the chores for the day. Most of these are day-to-day trench maintenance, like refilling sandbags, draining out the water in the bottom of the trench or repairing the duckboards. If you’re really unlucky, you get given one of the really nasty jobs that no one wants, like cleaning the toilets or burying bodies.  After we’ve finished doing chores, we have free time. Some of the lads like to spend their time playing cards and reading or making meals. We all use the time to try and catch up on some sleep, though it’s never easy to get much sleep with the sound of the shells. I prefer to write this diary though, or write letters to my family. Night time is always the busiest time, because it’s only after it gets dark that we’re safe from the German snipers. Just before it gets dark, we repeat the stand to, then get more chores to do. A lot of them are outside the trench. More maintenance needs doing, on the trench and outside in No Man’s Land. Sometimes I get sent out on patrol in No Man’s Land – this is the worst job. You always have to hope you don’t meet an enemy patrol. Other night time jobs include fetching more rations and water and standing at the listening post, trying to hear information about what the enemy are doing. The most difficult job, though, is standing at the Sentry Post, keeping guard. Men only stay there for two hours, otherwise they might fall asleep. The punishment for sleeping on sentry duty is death by firing squad, so it’s really important to stay awake! At night there’s time for a little more sleep and then we wake up the next day and everything is the same again. At least we’re only in the trenches for one or two weeks at a time.