Frontline Perspective of a Nurse

FRONTLINE PERSPECTIVE of a nurse or soldier in WWI from Great Britain

Many are likely to try and prepare you for going to war but nothing is better at doing this than war itself. Today is November 11, 1914, and I am writing from Ypres, one of the major strategic points preventing German troops from advancing to Bolougne-sur-Mer and Calais. Out commanders warned us in regard to how the enemy was particularly determined to defeat us because this area would provide it with a serious advantage in its fight against us. It is difficult to assess whether or not this offense was different from others, but most of us could have sworn that they had never seen such a fierce German artillery attack.

The German infantry followed right after the artillery in an attempt to take advantage of the presumably destabilized British lines. In spite of the brute force that was standing before us we managed to hold out line and even counter attacked from time to time. The German effort was surely laudable and it was obvious that the enemy acknowledged the strategic importance of this point. Out whole army fired against the enemy and the German infantry realized that it had little to no chance of triumph when it started to be attacked by British artillery, infantry, and machine guns. While one would be inclined to believe that it is impossible for these men to stand as a threat to the British line, they actually managed to enter through three points but were later forced to retreat as a result of the heavy fire that they came across. I was unfortunate enough to be near one of these points. Fighting was no longer what I believed it was and I was now standing right before German troops as they struggled to advance toward me and even further. Bayonets dominated most of the fighting in my vicinity and I almost got pierced by a German soldier when I realized that I now had to employ all of my power in close-combat fighting. I hesitated at first but I took advantage by the fact that he was tired from all the running and I sent a deadly blow to his chest. Even though I could see the fear and the disappointment in his eyes I realized that I did not have time to consider my situation and I had to take on the next enemy, and the next, and the next. They were growing more and more tired and you could read the desperation in their eyes as they realize that their fate was sealed.

This is war, you can't feel sorry for the people you kill and you can't even think about them. it's the thinking that gets you down and exposes you in front of the enemy. It would be absurd for me to say that I did not want these people to stay alive or that I did not realize that they were people just like me (some of them maybe even better). The British counter-attack felt no compassion and all it could do was stop the enemy from being successful. The number of individuals who went beyond our trenches and into the woods was close to seven hundred -- all of them dead. These were not normal people: they wanted to kill me, my family, and my friends. or, at least, that was what was going through my head at the time when the battle took place.