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Letters Home from the First World War

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Letters Home from the First World War
Dearest family,
I have been fighting for six months now and I don't know how much more death I can bear. I don't feel any pride in fighting or dying for my country. All day long all I see is people dying and I think I am next? Will I be alive tomorrow? I see people jump up out of the trenches alive and then two seconds later fall back down dead. Two weeks ago while sitting in the trenches someone started yelling GAS! GAS! In that instant I feared for my life. I grabbed a gas mask, hoping that I would get it on in time, so that I would live to see another day. There aren't enough gas masks for everyone so I had to watch my friend suffocate from the gas. I can't believe I am here and I wake up every morning wondering if I will wake up tomorrow. Pray that the war is over soon and I am able to return home alive.

Kellie
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m OK for right now but I don’t know how long I can stay alive because the amount of gas they blow-up over here. All the dead body’s that are rotting and especially the rats that carry all that bacteria are making me sick down here in the trenches. It’s like a game down here we go over there and attack then they come over here and attack back and forth back and forth and it goes on into the night. I can hardly sleep because of all the bombs they send over here and explode on top of the bomb shelter. It is so brutal down here just the other day some guy came over to our side I tried to drop a grenade on me but knifed and shot him before he could drop it so it fell on him and blew up it looked nasty. Every day I have at least a foot of mud on my legs and my boots are getting crusted with it. My legs are getting sore and it’s hard to walk or run so I just get up and start shooting from where I am but every other hour I have to put on a gas mask and climb to higher ground but all these new recruits keep pulling off their mask and set it down and it would roll down to where the gas has settled and they would go after it and inhale the gas and die. I love you all but I have to go now its morning and I have to go fight so I will write back as soon as I get a chance to.

Love Kale
Dear Mom and Dad,
I have now been here for three weeks. We get little to eat and drink. I have seen some my closest friends die in front of my eyes. Piles of bodies lie next to me at all times, wounded, dead, or even men whose minds have been destroyed by all that's going on around them. The smell alone is atrocious. It's a smell of gas, sadness, fear, and rotting flesh. There are no words I could use to explain the odour. Bodies are strung along the rows of ours and our enemies’ barbed wire. Bombs are thrown around at every moment. I never know if one will hit me next. I fear I won’t see you again. I miss you very much. I long for the warm embrace you would give me. The home cooked meal and even the bed I would lay in each night. Pray for my life and well being and I shall pray for the day I will see you again.

May god be with us all, all my love
Webster

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