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L. Barr - Initial post #
L. Barr - Initial post #
As this brutal war continues, my soul weakens as the dreadful days pass. My eyes feel like there are weights attached to them due to my lack of sleep. This Great w
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H.Pabedinskas - initial post #2
H.Pabedinskas - initial post #2
The flamethrower was a weapon that greatly impacted the war. I personally did not get a chance to use it. It was a powerful enough weapon to 🤬 big groups of enemy soldiers. It has tanks filled with flammable liquid that was similar to napalm. It was a little bit dangerous to use a flamethrower because they were heavy and only got people in a smal area. Thankfully I didn’t have to use one
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H.Pabedinskas - initial post #2
H.Pabedinskas - initial post #2
The flame thrower was a very powerful and key weapon that contributed to the war. Unfortunately I was not able to get my hands on one but I did get to try it. It could easily wipe out big groups of enemy soldiers but intent only lasted for a short amount of time until the solution that made the flame ran out. If one of the tanks were hit there would be a small chance they could explode.
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we had a grenade accident
 we had a grenade accidentally pulled, 4 men were killed and my friend Pat was seriously injured. while i was sleeping last night a huge brown rat came and ran over my face. The rat was the size of my old cat Molly. Then today, commander assigned me the job of filling sand bags, of course it started raining around noon, and he made us drain the trench. when I first got here the smell was unbearable, now I'm afraid that I cant smell it anymore. I haven't had a bath in weeks, the grease from my hair is driving me nuts.
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L. Barr- initial post
L. Barr- initial post 
I can not begin to explain to you how horrible the war has been. I have always been a brave man, but I do not know 
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J. Walker - Initial post
J. Walker - Initial post
I wouldn't wake up easy as one of my friends shook me trying to get me to stand and get ready for the waiting I would have to do. the only enjoyable thing about stand to is they give me rum after it doesn't help because its not enough but it helps to wake me up after an hour of waiting. I mean who doesn't like a shot of rum at dawn? After I was up I had to clean my gun while doing so I heard rats . I hated the rats they were just so ugly we would always joke about how we would put food in a hole and trap them then take a flamethrower to the pile of rats since they came in the millions. I looked down and there it was the size of a cat I took my bayonet before I put it on my gun I stabbed the rat n just tossed it for the bugs to eat it. After my officer checked my gun and everything was cleared I sat to eat breakfast I could not stop itching I scratched my head and between my fingernails I saw little lice bugs I had to shave my head but I did it after breakfast or else I couldn't eat. 
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Anonymous 44m
You must have been in the trenches for a while now, because you are able to sleep at night and only need a shot of rum to wake up. During my first cycle on the front lines I could barely sleep from the constant machine gun fire I could hear in my sleep was so heavy from where I was positioned which was right next to a machine gunner. But that wasn't all that kept me up at night though the large amount of daily death that both sides faced on a regular basis that has scarred me and a lot of other soldiers too. S. Quilty
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A. Harvey- initial post
A. Harvey- initial post
This morning I woke up to the smell of something burning. I walked outside of the trench and found many of my guys on the floor dead, from the shell fire that was lit by our enemies. This explosion was caused by a large shell burst. What made this situation worse was the fact that there were rats running around foraging for a place to go and for food. The worst rats of them all are the brown rats. Don't even get me started they carry more diseases than the black rats and are feared the most because they can grow up to a size of a cat. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?? They spread nasty infections and can cause deaths. They also produce 900 OFFSPRING EVERY 12 WEEKS PER YEAR!!! To fix this problem we have many of the guys using bayonets to club the rats to death. It fixes some of the rat problems but not all of it. Another issue we have are lice they get into the seams of clothing and hide in there until they hatch. They cause itching which is mainly one of the symptoms with how they detect if they had lice or not. They are very painful and cause high fevers.
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Anonymous 5h
900 offspring every 12 weeks??? That is a lot of rats. I do have a possible suggestion to you're problem. Poison Gas. If you spray a certain are with oison gas and seal it off you can very likely get rid of all the rats in that area. One important thing to keep in mind is to be careful. Last week we attempted to do this and at least a dozen of us died due to the wind blowing the poison toward us.H.Pabedinskas
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Y. Palomares - initial post
Y. Palomares - initial post
Today has been a terrible day, I cannot walk one step without seeing a rat by me. Infections and diseases are practically surrounding everyone. These rats were also not making the smell any better. It smelt like rotten and moldy things which disgusted me. Plus many people haven't bathed in like 2 or 3 weeks so everyone is filthy and most people have lice. Also me and a group of others went out looking for a dugout or a trench to lay in for the night or for a little while and some people had fell asleep and randomly we started getting a attacked, it sounded like they were using a machine gun because it shot very quickly and a lot at one time instead of slowly. Something that scared us was that we did not know where it was coming from. Luckily no one get seriously injured that were with me. But we all were in shock when it happened. So we all decided to move and leave that trench.
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Anonymous 4h
If you think the machine gun was bad then you haven't witnessed what tank is capable of. they are very powerful, tough, and go through all different kinds of terrains. If it was a tank instead of a machine gun and the tank was also targeted on you, you wouldn't hae a chance of survival.H.Pabedinskas
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A. Cervantes
A. Cervantes
Today is another horrible day in the trenches. I got up today just like I always do. Sometimes I can't even sleep so I sit there in the dark crying. Rats running by my feet and running over my face while I'm trying to sleep. It's seriously disgusting and I'm quite over it. Today I shaved my head because I had lice. My hair is all gone now, I can't even recognize myself anymore. And that odor is horrid. The smell of rotting bodies, feet, and the smell of these people. Some men haven't showered In weeks or even months. Now that you have a little explanation of how I'm living let me explain to you the weapon that I use in world war 1. The weapon that I use is a flame thrower. Of course I have the fear of being set on fire every time I use it but that's life. If you don't know what a flame thrower is it's a weapon that sprays out burning fuel. It can shoot close and long range. 
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Anonymous 7h
I heard that one of the trenches were accidently filled with poisonous by one of the soldiers in there. Still can't get over the fact that all the soldiers in the trench where killed, by one silly mistake. Someone else supposedly set themselves on fire with a flame catcher. Us soldiers really need better training so we actually know what we were doing. - A. Gondal
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A. Gondal - Initial Post
A. Gondal - Initial Post
Today was unbearable. There was a brown rat in my uniform. Rats have infested this entire place, surprisingly, we all haven't died from the bacteria and contamination in this place. Frogs are everywhere, and almost everyone in my trench has lice. I'm always paranoid, thinking a frog or rat is running around me without me realizing. I came to the decision to shave my head bald. There's no way I'm gonna suffer with lice on top of all of this. The smell here has me sick to my stomach. I can feel myself becoming weaker and weaker day by day because of the unbearable and toxic smell of poisonous gas and latrines. My neighboring trench was blown up by a grenade. I feel lucky to have survived. I've never missed home as much as I do now. Can't wait for this war to be over, hoping I'll make it alive.
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Anonymous 4h
You should come out to the no mans land. At least there is no rats or stnch of dead bodies. But there is a higher chance of dying. When out here you have to be ready and alert at any given moment because you dont know if your next step could be on a mine or a tripwire alerting the enemies that you are near.H.Pabedinskas
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P. Pelc - Initial Post
P. Pelc - Initial Post
Today was the first day in the trenches for me. It was horrible, I couldn't stand the smell of all the bodies, the cigs, the odor of everyone who was there for months ahead of me. some of the men acted like there wasn't even a smell to this horrid place. How do you get used to a smell like that? but for today there were so many other things I wish I haven't seen. I was given the duty of patrolling the no mans land. I was simply told to go to a listening outpost and see if I can hear any valuable information. but these men I was with they didn't listen, we were told to not look over the parapet of the trench into no mans land. these three men , all in the same day, looked over. and guess what happened. they got shot. there was so much death everyday. I was one of the people to cause death on the other side as well. I was assigned to be using the poison gas. it wasn't exactly thrilling to be using this. I remember I used some poison gas on the other side of the trench and all I could here was yelling and I know I shouldn't have looked over but I did and saw one of the worse things I could see. there were the people who managed to save themselves from the gas by using the damp cloths that they had but one in particular I saw couldn't find his. I watched him cough and cough as I could see the life disappear from him as he struggled to find anything to protect him from the gas but it was too late. he held his hands to his throat as his final breaths escaped from is then ,already, lifeless body
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E. Cortina
E. Cortina 
The first day at the trench was so bad, we nasty rats all over the place giving us diseases. the lice were the worst, hiding on our shirts and lice eggs on the seams of the shirt . we had to wash our shirts everyday. my rifle would jam every time and I had to clean it which was a pain. boredom was everywhere we had people playing cards and others were just staring at the sky until a shell hits the outside of our trench in which we stood ready for battle. we could not do anything in the day because of the fake trees which had snipers in them made it unsafe to do daily tasks . I've only gone to no mans land once and I never want to go back, I got caught by a patrol and had to do hand to hand combat. thank god I made it out alive with a cut on my arm. when I went to no mans land I over heard some German troops talking about a them having a land ship clean up no mans land. 
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Anonymous 7h
thank you kanye, very cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous 7h
No problem Mr. Trump!!

Anonymous 5h
It is great to hear that you are still alive and got away with only a cut. Back in the trenches if you have an open cut/wound you better get it patched up because if you dont, You'll wake up with a big brown rat nibbling at that wound. It is also almost certain that if a rat got to you, you will have a developing disease. H.Pabedinskas
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J. Mora - initial post
J. Mora - initial post
I cannot stand this, rats are constantly running everywhere and its disgusting. The rats can grow up to the size of a cat from just eating human remains. In the trenches, death is a constant companion to everyone serving in the line, many people die. Every time I breathe I want to throw up. The smell of all the dead corpses are unbearable. Whenever I try to rest my eyes I can still hear the machine guns going off and killing many of my friends. I hope they are in a better place than me. My god rest over their poor souls.
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Anonymous 7h
I heard that other areas had big problems with lice ours isn't terrible where I'm scratching my head constantly. eggs hatch quickly because of the heat. The flame thrower seems to not be as effective as they wanted it to because there's a high risk for using it cause you could easily catch yourself on fire. P.Gonzalez

Anonymous 1h
Your dealing with the rats too?i saw a brown one eating a bloody finger last week, i almost puked.i wish we could just throw a grenade at them or shoot them with our rifle. C.Kunysz
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J.Litzau- initial post
J.Litzau- initial post 
Today in the trenches was deadly, my buddy right next to me got shot in the head by a sniper, never know how long everyone will last you get lucky if you get through the first day. every single day i hope my body can survive these diseases that they are trying to fight off. I haven't slept in days its either your watching out for snipers or snatching some sleep. There are Rotting carcasses everywhere it smells so bad over here i can not last another minute, it smells like cigarette smoke and food

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Anonymous 7h
that is terrible on what's happening by you. we are constantly filling sandbags repairing duckboards or draining the trenches just for daily chores and inspections re hard everything needs to be in order. I constantly see zeppelins floating in the air killing a ton of men some our own. P.Gonzalez

Anonymous 7h
Many of my friends including myself cannot stand this boredom. All we do is stand at out posts and wait till someone attacks and its really tiring, I cannot keep my eyes open its so difficult. whenever we are cornered or just can shoot we throw our grenades so that it kills all of the enemies shooting at us. It comes in handy but I remember one time a person from our side got blown up because he timed it wrong. -J Mora

Anonymous 7h
God bless the soul of your friend who died I hope he is in a better place. Also you are kind of lucky you are in the trenches, because I am sometimes sent to patrol the No Man's Land where any step could be your last as well. We either die to an enemy in hand-to-hand combat or from mounted machine guns that destroy our whole group in seconds. They are so deadly in the trenches as well. S. Quilty

Anonymous 1h
I"m sorry to hear that. I've been dying of boredom, just having to breathe in the terrible smell, and dreadful sounds. i haven't had good sleep in months. C. Kunysz

Anonymous 7m
So sorry to hear that. My trench is Infested with rats . It kind of sucks because they're running where where sleeping and when I'm eating it's disgusting to see them just running around. The one thing we get is a rifle in a doesn't do much either because It's a one shot weapon in their super heavy.
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J. Kowaluk - Initial Post
J. Kowaluk - Initial Post
The conditions at dusk are different to the rest of the day. There is sort of an unwritten custom to attack precisely as light fell. We are usually sent to get rations and water, or sent on sentry duty at the fire step. Sentry duty only lasts 2 hours for each of us, any later and its quite possible to just fall asleep on duty. Falling asleep would be your end, though, death penalty is usually the result of sleeping. Sentry duty and stand to, though, is not the worst thing. much preferable to no mans land. Usually any interactions with no mans land have to do with simple tasks like fixing defenses at the front line or something. But, just the other day I was sent out with a small group to listen in on enemy patrols for information. The disaster of being caught by a patrol is horrifying, if there were shots as you ran off, usually from a machine gun; an automatic gun that is a death sentence to be around with nothing to defend with, that attracts plenty of enemy attention and you can never get back there. But in all honesty at least that isn't as bad as the boredom we face daily, having hours of free time might seem positive at first but after a while you get restless and paranoid, and sleep is nearly impossible. 
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S. Quilty-Initial Post
S. Quilty-Initial Post
Life in the trenches was a hard one people died daily, trench hours and duties varied drastically, and sometimes people had to spend time patrolling the No Man's Land. A lot of soldiers died of many causes, but rookies would sometimes die from looking over into the No Man's Land and getting shot by a well placed sniper shot. Sometimes during peoples breaks in the dugouts they would get hit by a heavy artillery shell from the enemy. We were tossed around from trench to trench in a cycle of sorts, and you would spend like 70 days on the front line, 30 days in the support trenches, some 120 days in the reserve, and 70 days at rest. Patrolling the No Man's Land was especially dangerous because if you made too loud a sound you would be shot down by machine guns that completely changed wars because of how simple it was for them to hold down a whole battalion with only a few. Also patrolling the No Man's Land  was also hard for both groups because they did not want to be heard by anyone so if they encounter enemies they had to use either hand-to-hand combat or they had to just walk away as if they didn't see each other. I was stationed near a machine gunner once and they were burning through bullets at anyone they saw come up from the enemies side and turned them to shreds. these daily occurrences caused some men to want to flee, some got so worried it killed them, and the rest just did all they could to survive. 
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F. Cuevas - Initial post
F. Cuevas - Initial post
It was 1914 or 1918 battling in the trenches when I was not assigned to do a task. At the moment all I can do is just write. However, I only got like a couple minuets so I have to make them count. I should be sleeping just because we all need the rest we can get, but I decided to write in my journal instead. Other than that I also have to keep my head down when I do this just because there are outlooks and snipers looking over our head.
 After I was done writing in my journal I decided to sleep for awhile, but in like minutes I was woke by my fellow marine telling me that I had to go out into no Man's Land to patrol.  To be honest I was a bit scared because there could also be enemy's patrolling around there to. I was also sent to put some barbwire at the line, and I did. After that I was hoping to find some helpful info. for the enemy lines but I didn't find any. While searching a little more I've found an enemy searching for something, all of a sudden he saw me as well so I was about to take out my hand gun but I didn't because people told me that there are machine guns out there and it could also lead out or attract, deadly to all members of the patrol.
  Geez I cant ever get away from the nasty smell of blood because thousands were killed and many people using creosol or chloride of lime to stove of the threat of disease and infection. However the worst one were the feet, that smell was just soo bad that I can smell it every were I go. To be honest most people got used to the smell, however, I never got used to the smell.
  Finally I got sent out to fight. My weapon was the flamethrower, it brought fear to my enemy's. However, I was also scared because someone could just simple shoot my gas tanks and its over for me. Also nothing less the gas on the flamethrower runs out quick so I have to use it wisely.  
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Anonymous 7h
Just the other day I was sent out to fix some wire out in no mans land. we were on track until a patrol caught us. We only had sidearms but they had a machine gun and let off some shots at us. We would've thrown some grenades out but, as you say, too much noise attracts a lot of attention. We got out quickly but that area now has heavy enemy presence. -J KOWALUK.
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N. Foster- Initial post
N. Foster- Initial post
It's day 6 in these disgusting trenches. There are a bunch of nasty rats crawling over my shoes and scurrying across my clothes. Been seeing people die because of the types of illnesses you can catch being down here. All these poor guys itching and scratching away at their skin because of some kind of Lice thing going around down here. My old friend Jim got trench fever, I've never seen him in so much pain before in my life. He was screaming and crying and it just hurt my soul to see him being buried.  Some of the times it wouldn't be so bad, they would give us Rum at some point in time but not all the time. The lead officers would routinely have us clean our rifles which wasn't a bad thing. Even the food wasn't the best, we were still able to eat breakfast during the morning times and these times would last pretty long which enabled us to enjoy what we were eating. No Man's Land is the place where nobody wanted to go because they were to scared. The only time I went there was to repair the barbed wire which was fairly easy. Yesterday a solider named Michael went to a listening post and didn't return for 15 minutes. Someone went to check the listening spot and found Michael dead with his jaw loose and bloody, and both of his arms were broken... All in all times down here in the trenches aren't something to look forward to. Now let's talk about the kind of weapon I'm using during this war. The weapon that they assigned me was a Flamethrower, it's pretty gnarly. 
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H. Pabedinskas -Initial Post
H. Pabedinskas -Initial Post
It was our first day in the newly built trenches. It was not as bad as people said it was going to be. But that all changed after a few days. We had been in several fights by then and many troops were losing their life. We also had new troops coming in everyday most of which couldn't handle the difficult conditions and either died in a couple days or got badly sick. Even without any fighting going on people were dying due to shellfire from the enemy and diseases that were going around. Many of the people i knew and some i considered friends, were buried by the large shell bursts while they were lying in dugouts or just hanging around the trenches.
 To keep us in check and ready for anything the commander of the platoon or the company would do a daily inspection on us. And then after breakfast we were sent to do our chores, unless obviously you physically couldn't. Getting rid of water from the trenches was the worst possible job you could be assigned. But if we didn't have chores we would be even more bored than we already were.
 Daily boredom was a factor everyone encountered while in the trenches. we had a limitation on the things we could do due to the enemy snipers that always had their eyes on us during the day, while it was still light out. We had to do the more active activities when it got dark so that the enemy would not be able to see us.
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A. Iglesias-Initial Post
A. Iglesias-Initial Post
Today was the worst of them. I saw people die left and right. They died either from getting sick or being killed. Many men didn't live to see the 2nd day I am happy I did . Men would have injuries that would slowly 🤬 them and I saw them in pain and I couldn't help. The smell of rotting bodies was really bad. There was maybe 200,000 men killed and buried in low graves the smell was unbearable. we all have not had a bath in weeks. the smell of sweating men, and the sweat would dry on them. the odor was bad on top of all the dead bodies. It was so boring in the daytime we could not move or walk around till nightfall. we had to do are tasks and then after that we could write letters to loved ones or sleep for a little before having another task to do. if there was nothing to do we would just lay around doing nothing. one thing that was good was I got to use a new weapon. it was a grenade. it was scary to use it I learned that not to drop it because if I do I will 🤬 everyone in the trench. the nice thing is it could 🤬 up to 5-7 people and wound 4. you need to throw it before it goes off. the fuse burns down till it hits the main charge then goes boom. you have maybe 6sec to throw it. that my life in the trench's. so far its nothing I thought it would be.
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Anonymous 7h
Wow I'm glade your getting used to your grenades that have high explosive and can 🤬 many people , but us German now have a flamethrower to bring in this trench war that will strike fear in all of your comrades. This bad boy can probably take out more people than a grenade because I can actually move around. F. cuevas
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C. Kunysz- initial post
C. Kunysz- initial post

Yesterday we had a grenade accidentally pulled, 4 men were killed and my friend Pat was seriously injured. while i was sleeping last night a huge brown rat came and ran over my face. The rat was the size of my old cat Molly. Then today after breakfast, commander assigned me the job of filling sand bags, of course it started raining around noon, and he made us drain the trench. when I first got here the smell was unbearable, now I'm afraid that I cant smell it anymore. I haven't had a bath in weeks, the grease from my hair is driving me crazy, I think I'm going mad. My friend Eric, the kid that I've known since we were in 2nd grade, just got trench fever. IM scared that he wont make it.
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R. Meyers - Initial Post
R. Meyers - Initial Post
Today was terrible, my closest friends were killed. We were attacked while we were just sitting in our trench. I am surprised I survived, it was so close to me. The smell of the bomb is still lingering around the place and my ears are still ringing. People are constantly dying due to the snipers that are hidden around every corner, I am afraid I could be next. The new machine guns we received are causing so much damage. It is both good and bad because we are able to 🤬 people both quicker and easier, but they are also used against us They are lighter and easier to bring around, although We feed our bullets in through a belt though which I find difficult because it keeps getting stuck.
Earlier while I walking to my dugout I saw BROWN rat, it was chewing  on a finger of what I believe was someone I knew. I am disgusted I tried to shoot at it but I missed and shot at tree. They are everywhere, everytime I lift something up I see 5 rats underneath.
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R. Meyers 2 - initial post

# data[].attributes.body
As this brutal war continues, my soul weakens as the dreadful days pass. My eyes feel like there are weights attached to them due to my lack of sleep. This Great War has been so tough, no words can explain. I feel that death could be upon me at any moment. Leaving my family behind was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Losing is not an option. Letting my loved ones down would be devastating. I will not have them receive a letter that says I have passed on. Though this makes it very tough because the conditions of this war continue to get worse as the days go by. The inspection and chores we do are ridiculous. My back is in so much pain from emptying out the water in these trenches. Having to refill the sandbags is not very fun either. I do not recommend. Another awful thing over here are the gigantic rats. I kid you not they are the size of a cat! It is the most disgusting and disturbing thing to witness them eating the flesh of a friend that was shot. I only hope I do not catch a disease as this repulsive species multiplies by thousands. Another delightful thing during this war is the smell. I can feel my nose burning on the inside. The stenches are the most rancid things ever smelt. I hope you will never have to witness these stenches. The smell from soldiers feet was often the worst out of them all. Due to the lack of showers we receive body odor was very common. The smell of dried sweat isn't pleasant. Did I mention that the smell of dead rotting bodies isn't the greatest either? Well now you know. The rest of the smells came from poisonous gas. This was my main weapon of choice. We just recently were introduced to it and I am hoping it can help us defeat our enemies. The gas can 🤬 multiple people at a time which is a great advantage. Though the scents that travel along are horrendous. Another problem with this gas is that it causes blisters, runny noses, watery eyes, or sores among people. Since we don't have the correct products to treat these sores and injuries we just cover them up and get a move on. Even though these conditions described are horrible, I am hoping the poisonous gas will help us conquer so I can get home to my loved ones as fast as possible.

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The flamethrower was a weapon that greatly impacted the war. I personally did not get a chance to use it. It was a powerful enough weapon to 🤬 big groups of enemy soldiers. It has tanks filled with flammable liquid that was similar to napalm. It was a little bit dangerous to use a flamethrower because they were heavy and only got people in a smal area. Thankfully I didn’t have to use one

# data[].attributes.body
The flame thrower was a very powerful and key weapon that contributed to the war. Unfortunately I was not able to get my hands on one but I did get to try it. It could easily wipe out big groups of enemy soldiers but intent only lasted for a short amount of time until the solution that made the flame ran out. If one of the tanks were hit there would be a small chance they could explode.

# data[].attributes.body
we had a grenade accidentally pulled, 4 men were killed and my friend Pat was seriously injured. while i was sleeping last night a huge brown rat came and ran over my face. The rat was the size of my old cat Molly. Then today, commander assigned me the job of filling sand bags, of course it started raining around noon, and he made us drain the trench. when I first got here the smell was unbearable, now I'm afraid that I cant smell it anymore. I haven't had a bath in weeks, the grease from my hair is driving me nuts.

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I can not begin to explain to you how horrible the war has been. I have always been a brave man, but I do not know

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I wouldn't wake up easy as one of my friends shook me trying to get me to stand and get ready for the waiting I would have to do. the only enjoyable thing about stand to is they give me rum after it doesn't help because its not enough but it helps to wake me up after an hour of waiting. I mean who doesn't like a shot of rum at dawn? After I was up I had to clean my gun while doing so I heard rats . I hated the rats they were just so ugly we would always joke about how we would put food in a hole and trap them then take a flamethrower to the pile of rats since they came in the millions. I looked down and there it was the size of a cat I took my bayonet before I put it on my gun I stabbed the rat n just tossed it for the bugs to eat it. After my officer checked my gun and everything was cleared I sat to eat breakfast I could not stop itching I scratched my head and between my fingernails I saw little lice bugs I had to shave my head but I did it after breakfast or else I couldn't eat.

# data[].attributes.body
This morning I woke up to the smell of something burning. I walked outside of the trench and found many of my guys on the floor dead, from the shell fire that was lit by our enemies. This explosion was caused by a large shell burst. What made this situation worse was the fact that there were rats running around foraging for a place to go and for food. The worst rats of them all are the brown rats. Don't even get me started they carry more diseases than the black rats and are feared the most because they can grow up to a size of a cat. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?? They spread nasty infections and can cause deaths. They also produce 900 OFFSPRING EVERY 12 WEEKS PER YEAR!!! To fix this problem we have many of the guys using bayonets to club the rats to death. It fixes some of the rat problems but not all of it. Another issue we have are lice they get into the seams of clothing and hide in there until they hatch. They cause itching which is mainly one of the symptoms with how they detect if they had lice or not. They are very painful and cause high fevers.

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Today has been a terrible day, I cannot walk one step without seeing a rat by me. Infections and diseases are practically surrounding everyone. These rats were also not making the smell any better. It smelt like rotten and moldy things which disgusted me. Plus many people haven't bathed in like 2 or 3 weeks so everyone is filthy and most people have lice. Also me and a group of others went out looking for a dugout or a trench to lay in for the night or for a little while and some people had fell asleep and randomly we started getting a attacked, it sounded like they were using a machine gun because it shot very quickly and a lot at one time instead of slowly. Something that scared us was that we did not know where it was coming from. Luckily no one get seriously injured that were with me. But we all were in shock when it happened. So we all decided to move and leave that trench.

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Today is another horrible day in the trenches. I got up today just like I always do. Sometimes I can't even sleep so I sit there in the dark crying. Rats running by my feet and running over my face while I'm trying to sleep. It's seriously disgusting and I'm quite over it. Today I shaved my head because I had lice. My hair is all gone now, I can't even recognize myself anymore. And that odor is horrid. The smell of rotting bodies, feet, and the smell of these people. Some men haven't showered In weeks or even months. Now that you have a little explanation of how I'm living let me explain to you the weapon that I use in world war 1. The weapon that I use is a flame thrower. Of course I have the fear of being set on fire every time I use it but that's life. If you don't know what a flame thrower is it's a weapon that sprays out burning fuel. It can shoot close and long range.

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Today was unbearable. There was a brown rat in my uniform. Rats have infested this entire place, surprisingly, we all haven't died from the bacteria and contamination in this place. Frogs are everywhere, and almost everyone in my trench has lice. I'm always paranoid, thinking a frog or rat is running around me without me realizing. I came to the decision to shave my head bald. There's no way I'm gonna suffer with lice on top of all of this. The smell here has me sick to my stomach. I can feel myself becoming weaker and weaker day by day because of the unbearable and toxic smell of poisonous gas and latrines. My neighboring trench was blown up by a grenade. I feel lucky to have survived. I've never missed home as much as I do now. Can't wait for this war to be over, hoping I'll make it alive.

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Today was the first day in the trenches for me. It was horrible, I couldn't stand the smell of all the bodies, the cigs, the odor of everyone who was there for months ahead of me. some of the men acted like there wasn't even a smell to this horrid place. How do you get used to a smell like that? but for today there were so many other things I wish I haven't seen. I was given the duty of patrolling the no mans land. I was simply told to go to a listening outpost and see if I can hear any valuable information. but these men I was with they didn't listen, we were told to not look over the parapet of the trench into no mans land. these three men , all in the same day, looked over. and guess what happened. they got shot. there was so much death everyday. I was one of the people to cause death on the other side as well. I was assigned to be using the poison gas. it wasn't exactly thrilling to be using this. I remember I used some poison gas on the other side of the trench and all I could here was yelling and I know I shouldn't have looked over but I did and saw one of the worse things I could see. there were the people who managed to save themselves from the gas by using the damp cloths that they had but one in particular I saw couldn't find his. I watched him cough and cough as I could see the life disappear from him as he struggled to find anything to protect him from the gas but it was too late. he held his hands to his throat as his final breaths escaped from is then ,already, lifeless body

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The first day at the trench was so bad, we nasty rats all over the place giving us diseases. the lice were the worst, hiding on our shirts and lice eggs on the seams of the shirt . we had to wash our shirts everyday. my rifle would jam every time and I had to clean it which was a pain. boredom was everywhere we had people playing cards and others were just staring at the sky until a shell hits the outside of our trench in which we stood ready for battle. we could not do anything in the day because of the fake trees which had snipers in them made it unsafe to do daily tasks . I've only gone to no mans land once and I never want to go back, I got caught by a patrol and had to do hand to hand combat. thank god I made it out alive with a cut on my arm. when I went to no mans land I over heard some German troops talking about a them having a land ship clean up no mans land.

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I cannot stand this, rats are constantly running everywhere and its disgusting. The rats can grow up to the size of a cat from just eating human remains. In the trenches, death is a constant companion to everyone serving in the line, many people die. Every time I breathe I want to throw up. The smell of all the dead corpses are unbearable. Whenever I try to rest my eyes I can still hear the machine guns going off and killing many of my friends. I hope they are in a better place than me. My god rest over their poor souls.

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Today in the trenches was deadly, my buddy right next to me got shot in the head by a sniper, never know how long everyone will last you get lucky if you get through the first day. every single day i hope my body can survive these diseases that they are trying to fight off. I haven't slept in days its either your watching out for snipers or snatching some sleep. There are Rotting carcasses everywhere it smells so bad over here i can not last another minute, it smells like cigarette smoke and food

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The conditions at dusk are different to the rest of the day. There is sort of an unwritten custom to attack precisely as light fell. We are usually sent to get rations and water, or sent on sentry duty at the fire step. Sentry duty only lasts 2 hours for each of us, any later and its quite possible to just fall asleep on duty. Falling asleep would be your end, though, death penalty is usually the result of sleeping. Sentry duty and stand to, though, is not the worst thing. much preferable to no mans land. Usually any interactions with no mans land have to do with simple tasks like fixing defenses at the front line or something. But, just the other day I was sent out with a small group to listen in on enemy patrols for information. The disaster of being caught by a patrol is horrifying, if there were shots as you ran off, usually from a machine gun; an automatic gun that is a death sentence to be around with nothing to defend with, that attracts plenty of enemy attention and you can never get back there. But in all honesty at least that isn't as bad as the boredom we face daily, having hours of free time might seem positive at first but after a while you get restless and paranoid, and sleep is nearly impossible.

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Life in the trenches was a hard one people died daily, trench hours and duties varied drastically, and sometimes people had to spend time patrolling the No Man's Land. A lot of soldiers died of many causes, but rookies would sometimes die from looking over into the No Man's Land and getting shot by a well placed sniper shot. Sometimes during peoples breaks in the dugouts they would get hit by a heavy artillery shell from the enemy. We were tossed around from trench to trench in a cycle of sorts, and you would spend like 70 days on the front line, 30 days in the support trenches, some 120 days in the reserve, and 70 days at rest. Patrolling the No Man's Land was especially dangerous because if you made too loud a sound you would be shot down by machine guns that completely changed wars because of how simple it was for them to hold down a whole battalion with only a few. Also patrolling the No Man's Land  was also hard for both groups because they did not want to be heard by anyone so if they encounter enemies they had to use either hand-to-hand combat or they had to just walk away as if they didn't see each other. I was stationed near a machine gunner once and they were burning through bullets at anyone they saw come up from the enemies side and turned them to shreds. these daily occurrences caused some men to want to flee, some got so worried it killed them, and the rest just did all they could to survive.

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It was 1914 or 1918 battling in the trenches when I was not assigned to do a task. At the moment all I can do is just write. However, I only got like a couple minuets so I have to make them count. I should be sleeping just because we all need the rest we can get, but I decided to write in my journal instead. Other than that I also have to keep my head down when I do this just because there are outlooks and snipers looking over our head.
After I was done writing in my journal I decided to sleep for awhile, but in like minutes I was woke by my fellow marine telling me that I had to go out into no Man's Land to patrol.  To be honest I was a bit scared because there could also be enemy's patrolling around there to. I was also sent to put some barbwire at the line, and I did. After that I was hoping to find some helpful info. for the enemy lines but I didn't find any. While searching a little more I've found an enemy searching for something, all of a sudden he saw me as well so I was about to take out my hand gun but I didn't because people told me that there are machine guns out there and it could also lead out or attract, deadly to all members of the patrol.
Geez I cant ever get away from the nasty smell of blood because thousands were killed and many people using creosol or chloride of lime to stove of the threat of disease and infection. However the worst one were the feet, that smell was just soo bad that I can smell it every were I go. To be honest most people got used to the smell, however, I never got used to the smell.
Finally I got sent out to fight. My weapon was the flamethrower, it brought fear to my enemy's. However, I was also scared because someone could just simple shoot my gas tanks and its over for me. Also nothing less the gas on the flamethrower runs out quick so I have to use it wisely.

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It's day 6 in these disgusting trenches. There are a bunch of nasty rats crawling over my shoes and scurrying across my clothes. Been seeing people die because of the types of illnesses you can catch being down here. All these poor guys itching and scratching away at their skin because of some kind of Lice thing going around down here. My old friend Jim got trench fever, I've never seen him in so much pain before in my life. He was screaming and crying and it just hurt my soul to see him being buried.  Some of the times it wouldn't be so bad, they would give us Rum at some point in time but not all the time. The lead officers would routinely have us clean our rifles which wasn't a bad thing. Even the food wasn't the best, we were still able to eat breakfast during the morning times and these times would last pretty long which enabled us to enjoy what we were eating. No Man's Land is the place where nobody wanted to go because they were to scared. The only time I went there was to repair the barbed wire which was fairly easy. Yesterday a solider named Michael went to a listening post and didn't return for 15 minutes. Someone went to check the listening spot and found Michael dead with his jaw loose and bloody, and both of his arms were broken... All in all times down here in the trenches aren't something to look forward to. Now let's talk about the kind of weapon I'm using during this war. The weapon that they assigned me was a Flamethrower, it's pretty gnarly.

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It was our first day in the newly built trenches. It was not as bad as people said it was going to be. But that all changed after a few days. We had been in several fights by then and many troops were losing their life. We also had new troops coming in everyday most of which couldn't handle the difficult conditions and either died in a couple days or got badly sick. Even without any fighting going on people were dying due to shellfire from the enemy and diseases that were going around. Many of the people i knew and some i considered friends, were buried by the large shell bursts while they were lying in dugouts or just hanging around the trenches.
To keep us in check and ready for anything the commander of the platoon or the company would do a daily inspection on us. And then after breakfast we were sent to do our chores, unless obviously you physically couldn't. Getting rid of water from the trenches was the worst possible job you could be assigned. But if we didn't have chores we would be even more bored than we already were.
Daily boredom was a factor everyone encountered while in the trenches. we had a limitation on the things we could do due to the enemy snipers that always had their eyes on us during the day, while it was still light out. We had to do the more active activities when it got dark so that the enemy would not be able to see us.

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Today was the worst of them. I saw people die left and right. They died either from getting sick or being killed. Many men didn't live to see the 2nd day I am happy I did . Men would have injuries that would slowly 🤬 them and I saw them in pain and I couldn't help. The smell of rotting bodies was really bad. There was maybe 200,000 men killed and buried in low graves the smell was unbearable. we all have not had a bath in weeks. the smell of sweating men, and the sweat would dry on them. the odor was bad on top of all the dead bodies. It was so boring in the daytime we could not move or walk around till nightfall. we had to do are tasks and then after that we could write letters to loved ones or sleep for a little before having another task to do. if there was nothing to do we would just lay around doing nothing. one thing that was good was I got to use a new weapon. it was a grenade. it was scary to use it I learned that not to drop it because if I do I will 🤬 everyone in the trench. the nice thing is it could 🤬 up to 5-7 people and wound 4. you need to throw it before it goes off. the fuse burns down till it hits the main charge then goes boom. you have maybe 6sec to throw it. that my life in the trench's. so far its nothing I thought it would be.

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Yesterday we had a grenade accidentally pulled, 4 men were killed and my friend Pat was seriously injured. while i was sleeping last night a huge brown rat came and ran over my face. The rat was the size of my old cat Molly. Then today after breakfast, commander assigned me the job of filling sand bags, of course it started raining around noon, and he made us drain the trench. when I first got here the smell was unbearable, now I'm afraid that I cant smell it anymore. I haven't had a bath in weeks, the grease from my hair is driving me crazy, I think I'm going mad. My friend Eric, the kid that I've known since we were in 2nd grade, just got trench fever. IM scared that he wont make it.

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Today was terrible, my closest friends were killed. We were attacked while we were just sitting in our trench. I am surprised I survived, it was so close to me. The smell of the bomb is still lingering around the place and my ears are still ringing. People are constantly dying due to the snipers that are hidden around every corner, I am afraid I could be next. The new machine guns we received are causing so much damage. It is both good and bad because we are able to 🤬 people both quicker and easier, but they are also used against us They are lighter and easier to bring around, although We feed our bullets in through a belt though which I find difficult because it keeps getting stuck.
Earlier while I walking to my dugout I saw BROWN rat, it was chewing  on a finger of what I believe was someone I knew. I am disgusted I tried to shoot at it but I missed and shot at tree. They are everywhere, everytime I lift something up I see 5 rats underneath.

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It is disgusting. i am starting to believe that if a weapon does not 🤬 me I will die of some sort of disease. I want to leave, everyone around me incluing me, is infected with lice. No matter how hard ive tried in washing my clothes and body it always seems to come back. Having these lice bugs are making me feel so sick I have ran a fver for the past week and it does not seem to be gettig any better. Theres many more bugs and critters around me all the time though, it cant be good. I always see frogs and slugs everywhere i go.

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Today in the trenches was the first day for many men, its a shame that about a third of my allied forces have died on just there first day due to sniper bullets. Rats were crawling everywhere causing major sicknesses and lice was all over our bodies. They constantly bread in our clothing and hatch and make the itch not any better. it was a constant battle with trench fever the war and recovery. Don't even get me tarted on the smell. It was the worst thing I have ever smelt in my whole life because rotting bodies were right next to you at all times and you cant get away from them even if you tried there will always be one right their next to you, rotting... Not even mentioning were you have to goto the bathroom. that didn't help the stench out either. Machine Guns was a great advancement for the war it was a fast shooting weapon, machine guns were also the most used weapon for war. It was cheep and easy to build and fix if there was a problem with them but also they jam and can break very easy. most machine guns were mounted to the trenches to control the gun very easily instead of free holding it.

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Today my ears couldn't stop ringing from all the sound and one man threw a grenade close and ruined my hearing maybe permanently. the daily death isn't helping most men lying in trenches or dugouts. the bodies are heavy and the smell from them is all over and I don't know how long it will continue. Most had not been afforded the luxury of a bath in weeks or months would offer the pervading odor of dried sweat.There's action but not much for me to do here during the day we didn't fight I'm bored all morning but I guess that's better then being in combat.