In the Face of Death

Nocturnal raids, the Iron Cross, vicious bayonet attacks, the gory, incredible spectacle of cavalry charges, daring escapes, daredevil actions, tricks and treats, humour and agony; they are all here in letters from the German frontlines that were published in contemporary German newspapers. They brought fragile life and vicious death into sharp focus – and into peaceful living rooms all over Germany – as the German soldiers waded through rivers, mud and over corpses, clambered up telegraph poles, slid cross open fields and carried out hare-brained raids on bicycles.

Whether in the trenches, in the air or on horseback, instant death was the best a man could hope for amidst the slaughter and attrition. 

“What misery, what horror, is the sight of a battlefield! It’s better not to mention it to loved ones back at home, this gruesomeness. The images blur more quickly now. Will it be so later?”

But for as long as they could, the men retained a sense of humour, of pride in the award of the Iron Cross, of deep comradeship, of unwavering love for their homeland. These letters allow some of the men’s thoughts and hopes to shine through before and after the bloody clashes, the flashing lances, the shrapnel, the hiss of bullets that whipped comrades from life even as they spoke, or smoked, or ate. The attacks were unrelenting, the next command ordering the men over the top as inevitable as night and day. These letters are the remaining witnesses at their attempts to make sense of life in the trenches – before it was mercilessly crushed.