HST 702 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Christmas Truce, Trench Warfare, Trench Foot
11 Dec 2017
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Hst 702 lecture 4 notes - the war in the trenches. Poem shows naive view of war, clearly written in 1914 as patriotism is still strong. When i die, a piece of england dies with me . Brooke is one of the first of the major wwi male poets. Trenches played a major psychological toll on soldiers. Trenches were originally created just to protect soldiers. They eventually grew into lengthy dugouts that spanned almost entire battlefields. Trenches were very wet and muddy, often flooded. Doctors estimated that wounds to the leg had a 50% chance of being fatal. Armies left the trenches and met in the middle, settling a truce. Germans decorated their trenches with christmas trees and ornaments. They would sing and get into a festive mood. Friendliness began between individual soldiers which ended up spreading among entire armies. Seen as the last gasp of the old world . Last sense of sportiness and fairplay before things got ugly.
