"I knew all of these men intimately and it was indeed painful to learn of their condition. Many of the men had been pumped full of machine-gun bullets, one was lying with a German bayonet through him – not unlike a pin through a large beetle.
There had been much shrapnel and some of the bodies were torn almost beyond recognition. This was the first experience at handling and burying the dead for many of our men. It was a trying experience.
The tags removed from the dead were corroded white, and had become embedded in the putrid flesh. Even after the burial, when these tags were brought back to the company, they smelled so horribly that some of the officers became extremely sick …
They lay there face up, usually in the rain, their eyes open, their faces pale and chalk-like, their gold teeth showing. That is in the beginning. After that they are usually too horrible to think about.
We buried them as fast as we could – Germans, French and Americans alike. Get them out of sight, but not out of memory. I can remember hundreds and hundreds of dead men. I would know them now if I were to meet them in a hereafter. I could tell them where they were lying and how they were killed – whether with shell fire, gas, machine gun or bayonet …
My people at home, hearing of what I was passing through, expected me to come back hard, brutal, callous, careless. But I didn’t even want to take a dead mouse out of a trap when I was home. Yet over there I buried 78 men in one morning.
I didn’t dig the holes for them, of course, but I did take their personal belongings from them to return to their people – their rings, trinkets, letters.
It was not pleasant, but I managed to eat my quota of bread and meat when it came up, with no opportunity to wash my hands." - Lt. Robert C Hoffman, 111th infantry regiment, 28th Division, AEF, Chateau-Thierry, France July 1918
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