"It was near five o'clock in the evening when we penetrated, one by one, on our knees, rifle in hand, into the communication trenches. I saw there, for the first time, the bodies mortared into the walls. Putrefying fingers were sticking out, scalps covered with hideous mousse, feet still in boots, powdered with lime..and the abominable odor made us pale. The bodies hindered our way, our equipment caught itself on those hanging feet. We who crawled along the stones on our knees, cursed at them...all this before the actual assault itself.
We were now here, amongst the hills, the trees and the reddish earth with hues of clotted blood. My company had to take a German trench 200 meters away...we crawled and kept still. I had 6 men around me..then the order came and the world was up and screaming. The next morning, about four o'clock, I stepped over their bodies.
I found the first pantless, as if claws had scratched his trousers off. His buttocks exposed, cut back and forth as by a butcher's knife. The second hung whole on a bush, his head balancing on a branch..like a sparrow. The rest were covered in a porridge of mud and blood. I didn't look at them.
I returned on all fours, my blanket around my neck and pack on my chest. When I caught sight of the stones of our own trenches, I straightened up and cried out." Diary entry of Unknown Sgt., 29th Inf. Regiment, 32nd Inf. Brigade, 16th Inf. Div, Verdun, France, July 1916 #reality #ww1 #verdun #stayzero #zerofoxtrot