"No words can adequately describe the conditions. Within an hour of moving off, we were up to our knees in mud and water. All the land had been very churned up by shell explosions.
Our food - cold bacon, bread and jam - is slung together in a sack that hangs from a dripping dugout roof. Consequently, we eat and drink mud.
You slept and lived in the caking mud. He who had a corpse to stand or sit on was lucky.
After five days in the trenches, we’re thankful we can still walk. I’ve had approximately an hour’s sleep a day – always standing up.
This is not war it's slaughter - it appears to me that the side who will win will be the one who can supply the last man." - Captain Alexander Stewart, 3rd Scottish Rifles, Somme, France, July 12 1916. #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #ww1 #military #diary