"Whole lines of soldiers are lying in front of their positions, our passages are filled with corpses lying over each other in layers.
One trench looked like a butcher's bench, even though the dead had been removed. There was blood, brains and scraps of flesh everywhere and flies were gathering on them.
I found two fingers still attached to the metacarpal bone. I picked them up and had the tasteful idea of having them worked into a cigarette holder. But there was still greenish-white decomposed flesh between the joints...so I decided not to.
In the morning, I went to the village church where the dead were kept. Today there were 39 simple wooden boxes and large pools of blood had seeped from almost every one of them...it was a horrifying sight in the emptied church.
I have witnessed much in this greatest war. To be a leader with a clear head in such moments is to resemble God. Few are chosen." - Lt. Ernst Jünger, 73rd Hanoverian Infantry Regiment, Somme, France, Aug 28th 1916.
Jünger was one of only a few infantryman in the war who fought from the beginning to the end of the conflict, spending 3 years in the trenches, and wounded 7 times. War affects all sides, none holds more true than the men on the ground. #reality #ww1 #stayzero #zerofoxtrot