"Burial was often impossible. There were hundreds, thousands, not merely ours but German as well.
Out in no-man’s-land, the sun swelled up the dead with gas and often turned them blue, almost navy blue. Then, when the gas escaped, the bodies dried up like mummies and were frozen in their death positions... sitting bodies, kneeling bodies, bodies in almost every position, though most lay on their bellies or on their backs.
The crows pecked out the eyes and rats lived on bodies that lay in abandoned dugouts. These rats were very large and quite fearless, their familiarity with the dead having made them contemptuous of the living.
Bodies became incorporated in the material of the trenches themselves.
They were putrid, with the consistency of Camembert cheese. I once fell and put my hand right through the belly of a man. It was days before I got the smell out of my nails.
As you lifted a body by the arms and leg, the torso detached. They came to pieces in your hands.
Even worse was that each one was crawling with maggots and covered inches deep with a black fur of flies which flew up into your face, mouth, eyes and nostrils.
Everyone lent a hand in this gruesome task. No one could expect the men to handle these bodies unless the officers, such as myself, did their share. We worked with sandbags on our hands, stopping every now and then to puke. Somme was one long and terrible nightmare of fear, hardship, exhaustion and unbelievable loneliness." - 2nd Lt. Stuart Cloete, 9th BN, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, Somme, France, 1916 #stayzero #war #real #ww1 #infantry