"I was on the Somme battle front in the big bayonet charge the day we took Thiepval and Combles, in which we lost nearly the whole battalion.
I saw sights that would make your blood run cold, men lying by the hundreds dead and dying, and their cries I will never forget. The shrapnel and big shells make some ghastly wounds and poor fellows, no one can get out to help you till it is all over.
I saw men when I was crawling in over No Man’s Land with their bodies cut in two, and I stayed with one trying to help him but he died. Oh, I will never forget it. I think that is what makes me so nervous at night time. I dream of it and wake up in a cold sweat.
The back parapet of our trench was built up with dead bodies nearby and earth and sand bags and the smell is horrible. I don’t know myself how I am out here alive. Four times I was nearly killed, once I had a machine gun turned on me when I was crawling. I just saved myself by rolling down in a shell hole, but I am here and I will get better in a few months." - Robert B. Florence, 8th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force - France, 1916 #zerofoxtrot #war #ww1 #reality #canada