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[Read about the adventure and hardship of war in the context of World War One.]
As those who fought in World War One discovered, war is an adventure but, like all great adventure, it is exciting because it is so challenging. Conscripts may be attracted by a thirst for action, but such action is dangerous and the life of a soldier difficult, as these extracts suggest:-
Wyndham--attracted by the gaiety of the life, and his passion for adventure--entered the army, and has lately, to his extreme satisfaction, joined a regiment under orders for the East.
Grammar school boys by E.J. Burbury. Chapter 20.
You see, by this story," said Mr. Barlow, "that fine clothes are not always of the consequence you imagine, since they are not able to give their wearers either more strength or courage than they had before, or to preserve them from the attacks of men whose appearance is more homely. But since you are so little acquainted with the business of a soldier, I must show you a little more clearly in what it consists. In spite, therefore, of all this pageantry, which seems so strongly to have acted upon your mind, I must inform you that there is no human being more exposed than the soldier to suffer great hardships; he is often obliged to march whole days in the most violent heat, or cold, or rain, and frequently without victuals to eat, or clothes to cover him; and when he stops at night, the best shelter he can expect is a miserable canvass tent, penetrated in every part by the wet, and a little straw to keep his body from the damp, unwholesome earth. Frequently he cannot meet with even this, and is obliged to lie uncovered upon the ground; so that he may contract a thousand diseases, which are more fatal than the cannon and weapons of the enemy. Every hour he is exposed to engage in combats at the hazard of losing his limbs, of being crippled, or mortally wounded. If he gain the victory, he generally has only to begin again and fight anew, till the war is over; if he be beaten, he may probably lose his life upon the spot, or be taken prisoner by the enemy; in which case he may languish several months in a dreary prison, in want of all the necessaries of life.
The history of Sandford and Merton by Thomas Day. Chapter 10.
[Read about the adventure and hardship of war in the context of World War One.]
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Page created 10 August 2004 and last updated
21 August 2004
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