The First World War was a common experience that many soldiers, of many nationalities, had to endure. Because the devastation and loss of life was so great, no nation’s soldiers were spared from the horrible psychological effects of the First World War. Various books and memoirs were useful in understanding the circumstances of the War and the effects they had upon the soldiers that fought it. World War One was like no war that had ever been fought before. The advent of machine gun and heavy artillery gave armies the killing power that they had never even dreamed of. The standard tactics of the armies involved had not developed enough to accommodate these new technologies, and the result of these two factors was prolonged trench warfare. Trench warfare produces some of the most horrible experiences that a man can endure. Men dig themselves into the earth to protect themselves from the enemy. When they are ordered to attack they have to cross a vast open stretch of land knows as “no-man’s land”. The guns of the enemy, who are dug into trenches of their own, protect this area. When these attacks failed it was then the soldiers duty to retreat back to their trenches, taking back whatever wounded they could, and waiting for the enemy to attack them. Erich Maria Remarque in All Quiet on the Western Front gives a good example of this when he writes: "Attacks alternate with counter-attacks and slowly the dead pile up in the field of craters between the trenches. We are able to bring in most of the wounded that do not lie too far off. But many have long to wait and we listen to them dying" (Remarque). The living conditions that the men had to endure in these trenches were almost as horrible as the conditions of battle. An example of what the common soldier had to endure everyday can be found in Robert MacKay’s diary entry of September 3rd 1917: “Feeling like nothing on earth, with a rash all over me, even ...
