World War I Diary Entries

Mark Platopat
March 12, 1916
London
08:00 PM



What a horrible day! At first I believed Wilson, and his promise for the "war to end all wars," but now I am not so sure. Conditions are terrible! He probably meant that this will kill off people so there are not enough for fighting future wars. Ha! What a joke. Anyways, the mud is killing me. It is by far the worst natural nightmare. Some men have been trapped up to their neck in it, and many die from the stuff too!

The most important thing that I can do is to distribute my body weight evenly. That is the key to survival. All these stupid trenches are good for are killing an otherwise sound man. Ugh. The frustration alone is killing me. Even walking is a chore. With the mud, one can not step very fast. When this war is over, I will surely come out with nothing more than strengthened leg muscles. The mud is even clogging the weapons! I can't even write a proper journal entry...



Mark Platopat
March 13, 1916
London
09:00 PM



Great! I got trench foot today! It's just another thing to add to the list. I have never even heard of trench foot before today, and I surely will never forget it! I should have known that these damp conditions would cause some kind of problems. Is it really normal to wear wet socks and boots for days on end? At first, I thought that it was just frostbite, but apparently not. All of these fancy names make me sick.
To best describe what happened, my feet went numb at first. Then they turned a reddish-blue color. That sure scared me to death! I was so frightened that I would have to lose some toes, like Paul did. I feel bad for the poor fellow. All he did was try to make his country proud. As far as I know, they discovered about fifty cases or so today. I can't believe that they didn't notice anything sooner! This will surely pose a threat to our unit's strength as a whole. If it isn't one thing, it's another...


Mark Platopat
December 08, 1916
London
08:45 PM

I haven't written in awhile, but conditions have been really harsh lately. The winter is completely dragging us down. All I can really think about is the terrible cold. My lack of clothes is seriously contributing to my problems. Everyone literally has to jump around in order to keep the blood flowing in their veins because it appears to want to freeze us from the inside out. We have had to deal with these issues since October! What a long winter it will be!
My boiling hot tea actually froze solid in a few hours! Rain, snow, and sleet are guaranteed daily occurrences. The alternating periods of extreme cold and thawing made a grand ole recipe for mud as well...And standing in water usually leads to being surrounded by a ridiculous sheet of ice. Our braziers do not really work all that well, so I guess I have to deal with the cold like everyone else is. After all, this is a war, not some luxurious vacation.