Magni Hammarstedt, Mathew Danielson, Maxwell Saucedo, Jeremy Hults

Overview to the Horrors

World War 1 brought with it new dangerous ways of battling. Weapons like the machine gun and poison gas were deadly and led to the deaths of many men. The French were the first to use poison gas when they threw tear gas grenades at the Germans, but it was actually the Germans who ended up doing the most extensive research on the possibilities of this chemical warfare. Chlorine, Phosgene, and Mustard Gas were the most commonly used. The machine gun revolutionized war, and is still in use now. Able to unload many rounds of amunition in a short period of time shaved down charging enemies. Four to six people were needed to operate one effectively. Because of the development of the machine gun, soldiers needed to build shelter to protect themselves from the spraying of bullets, so they built down into the ground. Trench warfare came to. By building alleys within the ground, troops traveled and would have protection when they popped up to return power. The common enemy to the trench would be artillery fire and disease. The enemy artillery would bury soldiers under dirt and debris, while rats could run along the trenches exposing them to possible sickness.

Letter to the Editor

Death, is it really worth it? Personally, I don't think so, not when we don't even know why we are fighting. Last time I checked most of the population of Austria does not even know why we we are fighting the Serbs. When it does directly impact them, The Arch Duke was killed you fools. This should impact you, and you should pay attention to this fact. But the more important question is why the hell is everyone else fighting in this war. Why is America fighting in this war? Hell I bet you money if you went to the U.S. and asked President Wilson why we were fighting, he would have said something along the lines of, "uhh... Because our allies need us, but no I don't know why people are fighting, good bye." That is a huge problem, we can't just go around fighting wars just for the hell of it, we are killing millions of people for no reason. Oh no, some archduke died let's send every member of our respective military to go fight each other, for no reason at all.
I don't think people understand just how gruesome this war is, people are dying left and right in the trenches, you could be friends with somebody your entire life, and fight together for one minute and then you would see him die. Then you would have no will to fight anymore, then you would be quickly shot as well. People aren't just dying from the fighting, a lot of people are dying from being in the trenches. With all the rats, and squalid water in the bottom of the trenches. walk barefoot, get infected, then have your feet swell up, and you're done for, you can't do anything. Dysentery is the same, you get it the same way, and then you explode Diarrhea out your butt until you die of dehydration, which I'm pretty sure is not as fun as it sounds.
So i want you to think about this, millions of other people, brutally killing each other, and they don't even know why. What has our species come to when we kill each other for no reason, i thought we were evolving, not de-evolving.

Chaos in the trenches, will it end? ?

Thousands die every day in the trenches, and life is absolutely miserable, but we must ask ourselves, why is it happening? The answer is pests, in the form of lice, rats, and other vile animals. They bite you and you fall ill, and things will only get worse, then the only thing you can hope for is to die. Not only that, but the rats eat your rations when you're not looking, start eating your toes when you sleep. Sometimes the rats would get as big as a cat that you would find in the back alleys of London. Food was also a problem, trying to feed millions of people in trenches which are hard to get to, is not easy. but there was always the upside of the cigarrettes, and tabacco. The declining hygene was also a problem, mainly because there was no way to clean yourself, or anywhere to put your waste, and the only way to protect yourself was to not have any cuts on the surface of your skin to avoid infections. but when was the last time you met anyone who fought in a war, who had flawless skin. when you did get an infection it was most commonly Dysentery-Really bad diarrhea-which would kill you from dehydration. Then there was always the threat of being killed, by either poison gasses, artillery shells, inducing shellshock, being snuck up on when you were being distracted, by going poop. But when you weren't waiting to be killed, you would be bored out of your mind, and you would hope to find some action and would actually not care if you died. That is why so many people are dying, it's just that mentality. Magni "Boss" Hammarstedt