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English: Read more of Goodnight Mr Tom.
LI:
WRITING LI: To write a diary entry in the style of a serving soldier. | |
Start with looking back as yesterday’s images and consider these questions - 1. What do you think soldiers did every day in the trenches? 2. Roughly how long do you think they spent on each activity? 3. What else do you think they did? Next, listen to the following extract Podcast: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-trench-life Extract: 09:17 minutes to 10:29 minutes
Discuss what the soldiers said. Are you surprised by anything? Why?
Next read the diary of a soldier serving on The Somme. Is it similar the soldiers on the podcast extract? Why/why not? How do you think the soldiers felt? Why? What do you think was the most difficult part of their day?
Write a chronology of a soldier’s day in a trench. Discuss how a writer can convey emotions in their writing without explicitly saying it – language choices, sentence structure and length etc. Share an extract of their entry that they are proud of. | |
To illustrate the sort of information to be found from a War Diary, the following extract is taken from the War Diary of the 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in October 1916. The battalion was in trenches at Les Boeufs on the Somme battlefield. It was carrying out tours in the Front Line trenches every three to four days, alternating with and relieving the Cameronian Regiment.
The battalion was preparing to make an attack on the German Front Line within the next few days. The battlefield here had been fought over in the preceding weeks and the ground was devastated. Relief from a three or four day tour of Front Line trenches usually took place during the night under cover of darkness. The 11th Brigade had been fighting in that place before the 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers arrived there. The War Diary states that wounded men and dead of the 11th Brigade were brought in by the Royal Welsh Fusiliers' 2nd Battalion. The wounded would have been in a very poor state.
Place: LES BOEUFS TRENCHES
Date: 27/10/16
“At 1 p.m. we had received an order that we would be relieved by the Cameronians. This relief took place and was completed by 2.30 a.m. on the 28th. The weather conditions during the whole tour had been bad, the trenches were very wet and muddy and in the early stage of construction. Carrying parties were very heavy, ration and water parties having to go three miles from the line over ground much cut up by shell holes and in a bad state owing to the rain.
There were many wounded and dead of the 11th Brigade in the sector left from previous attacks by that Brigade. During the tour the Regiment evacuated about 20 wounded of the 11th Brigade and buried as many of their dead as was possible.” (1)
A few days later, in the next month of the War Diary, it is recorded that 2nd Lieutenant Loverseed and a party of soldiers attacked a German position to clear it out of the way before the main attack was to go in later. Summer Trench is identified by name, as is Second Lieutenant Loverseed:
Place: BRIQUETERIE
Date: 5/11/16
“On the night of 4th/5th an attempt was made by 2/Lt LOVERSEED & a party of 30 men from “B” Coy to dislodge a pocket of Germans occupying a postion likely to cause great annoyance to a daylight attack. This was unsuccessful & heavy casualties incurred. The battalion in accordance with orders was to go forward to a line roughly 250 yards in advance of SUMMER TRENCH & dig in." (2)