Charles M. McKinley

Poster

Diary Entry

Dear Diary,

I have just arrived here in France and already I can tell that the recruitment was a lie. The weather is horrible. Since being here I have seen nothing but rain. The gunfire does not stop and the war is at a stalemate. Everyone who comes into the tents or to east is sweating with bruises all over their body. They all complain of ‘trench legs’ because the trenches are quagmires filling up with the torrents of rain. It is also so crowded in here. Since my Battalion arrived there’s 6 people to a 4 man tent just to fit us all in. It is a struggle just to get to the other side of the trenches where there is food. It takes at least 30 mins plus all of the ducking from gunshots and grenades. There is disease everywhere especially famine, dysentery and some people even have smallpox. The food is horrible. Every day is the same. Rations of bread, and stuff to go on the bread. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, all the same. There is barely any medical treatment. If you are near enough to dying, the doctors just let you go and when I say doctors I mean unqualified men who can stick a needle in your arm. The supplies are very low and when a new shipment arrives it is depleted very quickly. These days all I do is wake up, eat a horrible breakfast and then set to work in the trenches trying to win and unwinnable war. Then sit down to an even worse dinner and get about three hours sleep. Then I start all over again. It is a horrible life that goes on and on and on. It is completely different to the recruitment poster. Nobody enjoys it here as well. The only positive I can take is that I cannot like it with someone else. I hope it ends soon.

Sincerely, Private Charles M. McKinley, 41^st Battalion, Infantry Division, AIF