Diary Entry #1

John Anderson
November 5, 1914
5:00 p.m.
Belgium

The weather here has been unbearable. I've had to endure it all sitting here in the trenches. The mud is up to my knees and it's almost impossible to get from point A to point B. The thick mud that has formed is swallowing our wounded men. We're slowly getting sucked into the mud and it's getting harder to fight. The men are tired and cold. There has been very few dry days here. The days that are dry are usually bitter cold. We stand here in the freezing rain for days at a time. I see my fellow troops drowning in the mud trying their best to stay strong.

With all the rain comes all the mud. The mud makes everything worse. It clogs up our rifles, it drowns our men and it causes us to stay in one place because our feet are stuck. On top of the mud is a pool of water that goes up to our thighs. The water weighs down our heavy coats which can soak up a good twenty pounds of extra water. If fighting in this war wasn't bad enough, this weather just makes it worse. I wish I could go home and dry up because I'm tired of being wet all the time, day and night. Even on dry days, we're still all wet because we're completely drenched and the water just doesn't dry up.