dearest mother this war has been the hardest challenge of my life i remember what
Dearest Mother,
This war has been the hardest challenge of my life. I remember what felt like years ago, when the paperboy would deliver us the newspapers, and we agreed that I had a duty to my country. Now that I am here, I think very differently. Here in the trenches, malodorous trenches, I can never sleep. I can smell my dead best friend when I eat supper every evening, and my foot is still numb from the trench foot I had last month. I am not sure I can do this anymore Mom. We are camping out in Ypres right now, and it has been horrible. Just yesterday, April 22nd, 1915, the Germans dropped some kind of gas onto us. We didn’t expect it at all. It wiped a third of us out Mom! Thankfully, I survived, but I truly don’t know how much more time I have left. Every day I feel like my time is coming closer and closer. At the beginning, my morale was high, and so were my friend’s. But by now, all of us are tired. We are tired all of the time. We hardly ever get sleep. At this point, my hopes are that I just survive and get to see you again. I don’t know if I am going to make it, but I will try my hardest. The war isn’t going to be won by itself.
Sincerely your son,
Joseph
