Into The Trenches: A World War I Journal [2019]

Chapter 1

I wrote the original version of this story in ninth grade history class as a World War I project, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to expand it. The cover was made on Canva.com using a photo from Unsplash.com.

This first chapter will have far more entries than the following chapters will. There will be fewer and longer entries as the story progresses.

The battles, military leaders, and locations in this novel exist and are as accurate to history as I could make them. This includes the Battles of Ypres, the Christmas truce, Sir John French, Lyndhurst camp, etc. Henry, Jacob, Elizabeth, Ned, Richard, Margot, and other major characters are my own and fictional.
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being the account of Henry James Anderson,

age eighteen, born 17 May 1896

- and his time as a soldier during the Great War

25 June 1914

I recently found this journal in a cupboard, its pages blank, and with nothing else to do with it I have decided to keep a record of my life. I suppose the whole of it will be utterly dull, but I shall write nonetheless in the case that anything of note should come to pass, whether in my life or in the world. 

My name is Henry Anderson. I am eighteen years old and have just graduated from a boarding-school in Canterbury, not far from my home in Chatham, England. I am now living at home with my father, James Anderson; my mother, Bertha; and my sister, Elizabeth, who is fifteen; but I do not plan to remain home for long. 

The traditional path for a man my age is university, as my mother wishes for me. If not university, she says, then I ought to find another job at home. I don't dare tell her what I truly want: to join the army. I have confided in Elizabeth and she says it is a death wish, but I daresay that fighting for one's country is the highest honor I can imagine. 

29 June 1914

Shocking news has reached us. The Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, was killed yesterday on a visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a Bosnian boy barely my own age by the name of Gavrilo Princip. The continent is in an uproar. It seems Serbia, Bosnia and the area have been awfully mistreated by Austria-Hungary, but that will not stop Austria-Hungary from declaring war upon them. 

Elizabeth was the one to tell me the news, as she has long been fascinated with the papers. I was quick to point out that the Princip boy is only a year my elder. She scoffed and said, "I don't suppose you wish to go about murdering the leaders of other countries?" Mother heard her and hushed us. Of course I shan't be killing archdukes or anything of the sort, but I do believe we ought to support Bosnia and the others. 

26 July 1914

If I cannot contribute to it, I shall at the very least use this journal to chronicle this strange turn of events. 

Austria-Hungary has delivered an ultimatum to Serbia, the origin of Princip's group the Black Hand. Great Britain is attempting to form a conference between the other European countries in order to avoid war. France, Italy and Russia have joined, but Germany remains stubborn. Austria-Hungary is going to fight; they are mobilising troops and severing ties with Serbia. A war is coming, and not only between the two. 

28 July 1914

I have nothing to say except that Austria-Hungary has declared war. The battle has begun!