German soldiers in a snow-covered trench, five of them in steel helmets. The men in the foreground may have just come out of a dugout. Those in the back wear heavy coats, look frozen, and may have been on guard duty. The photo postcard was sent from a soldier named Hermann Herold of the 16th reserve Jäger (mounted rifles) battalion, February 19, 1917.
"My brain is so pitifully confused by the war and my own single part in it. All those people I have left in England have talked me nearly to death. The people I have seen out here so far have made me feel that there is no hope for the race of men. All that is wise and tender in them is hidden by the obsession of war. They strut and shout and guzzle and try to forget their distress in dreary gabble about England (and the War!). It is all dull and hopeless and ugly and small.. . . But spring in this cursed year of victory will be but a green flag waving a signal for devilish slaughter to begin. The agony of armies will be on every breeze; their blood will stain the flowers. The foulness of battle will cut off all kindliness from the hearts of men."
Excerpt from the February 22, 1917 diary entry of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, author, Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and recipient of the Military Cross for gallantry in action. Sassoon had just returned from an extended convalescent leave in Britain when he was sent to hospital in Rouen with German measles.
Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1915-1918 by Siegfried Sassoon, pp. 133–134, copyright © George Sassoon, 1983; Introduction and Notes Rupert Hart-Davis, 1983, publisher: Faber and Faber, publication date: 1983
1917-02-22, 1917, February,
