Photograph facing a French trench from a German position held by the 83rd Landwehr.
83rd Landwehr in front of a French trench [Translation from the German courtesy Thomas Faust, ebay's Urfaust]
"What's really annoying is that when you have to go you really don't know where to go everywhere is dangerous and so you hold it as long as you can but at some point you just have to go. I am telling you this because this morning at one thirty I wanted to go and I got myself into a shell hole that was two meters deep. I just got there and right away there was a shell whistling by me I lay flat out and right away three more followed one of which exploded in a hole just 30 meters in front of me I grabbed my pants in both hands and ran for the dugout I laughed about it when I got to the shelter but if you could see the poor guys here running like that you would feel sorry for them."
Extract from a letter of French Artilleryman Paul Pireaud to his wife Marie on May 27, 1916. Pireaud's unit, the 112th Heavy Artillery Regiment, moved into the Verdun sector in early April. Although French commander Pétain rotated infantry units after seven or eight days, but it was much more difficult to do so with the artillery.
Your Death Would Be Mine; Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna, page 108, copyright © 2006 by Martha Hanna, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2006
1916-05-27, May, 1916
