Nadzieja( Polish for Hope)

Chapter 16: The Knight Of The Somme

The first world war was still continuing and things in the year 1916 were becoming a lot more heated than ever before. As of March, of this year Portugal and Romania joined the Allies. If that wasn't enough, Britain in April made it mandatory for all fit and healthy men who are 17 or over to join the army otherwise they will go to prison for treason against the king and country. This mandate caused entire villages and even cities to be abounded by men leaving only women and children, so many women had to start working at factories because of this. On 30th April 1916 Germany started using a fuel saving measure called summer time aka daylight saving time to conserve fuel for the war effort of course all of Germany's allies also started using that measure and a week later Britain and the rest of the Allies started doing it too as they didn't want the Central Powers to have this as their advantage.

Things for Charles and Jason become quite complicated when David Moad the nephew (as he is Mark Moad's nephew, however David and his mother and siblings don't know Thomas Thorne's true identity and the fact that he is David's uncle) joined them in the same trenches as he now 17 years old so he had to join due to the law. Charles was very happy to see his nephew but at the same time scared that he may die. David when first seeing Charles gives him a hug and says "It's good to see you again Mr Thorne again ""It's good to see you too again" replied Charles hugging his nephew back. In his mind he promised himself he will do everything in his power to make sure his nephew comes back home alive.

Later Charles introduced David to his friend Jason and both him and Charles started telling David about their adventures in the trenches from August 1914 to now and they even talked about the death of their friend Jacob Miller who sadly died in September 1914. After hear those stories David grabs his water bottle and starts drinking from. After taking a long sip of the bottle "Well it seems like this is going to be a long journey and let's all hope we all make it to the end of this conflict". It took time for David to get use to the conditions of the trenches but eventually he did with the help of Charles and Jason and of course the newly improved that offered almost complete protection from chlorine gas.

  Meanwhile French and British generals and some officers were starting to plan an attack near the river Somme on the 1st July. The generals wanted to do something about this stalemate that was still happening and so a major attack was needed to send the Allies to victory. Captain Robert Smith who recently got promoted to commander suggested for a new special unit to help the war effort, some officers and general suggested that should have more horses as many clung to the belief from 1914 that cavalry troops still have a place in the modern army as many of these general even used cavalry units since the beginning of the war. The discussions continued for some time, during which many officers, started firing explosives shells to get rid of obstacles like barbed wire and tried raising troop morale and they mostly do a good job because one judgment day arrived , almost all troops couldn't wait to begin the attack little did they know was that the Germans knew the attack was coming as they intercepted Allie phone lines and the explosive shells did very little against the barbed wire due to the artillery gunners being mostly inexperienced and the fact that some of the shells were just duds, to make matters worse most of the German soldiers are war veterans. Also, many French soldiers couldn't attend it because many of them were sent to Verdun which was under attack from the Germans.

The stage was set and in a few minutes the battle would begin. Charles, Jason and David start preparing themselves for the making sure everything was in order. Commander Smith along with a few soldiers who carrying five heavy big wooden chests with them. Smith taps Charles on his shoulder and orders one of the soldiers give him one of the chests. "This chest for you use whatever is inside wisely" said Smith before continuing alongside the trench and later give one the 4 remaining chests to remaining soldiers within the trench randomly.