Joining The Soldiers

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The shells made a strange whining sound as they came down from above, they struck the bodies of the already deceased churning them into what resembled ground meat. The whistle came and we charged up over the trenches under the cover of our rolling barrage. The enemy position was in site before too long and we had successfully secured it before our reinforcements came up from behind, they were Imperials in their fancy uniforms, brand new rifles, and the ever present combination of officer and banner man. These men never saw the actual combat besides maybe only on an easy assignment. Even with their little actual experience they could easily kick our asses in a fight what with their 3 years of combat training and better equipment, but even with these things we the Rhonheims were the ones sent into combat being slaughtered by the thousands, we were the ones who were forced to fight and conquer territory for these impossibly greedy men.

I'm only a youth just turned 18 but I have seen more blood and death than an Imperial of 80. I am a Rhonheim one of the Imperial war slaves. We, as in the Rhonheims are a group of people who lived peacefully to the south of a jumbled war torn group of nation states, Well these nation states banded together about 300 years ago into what is now the Empire. Headed by the kaiser and his council the Empire set off on the warpath taking over every nation they could reach.  Most were lucky enough to be assimilated into the Empire, but some including us were formed into a mass puppet nation. We can into the Empire peacefully just so that we could get away with our lives, but they soon included us in their plans for a puppet nation that would fight for them. The majority of the population in this new nation were Rhonheimers, so this nation was formed with us at its head. Just a few months after Rhonheim was formed we were at war with our neighbor, taking the land for the Empire and at the same time giving tribute to the Empire including gold, war materials, and what would soon be known as war slaves.

I was born on February 24 1892 this will be my diary but why am I keeping a diary, they say it helps keep moral up. This first section will be information about me but the rest will be my everyday life as a war slave. First off I was not drafted into service I actually volunteered, If somebody in the future is reading this and they think I'm crazy listen to this. If you serve 10 years in the Rhonheim Armed Forces then you will be allowed to study for a citizenship test and if you pass that then you will become a citizen of the Empire. I forgot to mention my name is Jonathan Hendrix or John for short. I can't wright anymore today for it is time to get off of the train and enter boot camp.

May 1, 1910

My first day was a lot of hard work but I must say it helps to be able to come back to the barracks and wright in this diary. I won't be able to wright much in it for the next month but after that I hear it gets better.

June 13, 1910

I'm sorry to anybody reading this after I become famous and all but it seems you're not supposed to write anything about boot camp so I had to wait for it to be over. I'm on my to the front now, that is the front with the Bekkems, a group of wild men who from what I hear will charge headlong into a machine gun with nothing but a shovel, I hope that this will mean we can slaughter them and end this war quickly.

June 14, 1910 

War is hell, they told us this before we even got off of the trains and we could see it in the wounded coming back from the front but you really don't know until you see you're first dead soldier, body mangled and laying on the side of the road almost covered in the dirt tossed up from the shell he was killed by. We have only just arrived and you can see the difference in how the soldiers are treated. The Imperial lines are way back well out of shooting distance except for the Imperial heavy cannon the Kaiser's cannon, which can easily shoot over 30 miles. The Rhonheimer troops live in decrepit vile pits littered wherever they could dig them, but even worse most lived in the actual trenches on the front line being shot at 24/7. We being greenhorns were forced to take the worst places, I will be staying in a small foxhole with only a few pieces of thatch over my head to protect me from the rain and shelling.

June 16, 1910

It is said that we will be charging over tomorrow, the Imperials in high command want this war over before the winter so that we can reinforce the men on the Northern front.

June 17, 1910

 We charged up and over into hell but we made it out alive. The Imperial planes flying overhead dropped who knows how many bombs and the arty bombarded the enemy into oblivion. We still took many casualties but with the Bekkem army smashed at this point it's just a mop up operation. The majority of us will be heading north to help out, Of all the places for me to go it had to be the north. We Rhonheimers never could get used to the cold, we had always lived in warm areas but now I was heading to the coldest country in the world right before winter.

July 3, 1910 

So due to unexpected enemy resistance I was able to stay in bekkem and fight but unfortunately this meant that I was unable to wright in my journal. I will be headed out to fight in the north in a month or so but I can only hope that we will be pulled out of the north before the winter.  

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⏰ Last updated: Apr 21, 2016 ⏰

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