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

It is 1914, and Henry Anderson is watching the world descend into war. Like many young men at the time, he is fascinated by the idea of warfare and glory. Henry enlists in the military against his parents' wishes and throws himself into the life of a British soldier in Flanders. But it is far from what he expects: Henry's fantasies of righteous battle fade into the grim reality of gruesome death and shell-shock. He and his fellow soldier Jacob must help each other survive the cruel trenches, but it is no longer certain that either of them will return to England alive. Told in journal entries and letters from Henry's sister Elizabeth, this reveals the realities and horrors of World War I, on the battlefield and in the homefront.

I wrote this for a history project while studying WWI and got way too involved in it, so here you are.

WARNINGS: gun/bomb/gas-related violence, war descriptions, graphic death, suicide attempt. I will mark specific chapters with warnings and give summaries of those chapters on the following one. These may not be complete, so if a chapter is not marked and should be, please comment to let me know.

Written in 2019 (age 15).