uestion hasbeen posed to many young people about to embark on war although the
answer has usually been 'yes' in response to their country due mainly
to the fact that the government instills it in the people of the
country to support one's country and one way is to send young abled
bodied men into the army. If you were one individual that was not in
favour of fighting for your country you would surely become an outcast
by the countries people. To avoid ridicule and becoming outcasted by
the people living around you, you would join the army just in the
thought that you were obligated to for the sole sake of your country.
Such thoughts were reinforced by the government promotion of
propaganda. Glorifying death is not needed to be taught and should be
up to the sole individual.
School systems should teach an unbiased
point of view of war to enable the child to make their own decision
to fight for one's country.
Within the education system it was instructed to the teachers
to teach the children at a young age during the brink of war to
instill that their the life of the country and for them to defend
their country against the enemy. Teachers showed being in a army was
representing honour and the pride of the country. Guilt was laid on
the students who showed rebellion by the teacher.
Many times the
teacher would try to show a soldier that looks happy and content
trying to represent being a soldier makes you happy and content.
Many young inexperienced soldiers were sent to training camps
near the battle fields that they would soon be sent to fight, for
their country and their life. The training camps were situated on
similar enviroments that resembled the battle fields of where the
fighting would take place. Reinforced displine to the young and
ignorant men.
Trench warfare is when many soldiers of opposing countries
fight against each other across a vast desolate, dirt covered land,
and the only sense of cover was to crouch in a usually water logged
trench. The sense of death engulfed your very soul, the constant
bombardment of shells echo in your mind long after it had ceased.
On the Western front conditions were horrible to say the
least, stench of death remained constantly in the air, bodies riddled
with bullet wounds lay across the bottoms of the trenches, dismembered
bodies scattered across the landscape and the sounds of agonizing and
dying men echo across the battle grounds. Very limited rations
offering very little in flavour was the only food available to the
soldiers. Often raining, it caused muddy, damp conditions.
The men
staying in a trench filled with water and muddy conditions often
caused such diseases as trench foot and trench mouth. Contagious
diseases were spread quickly. Lack of cleaniness gave many soldiers
lice and rats would run through the trenches feeding on the garbage
and human wastes.
Thousands of soldiers would line up under the cover of their
trenches for a stretch of miles and wait for the leading officer to
give the signal for the charge.
When the signal was given the
thousands of soldiers would all try to run across the no-man's land to
attempt the breach of the enemies trench. This charge would be under
constant machine gun fire and mortar shelling by the enemy.
These kind of attacks usually failed maily due to the fact the
odds were already stacked against the attacking party. The distances
the charging men had to run to get to the enemies trench was far
enough for the enemy to use it's constant shelling and it's machine
gun fire to dwindle the attacking army significant enough for the
attacking army to retreat.
Counter attacks were quickly attempted after the attacks. The
counter attacks were similiar to the actual attacks except the
difference was that the counter attack involved the killing of the
retreating of the enemy instead of attacking someone under the cover
of the trench.
During the war all soldiers were affected either physically or
phsycologically. Shell shock was an ongoing sickness affecting many
soldiers in the trenches.
The constant bombardment of mortar shelling
became so defeaning and monotonous the sounds of shelling remained
with the soldier even when there was no shelling. Such cases became so
severe for some the soldier would go in fits of rage and fear at the
very same instantance. Virtually all soldiers felt homesick at one
time or another. The soldiers being out on the battle fronts for a
long time soon forgot the propaganda beliefs the country had instilled
the soldiers, instead the soldiers just wanted to survive their tour
of duty however long it would be. Death had been experienced and seen
by the soldiers on the front for a long time that the themes had
become relative to their daily life on the front. Coming back to their
homes the soldiers had received and learned of a new perpective on
war.
It was that when face to face with death the political beliefs
that were held were irrevalant when trying to survive in the war.
Glorification of death is ridiculous unless you were being
attacked and threat of death was present that would be another story
but to die for a something many miles away is something that the
individual must take in consideration in when making his or her
decision. I personally would not risk death if friends and family
were not at risk. Since our country has become less militarized since
WWII the need for military personnel has not been as necessary. But as
mentioned before if the country I lived was under a threat of takeover
I believe I would take up arms to defend against the people who would
try to attack. Other than that the physcological and physical damages
soldiers endure would deter me from joining any army.
