on my toes. Must have eaten something. Tinned fruit? Carried on half-heartedly and then had to go off to 'bed'” (MacKay). Even the food the men had to eat caused them physical pain. All of these factors together created an endless cycle of pain and killing that left no man mentally unscathed.The men that went off to war in 1914 were not at all prepared for horrors that they would have to face. The nations of Europe filled their head with notions of patriotism and a quick war that would be over by Christmas. Wilfred Owen’s poem Dulce Et Decorum Est says it best when its states, “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” (Owens). The Latin in this poem means “ It is sweet and noble to die for ones country”. These are the thoughts that were fed to the men and the thoughts that they carried to their deaths. As the War dragged on and on it became necessary to draft new recruits into the various armies, because the War was killing the all the volunteers that initially marched off. Remarque talks about the feelings the seasoned veterans had for the new recruits that would come up to the to front to replace their fallen comrades, "It brings a lump into the throat to see how they go over, and run and fall. A man would like to spank them, they are so stupid, and to take them by the arm and lead them away from here where they have no business to be” (Remarque). Neither side during the War had a great advantage of arms. Both sides employed the same type of weapons, in the same fashion. They caused massive amounts of casualties. John Keegan writes about it in his book The Great War. He quotes a young lieutenant from the French 72nd Division after the German offensive at Verdun. The lieutenant writes to his superiors, “The commanding officer and all company commanders have been killed. My battalion is...
