letters from wwi: Lieutenant Alfred Joubair

"Shells come crashing out of the fog of smoke and dust. We are surrounded by wounded and dying men whom we are totally unable to help.

We live in filth amid the smell of blood as 8,000 shells fall on top of us every day.

The earth around us quakes and we are lifted and tossed about. The air is unbreathable. Our blinded and wounded soldiers keep falling on top of us and die while splashing us with their blood. It is a living hell. We are deafened, dizzy and sick at heart.

Humanity is mad. It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad! — Lieutenant Alfred Joubair, 124th Infantry, 8th ID, Verdun, France 1916.