I’m not the only one at PRI’s The World obsessing about WWI. My colleague Carol Hills has launched a blog called World War 1: American Soldier’s Letters Home. It’s based on her grandfather’s letters home from France nine decades ago. Here’s a taste from October 8, 1917:
Since I wrote you last saying how wonderful the weather was it hasn’t stopped raining for a minute and we are living and working in a perfect sea of mud and have no chance to get dry or warm unless you go to bed which isn’t all that it might be as the tents are rather fragile and the only other accommodations are under ground.We have too, for the last few days been working rather hard so you can imagine our state, just walking, shivering cakes of mud.
I recently found out that my own (British) grandfather served on the Western Front and at Gallipoli. But as far as we know there’s no trove of letters. Thanks for this Carol. I look forward to diving in.
