I was in the war. The trench conditions were terrible it was mucky, diseased water with segments of killed soldiers. When a shell blew up it was like a really big swimming pool accept the water was black, muddy and infested with bugs and body parts. If you stuck your head up a bullet would have been shot straight away.

There were aeroplanes dropping bombs on you and it was like 10,000 birds droppings landing on you.

My friend Finlay was not the brightest one but one day he went up the ladders so you could see his head and shoulders. Finlay got shot on the shoulder and fell into the water, some he swallowed and some went into the eyes of the soldiers surrounding him.

Finlay and five other soldiers fell to the ground instantly, five blind and Finlay poisoned. The Germans were firing like there was no tomorrow. The British stood out of the trenches, “Run and jump over the wire into No Mans Land.” Said Sergeant Black. That's what we did but we had our own men firing towards the Germans through the spaces of every man. Some of us got shot but we killed half the Germans from the trenches.

by Kieran Pattie 2B2