I have recently come across a few threads on the internet discussing the WWII vs. WWI experience for soldiers and it often ends of in a discussion of which war was worst for the individual soldier. WWI was mentally tough on the soldiers that many broke down with shell shock, the war was an endless chain of suicidal charges, shelling, snipers, rats, lice, mud, gas and general misery in the trenches. There seems to be some kind of consensus that WWI was the worst because of the meaninglessness of the fighting but I also think we are very coloured by Hollywood. WWI makes an excellent setting for anti-war movies because it is easy to show the misery and meaninglessness in a very static scene that is only disturbed by the sudden arrival of death and destruction and the fear of going over the top and just beyond it.WWII makes for excellent hero tales because its instead of a war of patriotism is a war of idealism: the good against the wicked or democracy against totalitarian regimes. It is a clean war in a moral sense and thus makes for itself available to more positive screenplay. But for one I think Hollywood has coloured our oppinions of the war so I would like to a few comments on the experience of being an infantry man on the Western front in 1944, luckily a number of memoirs exists allowing me to comment on US experience in particular. I do not believe it was no less harrying but a very different experience and one of the reasons why it is not talked about in the same way.
Life on the frontlines when static was also inactive like in the trenches of WWI but it was a much more lonely experience, often the buddies were in a different fox hole further away, so a night on the life would mean a night of trying to stay awake confined to a hole and often noone to talk to or share your experiences. This could be supplemented with pulling duties in the observation post in front of the line, listening to the enemy while trying to stay alert and at the same time feeling particularly exposed compared to the rest of the platoon behind you. Again you could perhaps share your experiences when resting behind the line but as you were not in the same experience together at the same time, it would much harder to talk about, so instead the negative experiences were suppressed and carried more by the individual than the group.
Life on the Line and Trenches
To the contrary of popular belief infantry fortifications did play a significant roles however it was not the elabrate trenches of WWI. Trenches were still used on the Eastern front where German troops time after time was ordered to dig in and hold to the last man.
On the Western front the mobility and fluidity of the fighting rarely allowed the infantry to really dig out trenches as these would just be bypassed and cut off. But this did not eliminate the infantry need for being able to protect themselves from artilery and ground fire. Instead troops dug fox holes. Fox holes were miserable affairs often a hole in the ground for one to two men. With much more limited manpower available than WWI these were spaced out with 15-30 metres apart. A fox hole was often reinforced by branches or logs of timber and could give protection against most fragmentation explosions but not direct explosions. When under bombardment a soldiers would grab some dirt in the side of the fox hole and try to get under his helmet. When on guard one man would sleep the other would stay alert and since the enemy could often hear you, talking or yelling to the man 15 m to your left or right was discouraged meaning that it was often lonely and with nobody to acknowledge or share your hardships.
Life in fox holes was dangerous and depressive. The enemy was often no more than 100 m away. So in order to gather intelligence and avoid the enemy surprise attacking or sneaking up on the line observation posts were pushed out into no man’s land, the role of this post was to visually observe on the enemy but also act as a safe zone for troops moving closer to the enemy in order to man listening posts. Listening posts were typically two man outposts which relied on stealth to stay alive, often located closer to enemy lines than friendly as close as 30 m their role was to listening in to the enemy communication in order to gather intelligence. If the enemy pushed out to take a listening post or launch an attack they would fire flares to alert friendly troops and fall back under covering fire from the observation post.
The task of manning observation and listening posts was not undertaken by specialist troops but was the task of ordinary troopers and the strain of this is something that has generally not been appreciated. The feeling of danger, loneliness and being exposed in front of friendlies for periods without the ability to talk with others.
Night time is generally described as being the most terrifying to troops. Often two men would be manning each fox hole, one would sleep the other keep watch. There would be no talking with soldiers in the fox holes adjecent as that would risk giving your position away. It would be a feeling of you against the world.
The experiences of WWII soldiers versus that of their fathers were definately different and I do not believe it can be compared.
Recommended reading: Ambrose – Citizen Soldiers
Playing with History 