In World War I, on June 30, 1915, French troops were attacked and shelled by German troops in the trenches of Massige in northeastern France near the German border. A French soldier was carrying the body of a French soldier who had been killed in the trench, wrapped in cloth. As they advanced through the trenches, they found French soldiers who had fallen, battered and tired and wounded from the barren fighting.
The French army alone lost nearly 900 men a day between 1914 and 1918, while the Germans lost about 1,300. About 86% of those deaths occurred on the battlefield, and about 14% resulted from disease or captivity. Battlefield casualties who were unable to return home on their own were almost certainly doomed to death due to fatigue, new wounds, and pressure. The wounds were gruesome, with bullets penetrating the chest, stomach, and skull, and one of the wounded had his mandible shattered into a bead of blood. The wounds were coated with iodine to fix the blood. No intravenous fluids or blood transfusions were administered. After the wound was cleaned, a large, ready-made military bandage was applied. There was not enough water to wash their muddy hands.
Many of the war wounded could only be rescued at night. It took about four days and nights and a great deal of effort to bring back some of the battle wounded who were near the French positions. Most of the soldiers left behind in the trenches were already dead.
Carrying about 30 kilos of ammunition and food, the soldiers noiselessly climbed the trenches in the first group in the middle of the night. After hours of marching, the trenches stretched for several kilometers and connected. The trenches were riddled with shell holes and the cries of the wounded and the screams of bombs drifted through the air. If you got lost without warning in front of an enemy trench, you had to give up your head, torso, or legs to machine guns.
In the trenches, the main weapon of the French soldiers was the rifle. The 1.80 meter bayonet with bayonet was very impractical in the narrow trenches of positional warfare. In hand-to-hand combat, the most terrifying ordeal for a soldier, he would shudder in fear when the order to shoot with bayonets rang out. When they reached the trenches, the infantrymen found it extremely difficult to operate the bayonet. Since bayonets could not be used hand-held, the soldiers used trench shovels and iron-wood headbreakers instead. We had to cross the plains where bullets were flying. We approached the enemy and a terrible hand-to-hand battle began. My rifle was no longer useful, so I attacked with my shovel. I staggered and dove into a whirlpool of men I didn't recognize and could no longer hear. My nose and ears were bleeding, I was losing my mind, I could no longer see or think of danger, and I ceased to give my life.
