Chapter 8
Whatever patriotic or heroic notions Bill had vanished when he climbed down the ladder into the trench. When he’d first seen it, he felt it stretched without end. Now, nearly five weeks later, he knew he was right. Indeed, it had no end.
The Major told them the night before. “The Allies and the Germans have been building these damned trenches for over three years now. It stretches almost five hundred miles. We’re newcomers to their war.”
Waiting his turn, recording the time he was ordered into the trenches seemed important. It was a Tuesday. It was 3:17 o’clock in the afternoon. Bill would always wonder why that detail stuck in his mind.
We stepped down that ship’s gangway back on the first of July. Now it’s….
He used his bayonet to carve a nick on his rifle. It was against
