German soldier lying in a shallow ditch next to a fallen French soldier during the Battle of Verdun, June 1916
German soldier lying in a shallow ditch next to a fallen French soldier during the Battle of Verdun, June 1916. . The following is excerpts of Danish-German soldier Hermann Hunger's letter on an episode in a shell-hole at Côte 304 at Verdun on June 9, 1916. Translated by myself: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ "We lay together in a shell-hole, the mama's boy and myself. He was of that age when you're neither a boy nor man. He was just beginning to get his first curly hairs on his chin and was scared of using a razor blade. . Now he didn't speak much. But down in the dug-outs, even in the trenches, there he wouldn't shut up about how good and clever his mother was. He definitely had the greatest mother on the planet. . Now there wasn't time to talk, not even about his mother. He had left the school rows and went straight for war. And he loved his Fatherland and was proud of serving it. He was a city boy, but now we lay the two of us, the boy and I, in a shell-hole at 304 betw...