world war 1 extract 1.

This is an extract from my grandfather's world war 1 company diaries :

28th November 1916

Sgt Adams killed by sniper 123, sorry to have to report that Sgt Bromley deserted and went over to the enemy at about 8pm to 9pm, was fired at by our machine gunner. 
He has been mining on this front since October 1915 and is therefore in possession of considerable information. 

Spare company men were sent into 'no-man's land' the following morning to see if they could recover a body, none was found.

This extract really made me think about the human perception of war, firstly to be so unprepared mentally, until you are in that situation there is no way you could ever be mentally prepared.

To feel the futility of it all that you would go to the enemy just to prevent yourself from having to fight. In those days it was called 'shell-shock' but wasn't taken all that seriously. Now it would be probably be seen as a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder which affects so many military personnel across the world.

The consequences of his actions, firstly the highly probable loss of his life, either by his own people or by his enemy. The shame at this period in time that he would bring to his family and the possible change of action caused by giving away valuable information and endangering the whole company. It must have made for a pretty tense period within the company ranks.