An American Soldier in 1917
The other day myself and another fellow were sent out to make a sketch of the country occupied
by the Huns, and it was very interesting, besides being exciting. We went through country which the
Germans had retreated from, and I can honestly say that there isn't a square yard of ground which
hasn't a shell-hole in it, some of them only a couple of yards in diameter and others that you could
put a house in. Walking or crawling through that kind of territory isn't easy. The weather is cold, but
in the daytime warm enough to be muddy, and with equipment consisting of overcoat, two gas-masks,
steel helmet, field-glasses, pistol, canteen, first-aid packet, bolo [heavy knifel, flag kit, extra cartridges,
and sketching board, you wish you were back home in your shirt-sleeves. Don't think for a minute
that I am not glad I am here, for I am. I carefully weighed in my own mind what was what before I
enlisted, and now that I am here, the only way you could get me away is to either kill me or cart me
off in a stretcher."
-Corporal Andrew J. Murray, U.S. Army, from the book, Hooray for Peace; Hurrah for War
1. What is the attitude of the English soldier?
2. What is the attitude of the German soldier?
3. What is the one big difference between the Englishman's and the German's state of mind?
4. What is the attitude of the American soldier? Why do you think he feels this way?
5. Whom do you think the American in 1917 sounds like, in comparison to those we have heard before?
Why?
6. Do you think that the attitude of the American will change? How will it change?