To the Germans (barely less to British troops) the Somme battlefields were not only shambles, but a territory which the devil claimed as his own for the torture of men’s brains and souls before they died in the furnace fires. A spirit of revolt against all this crept into the minds of men who retained their sanity⁠—a revolt against the people who had ordained this vast outrage against God and humanity.

Into German letters there crept bitter, burning words against “the millionaires⁠—who grow rich out of the war,” against the high people who live in comfort behind the lines. Letters from home inflamed these thoughts.

It was not good reading for men under shellfire.

“It seems that you soldiers fight so that official stay-at-homes can treat us as female criminals. Tell me, dear husband, are you a criminal when you fight in the trenches, or why do people treat women and children here as such?⁠ ⁠…