Skegness Magazine

“End this awful war”
message from German soldiers in the trenches
In a letter received from a Lincoln soldier at the front the writer says:-

‘We had two letters thrown into our trenches the other night tied round a stone, by some German sappers, and were read out as follows:’Dear French and English comrades, – why don’t you end this awful war? What is the good of us killing each other day by day? The summer is coming on now, and we have wives and children at home waiting for us, the same as you have, who you must know are pining for us to go back to them. We have lost a great number of men, and you must have lost three times as many; so try and make peace with us- yours truly, The Germans’.
Next morning we shot three Germans, so we shall soon be even at that rate. -

The other letter read something like this:-

‘Dear English comrades, – we are about tired of this war, and want peace. You know as well as we do that our dear wives and children are waiting for our return home. Why do you continue this cruel war, killing each other as we do? Hoping you will see to this, we beg to remain, your truly, Germans.’
There are plenty of spies out here, mostly dressed as labourers, and I have seen one or two marched away under escort to be shot at dawn. It makes you iron-hearted out here. When you go into the trenches you don’t care if you get shot or not.”

1915