WW1 Coursework

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Intro

  The soldier I have been researching is called Joseph Whelan. He was a gunner in the war and his service number was 30247. His parents were called Thomas and Catherine Whelan. He had 2 brothers and 1 sister. He had a wife called Sophie and 2 children. He was 27 when he died and died on the 10th of November 1917 while trying to save one of his friends, James, and by getting shot in the neck. He lived down white church road in Dublin and is buried in Boulogne eastern cemetery.

Joining up

  When Joseph joined up for war he was exited. He sort of felt bad because he was Christian and his religion was against war but he wanted to join up because of his friends and eventually the pier pressure they gave him. So he was very glad when he told his parents he had signed up for war that his dad was overwhelmed and very proud of him. His mother however was not she felt let down because of the religion but Joseph explained that he had to save his country and would be back before she knew it. His wife Sophie was also not very pleased but because she thought he wouldn’t be safe but after Joseph told her that he was going to go anyway she said she was very proud of him. She couldn’t tell their 2 children where their dad had gone because they wouldn’t stop asking questions so she just said he had gone away on business, she didn’t like lying to them but she had to.

Religion  

  At the beginning of the war Joseph was Christian. He believed that the war shouldn’t happen but he was glad to fight for his country. He set off to war in a good spirit thinking they would win because god was there for him and he trusted him. He thought god wouldn’t let them lose and would only let those in pain die but after seeing the amount of dead bodies everywhere and having only one of his friends left alive he began to think god did not exist. As he lived though the war he began to get used to the terrible conditions and after seeing millions dead and injured he thought he didn’t believe god was there for him at all but after having a few lucky escapes and surving lots of bad injuries he felt his faith in god coming back. He thought that they may not be winning the war but god had been kind enough to spare his life. He felt that he believed in god once again and found lots of other people who were Christians and had had the same problem and soon made friends.

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Weather

It was bitter cold in the winter in the trenches. The mud that the soldiers were standing on froze, because it was so cold many soldiers caught frostbite. This caused parts of the body to freeze and fall off. When Joseph caught frostbite he lost two of his fingers on his left hand. In the autumn and spring the weather was not much better. When it rained if it rained hard it flooded the trenches. It turned the soil into thick wet mud. Sometimes the mud came up to the soldier’s waists but normally it came up to their ...

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