"Lest We Forget"

In the Summer of 1916, World War One was in full swing. Generals on both sides had begun to realise that actual territorial gains on the battlefield gave no real advancement towards total victory, and a new strategy would have to be developed. This meant forcing the governments of the other sides to capitulate, and involved two fundamental methods.
The first was economic restriction, and would be achieved by blockades, sanctions and attacks on international routes of supply.
The second was to cause such devastating loss of human life, that the opponent's domestic support for the war would collapse. To this end, the Battle of Verdun had been specifically devised at the start of the year, although it was not to be the last battle conceived purely for the purpose of killing alone.

One soldier's letter home to his young wife encapsulates the helplessness of an individual in such circumstances. The sentiments it expresses could have been written by any of the enlisted men on the front, fighting for any side:

“I must not allow myself to dwell on the personal – there is no room for it here. Also it is demoralising. But I do not want to die. Not that I mind for myself. If it be that I am to go, I am ready. But the thought that I may never see you or our darling baby again turns my bowels to water.

…My one consolation is the happiness that has been ours. Also my conscience is clear that I have always tried to make life a joy for you, and I know that if I go you will not want. That is something.

But it is the thought that we may be cut off from each other which is so terrible and that our babe may grow up without my knowing her and without her knowing me. It is difficult to face. And I know your life without me would be a dull blank.

Yet you must never let it become wholly so, for you will be left with the greatest challenge in all the world; the upbringing of our baby. God bless that child, she is the hope of life to me.

My darling, au revoir. It may well be that you will only have to read these lines as ones of passing interest. On the other hand, they may well be my last message to you. If they are, know through all your life that I loved you and baby with all my heart and soul, that you two sweet things were just all the world to me. I pray God I may do my duty, for I know, whatever that may entail, you would not have it otherwise.”

- Captain Charles May, 22nd Battalion Manchester Regiment, to his wife Maude. June 16th 1916.

Charles was killed by a german shell on July 1st at the Battle of the Somme.