George's Diary

• Erin Gear, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2011

The sun is up; I can see that from the tiny crevice in my dugout. At home my darling M.J. would always recite a morning prayer of thanks to the Lord, appreciating the ‘safety’ the sun brought. But sun rarely shines in this land; I know that now more than ever.
I look down at my mud and blood stained Light Horse uniform, the uniform which initially represented glory and pride. I feel myself smirking. I can just imagine my mother’s mortified expression at the state of my tattered clothes; she would be dying to clean and press it.
Sergeant Varun ordered Private Sachin and myself to run an important errand last night. We were practically jumping with joy at the thought of going over the wall for the first time, charging into no-man’s-land! Imagine our dismay when we were instructed to collect water from a village a few miles west; and how our excitement collapsed when we realised we weren’t going into battle! But, like good soldiers, we collected the water as told. By the time we had travelled less than half a mile out of Pozières Village the water had frozen solid. Who knew France could be so unbelievably and unnaturally cold? We couldn’t believe we thought the trenches were a block of ice!
Caught up in the moment, Sachin and I lost track of where we were going. ‘Oi, George. I hear firing back the way we came!’ Sachin told me, I thought this was odd. Yet, we made our way back to the familiar sounds of weaponry. What we came across once we reached the source of commotion was something a raving lunatic couldn’t even imagine. Still taking in the overwhelming scenery around us, we were jolted out of our awestruck state when a bullet pierced the middle of the ice block we were carrying. I needed no more warning, within a split second I dashed for the nearest boulder to hide behind. Sachin was not as quick to react; he stood frozen looking down at the shattered block of ice. A German shooter had obviously seen this opportunity and murderously took Sachin down in a shower of bullets, I couldn’t believe what had just happened in front of me –I still can’t.
I decided to wait for nightfall to crawl back to the 6th Battalion Light Horse trenches in the opposite direction. It seemed like a lifetime until darkness finally arrived. There was no movement as far as I could tell, so I crawled away with a feeling of guilt for what had happened to Sachin.
Sergeant Varun sent me to first aid as soon as I returned, hours later. Within ten minutes everyone knew what had happened to Sachin, he was our first casualty for the brigade. Within those minutes the excitement for war evaporated; Sachin’s death left a heavy hole in everyone’s heart. Reality was at its peak now and we were all aware of it; the war had finally taken its toll.