Private George Coppard, a Canadian machine-gunner, wrote after moving into a newly captured trench:
“The smell was awful, but we told ourselves it was only the Germans’ socks.”
Behind the joke lay the grim reality of the trenches: the stench of rotting bodies mingling with mud, stagnant water, and the acrid tang of blood mixed with cordite.
George survived the war.
Follow the full Advent series as we share the human voices of war.