World War I Blogger

We last left Harry Lamin in 1917 in some of the worst trench wars imaginable. Harry’s unit had just been ordered over the top to attack the German front line in Belgium. Bill Lamin had just read his grandfather’s blog entry, a letter to his brother, dated June 11th. Fast forward to February 1918. Bill fills us in on his blogposts in the intervening months: he moved to Italy which was a bit quieter. Harry’s letters are written on pencil on thin sheets of paper. Despite the horrors of war, the letters are fairly mundane, talking about the temperatures. The grandfather is obsessed with rations. What’s interesting is what his grandfather doesn’t mention: he doesn’t mention any friends. The letters took a week or two to get from Italy to England. Some of them are censored and for good reason says this expert who says if a letter ended up in the hands of the enemy, it could be disastrous. He says the modern soldier is embracing new technologies to tell the story of war.