Chapter 13 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 12 continues the author's memoirs regarding his personal wartime experiences. It follows a generally chronological development and includes summarizations taken from personal letters sent home during May and June of 1915.

Graves catalogues the sixty-plus pounds of standard equipment issued to newly arriving soldiers. He concisely describes the moral and physical effects of German artillery barrages, notes some of the drills which were routinely demanded in rear areas, relates a few songs enjoyed by the soldiers of the period, and shares several short but interesting anecdotes. For example, before a mass attack, the English soldiers would usually pool their cash into a so-called sweepstakes; the pot would later be evenly divided between the survivors as a sort of consolation prize for having survived the attack unscathed.

From the Cambrin trenches Graves was billeted in a rear area for training, then moved into...