General?How spectacular, people give up their freedom in favor for total unified coordination and synchronized action. While I stand on this hill observing the unconditional effort and toil of nearly two-hundred-and twenty-thousand men, all trying to achieve the same task using different tools, the image of an army fades into the beauty of something similar to The New York Philharmonic. with myself and atop this conductor's stand of a hill.  Colonel: Grueling grinding work. The truth and back done of this war effort. These men battle well before the first shot rings over the line. Pulling and adjusting artillery pieces, Carrying shells, blasting trenches, digging bunkers, floating blimps, laying mines, mounting guns, practice firing, sharpening knives, dulling them, having a smoke and wrapping feet. These men are living in the Gehenna. They are numb, they feel no pain and see no evil. For the battle is the gilt-edge the utmost pleasure of all men, while withal being our ultimate infirmity as a whole.  Sargent.  Or is it more like ants? The futile scurrying and gathering of resources to build to them what seems like the eighth wonder of the world. Nevertheless, inevitably they will be crushed by the boot-heel of the empire. Then the gas comes, they will be scattered around in complete chaos, screaming for the Lord to save them all. Dread dread dread the reapers presence. Remember your home and the women you love most. Private: Seeds come from trees and the trees come from seeds. The mouse eats from the ground, but the hawk kills from above. And eventually the hawk returns to his nest. She fears the farmer, who kills all that walks from the gates of heaven to the pit of hell. All fears the hawk, but the hawk fear the man. The man brings pigs and poultry to these fields. But kills the fox when it takes a hen. The pig defecates all over itself and then is allowed to wallow in the lake. Men eat them. Man cannot be defeated by god's creations, but can only be slain by the gas and bombs his very hands produce. Trees have seeds, mice have trees and hawks have mice. The human has hands. Today is the ninth of May 1917.  This is my second month in Belgium as an American non-combatant medical researcher. These will be my notes for the remainder of my stay. Over the last couple weeks I have been building up my report by conversing with a few men of ascending rank In the British second army which is currently outside the city of Messines Belgium. I have been sent here to research the odd behavior and cowardice that the British has been experiencing. From my recent conversation with the soldiers above, I can mildly conclude that the mental state of the soldiers progressively worsens as the rank decreases. Individual intelligence based on the subjects can be ruled out because from what I have heard from their comrades contradicts what the subjects have exhibited. I am exceptionally concerned about the Private in found spooling wire just yesterday. All four subjects were asked simply what they think about war. Depending on rank, their answers varied from reasonable and even exceptional to something you would expect from a state hospital.I am concluding that mental state of soldier's depends on their rank and what they have experienced in battle. I must conclude my research soon, I fear that the offensive tomorrow will leave me with few subjects to test. The closer I get to the line the more I sympathies with that poor private I just met yesterday. (The following morning the British launched the battle of Messines. They rushed the city, and Multiple locations of german occupied high ground. The British had dug massive tunnels under the front and German trenches. They were filled them with explosives and timed to detonate just before a British division would charge a line. As was common, this noncombatant was declared missing in action, before he could finish his research into what would eventually be coined as “Shell Shock”. The Germans counter shelled the now mostly vacant British lines with gas. This doctor, who is only known by his notes that had been mailed back to the states just before the offensive, was most likely killed in the gas attacks. The mine explosions caused massive shell shock shock on both sides. After this battle, the phrase and the beginning of what will now be a common trait of modern warfare was discovered.)