The English weren’t letting up. The attacks kept coming, slowly wearing down the German defences. The 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment were slowly losing the battle. Five men had gone down in the last twenty minutes of fighting. This was beginning to echo the Massacre of Innocents. Levi, who was manning the machine gun, suddenly flew backwards into the rear of the trench.

Adolf ran to Levi’s body and cursed the Brits across No Man’s Land. Levi was dead, blood still pouring from a gape in his chest.

A shout sounded from behind him. Adolf ran to one of the shooting holes and peeked through to see a battalion of British troops drop into a shell hole. Suddenly a can dropped into the trench beside him as a new soldier shot into the trench wall, blocking their escape.

“Imbecile!” shouted Adolf, as he attempted to dig through the collapsed wall as the canister filled the trench with mustard gas. As it seeped into his system he sank to his knees, prayed to God, and closed his eyes for the last time.