Over the Top, by Frederic Villiers (1851–1922), 1915. Source: Villiers 53.
Villiers needed to put his own head above the parapet to see and sketch such scenes as these. The contorted features of the soldier in the foreground may express the bitter hatred that Villiers comments on himself in the passage introducing the sketch. Only a furious determination to overcome the enemy would carry the men forward on such an advance as this. The dehumanising effect of war is fully recognised here.
But the men's chief enemy at the moment is simply (but horribly) the mud: "In Flanders Fields the mud was very thick and tenacious — mud that could never be removed from garment or boot by the ordinary method of scraping and crushing. This gelatinous heavy soil so impeded troops on the march that in one instance it took twelve hours for men to march two miles. Therefore, one never knew quite what consistency of ground one had to negotiate in 'No Man's Land' when once the order was to go 'over the top'" (51). From his own first-hand experience, Villiers knew that the hostile environment of the battlefield contributed hugely to the horrors of the war experience.
Bibliography
Villiers, Frederic. Days of Glory: the sketch book of a veteran correspondent at the front. New York: George H. Doran, 1920. Internet Archive, from a copy in the State Library of Pennsylvania. Web. 29 April 2025.
Created 28 April 2025