Categories > Original > Historical
In 1967, a journal was found at a WWI historical site. This was the only written account of what had happened there before a mass slaughter annihilated the place. The owner of the journal has long ...
My name is Sesto Benedetti. I am the translator of this journal. There’s not much you truly need to know about me, but there’s a lot you need to know about this journal.
0UnratedThe first entry given. It simply tells of Ermete’s opinions on the place. Nothing intriguing.
0UnratedTheir first battle. Almost instantly, too. The Austrian army decided to do a human wave assault? Suicidal with the weaponry at hand. And it was.
0UnratedOne of Ermete’s longest entries. It details some of the men he became close friends with, during the war.
0UnratedFor a war outpost, the men sure have it well. Movies were a precious commodity during that time, and that’s not just the war. It’s imaginable that they’d do anything to keep that outpost. Any...
0UnratedThe shelling from the Austrian army had stopped for a day... and Ermete uses it to ponder. He doesn’t want to die, and leave his younger brother behind, nor does he want to die, at all. Can’t b...
0UnratedDamn. A bunch of soldiers sent out, and many brought in. All of those brought in had something horrifying to say. Poor men.
0UnratedThe new arrival seems to have gotten a suspicious welcome. Seems there’s a lot to him. And an arrival of civilian photographers... where have the pictures gone, then? But could that man, Kaj Nier...
0UnratedIt was typical for soldiers to criticize their officers. Many didn’t know how to fire a rifle, let alone a firearm. But no documented records tell of an officer being this open, or accepting. But...
0UnratedSomeone died that day. It was typical for artillery to be the death of most men. It was the weapon that took the most lives in World War One.
0UnratedErmete is paranoid. He’s terrified of the new man, Nieri. It’s not very clear why, though...
0UnratedA quiet day of pondering. Good for soldiers to rest their minds, after many days of fighting or nerve racking silence. But traveling to the frontlines? Probably not helpful.
0UnratedThe Italian Frontline was a bloody hell. The troops stationed there were under equipped, and under clothed. A large portion died to the freezing temperatures of the Alps. But still, a good part wer...
0UnratedDue to the fact Ermete had never seen artillery fire hit someone almost directly, it is normal for him to write about it, first thing. Lucky he didn’t get PTSD, or shell shock, as they called it ...
0UnratedArtillery at night was a typical stratagem in The Great War. The only problem was that the ones’ shelling had only calculations to go on. In the pitch black of night, that was all you really had....
0UnratedTrench raids were a large thing, during WWI. Many reasons were behind them. But this one seems to be related to logistics. Keeping things small and dark was a big part of a night raid. It could be ...
0UnratedSeems that “They” was Ermete’s own group members. They must’ve tripped the alarm. Trench Raids had that happen, from time to time. It depended on the speed the raiders silenced the men in t...
0UnratedIt was not typical for a day to be silent on the front. But when it did happen, the soldiers took it as a day to rest, ponder, and rejoice in their living.
0UnratedTypically, wounds like Ermete’s wouldn’t be a reason to be sent back, but on the Front, men needed to be able to hold a rifle. That may be why he was sent back. But lucky for him.
0UnratedSo, he was sent back. The timing was perfect, as the trench he was in wasn’t shelled three days after that date, according to records from the site. But the poem he wrote. The title translates to...
0UnratedThe survival of friends is a cause for celebration in war. The Great War made it a true celebration. Coming back from the Front was enough of a celebration, to some. The after party was returning t...
0UnratedThis is the first time the animal struck. The men didn’t know it would not be its last... or its worst.
0UnratedChristmas was freezing in the Alps. Joy among soldiers at that time was only between each other. The only documented place where a laying down of arms happened was on the Western Front, between Bri...
0UnratedThe Beast so commonly talked about after 1915 had a habit of tearing victims limb from limb, or just blatantly killing them. It was a quick, yet horrible death. Men in the War were never used to it.
0UnratedWith a man eviscerated by an unknown creature, rumors would tend to get around quick. And rumors only lead to chaos.
0UnratedThe second year of World War I. Most thought there was an end in sight, but they did not know that it would be another two grueling years. Poor men.
0UnratedSeems the animal got a little too close for comfort. They are lucky it didn’t get anyone. Setting up a watch was their best move.
0UnratedCatching someone else reading your journal and possibly writing in it would be unexpected. But seeing a mysterious man reading it and possibly writing in it would bring a rush of panic.
0UnratedDeserters were somewhat common in the war, especially before an attack. Most knew they were going to die, and they wouldn’t be able to back out. So, the easiest way to get out was to desert. But ...
0UnratedIgnác Tímár, the Austrian deserter, clearly has a goal in kind: getting out of the war. Smart thing to do. A death to soldier count ratio brings up that 25% of soldiers died, but 33% were wounde...
0UnratedThey never knew what happened until a few days after the incident. But they weren’t expecting to find what they did, either.
0UnratedThis is the only description given of the animal. Large, wolflike, silent, and walking on two legs. No animal hasn’t been identified to be the one described. What it was, no one may ever know.
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0UnratedThe pure horror that the group found was too harrowing for Ermete to write. For that to happen, they had to have seen something truly terrifying.
0Unrated(This entry does hint at suicide. Read at your own discretion.) The lone survivor they brought back had PTSD, no doubt about it. It would take days for him to finally be able to speak. All that ti...
0UnratedModern translation tools, paired with some time to rephrase it into comprehensible sentences, brings a shocking story about what the man wrote...
0UnratedTruly, the Austrian’s reaction is strange. Crawling back, shouting murder in Hungarian... a fit of PTSD must have come over him. No man could’ve done what happened at that camp.
0UnratedThe Austrian finally started talking. But the truth is almost out of pure hell.
0UnratedThere’s not much on this one in terms of the animal, but it does give insight into what a soldier thought during the silence in between artillery fire.
0UnratedNeither side left any possible position open, even if all the men there were dead. It would be a gap where the enemy could go through. So, sending more men is just what they’d do. But what did th...
0UnratedOn the Italian Front, the largest casualties taken were by the Austria-Hungary Army, but only by about 200,000. But even then, that is horribly large. That many people should have never died in the...
0UnratedThe Austrian is clearly suffering from PTSD. He’s terrified of Nieri, who, to our knowledge, is innocent. But why would he be terrified of him, specifically?
0UnratedEveryone wants to at least calm the Austrian down, so following along is the best way to do it, although no one did it.
0UnratedTwo years into the war. There’s no backing out by any side.
0UnratedThe more aggressive attacks made by Austrian-Hungary forces were taking a toll on the Italian forces.
0UnratedIt wouldn’t stop. It just kept picking off men, one by one...
0UnratedMen at frontlines used many forms of tobacco to ease themselves. Yet, most of the time, it didn’t work as they wanted it to.
0UnratedSlow casualties always added up, overall. There was always a large death toll at the end of many small engagements...
0UnratedThe Battle of Asiago was a devastating defeat for the Italian forces. Austria-Hungary forces broke through their lines, and advanced terrifyingly close to Trentino. It was only the miracle of the b...
0UnratedAgain, the Italian forces were spared by help from the breakthrough at Galicia. Austria-Hungary troops had to halt their march through, and send troops to Galicia, to keep Russia at bay. Russia too...
0UnratedAs the war raged on, soldiers got impatient. Most thought, at the start of the conflict, that the war would be over by Christmas. They were horribly wrong.
0UnratedOverthrowing superiority was risky. Fail, and court martial happens. No soldier made it from a court martial, alive.
0UnratedSupply lines were cut off when Austria-Hungary forces broke through the lines. Making off of what they had would have been a terror ride.
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