The Battle of Marne from the perspective of a war prisoner

I have been fighting for almost four years and it seems that this never ends. My name is Ryan Johnson, I am 32 years old and I am a British soldier. The war has been long and tiring. The Germans are losing terrain and this is our moment to start an offensive. We are currently located in Marne, a small region in the northeast of France. The Commander Marshal Ferdinand was giving us the offensive strategy while I was trying to calm down the young and inexperienced soldiers. I just want this to finish so I can go back to my wife and kids, we all want to go back to our families.



We were hiding in the trenches waiting for the right moment to attack. Suddenly out of nowhere we were bombarded by an AEG G.IV from the sky. Almost one quarter of my squad was dead or wounded. Other soldiers and I were crawling in the trenches trying to get out of there but we were unfortunately captured by German soldiers who took us as war prisoners.


The rest of my squad and I were taken to a small building near the Germany-France frontier. We were treated as animals. All of us was starving but we didn´t get anything to eat or to drink. In that small building there were other war prisoners from different places like France, U.S. and even my beloved England.


The night was cold and painful. We were piled up like a bunch of boxes because there was not enough room for everyone. Three guards in every entrance were looking at us ready to shoot at the first sign of rebellion. I couldn´t sleep that night, actually no one could. The only thing that made us feel comfortable during those hard nights were Commander Marshal´s words. He was the only one that never lost hope. Yes I got to admit it, I lost every hope I had left.


It has been almost two weeks since we were captured. Many of us are dying because of the bad feeding and the unhealthy conditions of the building. Every night I ask Commander Marshal if he thinks we would get out of that place. Every time I ask him that question he looks at me and smiles, then he tells me the story of the battle of Verdun. His battalion was captured after a German offensive. When all the hope was lost, the French army pushed forward winning the battle and rescuing him and his battalion. “We will get out of this son, I promise” said Commander Marshal. For some reason those words made me sleep like a baby that night.


That night I had a dream. In my dream the American soldiers entered the German territory and started to spread mustard gas all around killing hundreds of German soldiers. Then the soldiers came inside the building and rescued us taking us back home.


When I opened my eyes I knew it was all a dream. However Commander Marshal woke us up telling us there was something going on out there. We were able to hear explosions outside as the German soldier were desperately trying to escape. Far away it was possible to see the American soldiers firing out their artillery against the Germans. It was real, it was not a dream!


After a long battle, the Commander John Pershing along with the American forces entered the building. He shook Commander Marshal´s hand and smiled at him. We were all crying, but these were not tears of sadness, these were tears of joy and happiness. After two long weeks of being captured and after four long years of fighting I was finally free, I could finally go home.


The Battle of Marne left around 250,000 deaths from both sides and almost 30,000 soldiers captured.


This was the first real victorious offensive in the WW1 for the allies. The Germans were devastated and disorganized. The war was not over yet but the Battle of Marne was certainly a big step that led to the allied victory in the WW1.


I will never forget Commander Marshal´s words during those hard days of captivity: “The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire”. Thank you Commander Marshal, you were right, everything was fine after all.