This is one of those ‘gifts of a split-second’ snapshots of history.
Most people will only see the rats. That will be the focus of their attention.
But those people will have missed a visual reminder of the ongoing agony of trench warfare during the First World War.
These men are standing in water up to their mid-shin. That is not just water. It is an open sewer. And an open garbage dump.
Imagine standing in this septic system for 18 months and worrying more about what diseases you are getting from the water in addition to the incoming enemy fire.
. . . and what will happen if you have an open wound!
Steve Levi is an Alaskan writer who specializes in the Alaska Gold Rush (nonfiction) and the ‘impossible crime,’ (fiction.) An ‘impossible crime’ is one where the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before going after the perpetrators – like a Greyhound bus with bank robbers and hostages disappearing off the Golden Gate Bridge –THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND. Steve’s books can be found at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi