Dear Peggy

     I’m glad the twins are doing well. We’re in Vimy currently; the conditions are treacherous. The cold weather coats my clothes in a crisp layer of frost every night and during the day the mud full trenches soak my feet. Trench foot is rampant and has made keeping your feet dry a priority. This terrible condition has caused many comrades to resort to amputation. The constant bombardment of artillery has been eating away at people’s conscience: the perpetual ringing, evidence of the constant opportunities of death. People die in the craters imprinted into the earth by artillery, their attempts to crawl out countered by the quicksand-like mud. The trenches are littered with casings and the smell of rot and death. Disease spreads swiftly through the trenches with the rats only acting as a catalyst. Fighting disease has been like fighting another war. Rats feed on the dead and whatever sustenance they can dig up. They are some of the only creatures prospering on this battlefield. 

     Although this has been a thankless war our artillery has been hammering down upon the Germans. More and more Germans have been surrendering themselves to us. An end to this war seems to finally be in sight, finally some hope in this seemingly endless suffering. Friends dying from the oceans of gas still haunt me. Friends struggling, attempting to break free from the deadly grasp of the gas. A struggle till the end of life. This horrific technology that was intended to be forbidden, has been demoralizing and horrific. These weapons massacre soldiers internally. This uncivilized war takes me back to when I first volunteered. We all thought this war would be glorious, a chance to escape the monotonous existence of each of our lives. Every night I contemplate how my life would have changed if our generation was made aware of how barbaric this war would have been. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you again, hopefully the end to this war will be soon. 

-Sincerely Steve Rodgers