A lot of fellows broke down

We were put in there rather hurriedly to plug a gap in September 1915. Cripes, I hadn’t the faintest idea. No, we had just shot two horses of our own. We thought we were being attacked and we were about 15 km behind the line. I wasn’t scared. I was never what you would call, I didn’t have fear. I was too stupid. A lot of fellows broke down, you know, and they were sent back with shell shock and one thing or another. Not me, no, because I didn’t know enough. I was just that kind of a person. I had the respect of my platoon, which is as far as I wanted to go, and I never had any trouble getting another guy if I wanted from another platoon. He’d be glad to transfer to me. I was never an adolescent, you see. See, I missed that. From fourteen on, I was in the hands of a deity that I didn’t quite understand either.