Last Man Standing by Norman Collins was quite an eye opening read. It walks the reader through the life of a WWI soldier on a daily basis. Norman Collins’ life revolved around the war. He joined when he was still a teenager and saw the battle through to its end. The hundreds of letters he sent home are written in great detail, regarding anything from his daily training routine to what he ate for dinner and also his requests for care packages. What better way to learn about WWI then from reading letters sent home from a soldier that lived it first hand.
While reading this book you can almost visualize yourself in Normans shoes getting up at the crack of dawn every morning and going to battle. After reading this book, I have gained huge respect for all the soldiers out there. Not that I didn’t already have an appreciation for what they do. What I’m trying to get across is that I gained some valuable insight while reading Norman’s letters. A soldier’s rank was a key factor in deciding what kind of tasks he’d be performing that day. For example, while Norman was acting as a Sergeant in the Seaforths he spent most of his time training soldiers and preparing for battle.
When he was later transferred to the 8th Battalion Army Cadet College at Whittington Barracks at Litchfield and demoted from sergeant to cadet, his days were much different. He spent the majority of his time scrubbing floors, forming fours, doing 160 paces per minute on the square and brushing boots every hour from 5am to 730pm. Not only were the tasks different per rank but also the quality/quantity of the meals. I wouldn’t say the soldiers were underfed, as they did receive 3 meals per day and that actually increased to 4 at one point.
I do recall in one of Norman’s letters him stating that once he was promoted he was actually wasting food because he was being overfed. This book shows how strong mentally and physically one must be in order to thrive in this brutal life of a soldier. Simple things we may take for granted on a daily basis like a comfortable bed to sleep on or a hot shower after a long day are definitely not perks of joining the army. Early on in his career, Norman sent a letter home that mentioned how that night he had slept on an iron bedstead with two blankets.
The most surprising thing is that the next thing he said was that it was rough but he enjoyed it. Those are the words of a man that is willing to make sacrifices to get where he wants to be in life. It’s interesting that I said “man”, although Norman may act like a man, incredibly he is only a teenager at the time. These soldiers were not high maintenance to say the least, as this lifestyle was anything but glamorous. By the time Norman was assigned to the trenches, the quality of life really diminished. It was a miserable battle, as the soldiers were constantly wet and muddy.
They would use their knife to scrape the crusted mud of themselves because they would go a week on end without bathing. These grueling aspects of trench warfare were very detrimental to the soldier’s health. The constant saturation of their feet led to the dreaded trench foot. From the beginning of the war to the end Norman’s mindset had changed immensely. In the beginning, he was 100 percent supportive of what they were doing and what he was fighting for. His early letters were very descriptive and rarely had major complaints. He seemed to always be taking the positive out of every situation he was in.
As the years went on, he began to start to wish the war would end. Possibly all the down time due to injuries resulted in him thinking back to all the friends he lost and brothers he buried. As I got deeper into this book, I began to realize how this grueling existence could wear down even the strongest of men. Norman started the war as what seemed to be a desensitized, fearless human being. As the days, months and years ticked away, he went from being unfazed by a shell exploding 10 yards from him to a man that’s teeth would chatter as the sound of exploding shells came closer and closer.
Another significant change was that in the beginning Norman had it set in stone in his mind that he’d never touch alcohol. The stress of the war caused him to turn to the substance as a coping device. He even wrote home saying how he felt like it was imperative that the soldiers should be given liquor each night. In all honesty, I don’t know what better way there is to learn about WWI than reading this book that essentially walks you through the daily struggle of a WWI soldier.
It covers soldier’s daily routines and training, along with battle strategies. Also, in the letters Norman expresses his feelings on a daily basis which is essential to understanding the emotional ups and downs of war. Most importantly, Norman reveals his opinions of the war. The fact that he believes that no one won the war is a very interesting outlook. He said that the war went on much too long and that everyone lost. “It’s too late – all my friends are gone – it’s too late. It’s no good having an Armistice now”. (Last Man Standing p191)