Soldiers on both sides periodically deserted by creeping across No Man’s Land, though it was always risky business. Gerald Burgoyne was shocked to report that:
A young German, 18 to 19 years of age came across to the Wilts line the other day to give himself up. He asked for bread and wanted to give himself up. The men let him come within 20 yards and then riddled him with bullets. I call this nothing less than murder.
Source:
Holmes, Richard. "Heart and Soul." Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 345-46. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Burgoyne Diaries p. 76.
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