Over the Top A ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’

Welcome to the Trenches It is 1917 and the United States has just entered World War One. Do you have what it takes to survive your first day on the Western Front?

Stand To! Dawn breaks and your platoon commander sticks his head in your dugout—the shelter dug into the side of the trench used as bunks and storage—and tells you to go outside for stand to. ‘Stand To’ was the daily exercise of standing on the parapet and watching the German lines in case they went ‘over the top’ and attacked!

Orders Having stood at stand to for an hour with nothing happening, you are told to stand down. A burly sergeant walks up to you and your company. “I need volunteers to either be a part of a work detail or to fetch communications wire from the rear.” Work DetailCommunication Wire

Killed In Action You have been killed in the line of duty. Several months later your family receives a letter from your commander informing them of your death, and where you are buried.

Work Detail While working at filling bags with dirt to raise the level of your trench, providing you additional protection, you notice a tin of food just outside of your reach. Do you: Reach out of the trench and grab it Leave it where it lies

Reach and Grab it You reach out for the tin, but it is just beyond your grasp. You decide you will climb out of the trench to reach it. Just as your head pops above the parapet, a shot rings out and you feel a sharp pain….sharp pain….

Leave the Tin You decide that the tin of food, while valuable, is in a position where it would be too dangerous to get. Many a man has fell victim to sniper fire venturing out of the trenches. Continue Working

Gather Communication Wire You head towards the rear with a detail of men to gather communication wire, vital for sending orders back and forth from the rear lines to the front. Continue

Artillery!!!! As you are walking a massive explosion goes off. Artillery is raining down on you from all sides. A shell could land anywhere! Do you: Stay where you areRun for your dugout

Stay where you are You drop to the ground and curl into a ball. Shells land all around you, pinning you down. It is only a matter of time…matter of time…

Run for your Dugout You sprint back towards your dug out. Shells are landing all over, showering you in dirt and mud. You dive headlong into your dugout, where you feel a relative bit of safety. The shelling goes on for several more hours. When it finally subsides, you hear a whistle for Stand To.

Stand To, part two As you stand on your parapet with your rifle aimed at the German Trench, a loud whistle followed by a short pop is heard. A greenish gas starts to drift towards your trench. The order is given to put on your gas mask. To your horror, you see that the lenses on your mask are cracked and if you put them on, you will not be able to see. Discard the MaskPut on the Mask

Discard the Mask You decide to discard the mask, as if a German attack comes, you need to see them to fire your weapon. As the gas reaches your trench, you begin coughing and wheezing as the gas slowly fills your lungs… fills your lungs…

Put on the Mask You decide you would rather be temporarily blind than suffer the effects of a German gas attack. You can barely see out of your mask, but you can tell that your trench is filled with a green gas, surrounding you and your comrades. Eventually the gas subsides and the order is given to take your masks off.

New Orders Shortly after surviving the gas attack, your sergeant appears and tells you that you and two other men are on sentry duty tonight. He dismisses you and you spend the next few hours in your dugout getting what sleep you can, for you won’t be able to sleep tonight. Head to the line.

Sentry Duty When you arrive, you are instructed that a patrol was sent out earlier. They will use a password—’Red Leather’ to gain access back to the trench. You spend the first hour staring into the darkness with nothing occurring. As you scan from one side of the line to the other, you notice some movement. Tell the SergeantTell the Sergeant Fire your rifle Ignore itFire your rifleIgnore it

Tell your Sergeant You tell one of the other men with you to run and get the Sergeant. After a few minutes he returns with the Sergeant and several other men, armed with rifles and grenades. The Sergeant fires a flare into the air, illuminating No Man’s Land. Looking at the spot where you saw the movement, you see a piece of metal, stuck on a branch, blowing in the wind. Continue

Fire your Rifle Taking careful aim, you fire your rifle at the source of the movement. A loud metallic clang rings out as you hit your target, a shell fragment that was caught on a branch, blowing in the wind. Continue

Ignore it You decide that you will not report it, unless something more happens in that sector. You continue to watch the darkness. Another hour or so passes into the night, interrupted only by random rifle shots from various parts of the line. Continue

Still on Sentry Continuing your sentry duty, you peer out into the inky blackness. An hour has passed since you last had anything to report when a voice from No Man’s Land calls out. “Help. We are hurt. We are needings help.” Exit the trench to helpFire your Rifle

Exit the Trench As you exit the trench to help what you think are injured American soldiers, a man stands up and quickly levels his rifle at you. Realizing the trap, you run back towards your trench, but it is too late. A shot rings out…A shot rings out…

Fire at the Voice “Needings help” you say to yourself. No one talks like that, and if they do, they certainly aren’t American! You raise your rifle and take careful aim in the direction the voice came from. You fire, and your target slumps into the crater it was sitting in. Another man runs out of the crater towards the German Lines. Continue

Still on Sentry Another two hours pass before you see another sign of movement. There are four men walking and crawling towards the trench. You challenge them with the password, and they respond ‘Red Leather’. It is the patrol on return. Just as they are about to reach the trench an Artillery barrage begins, pinning them down. Rush out and helpStay in the Trench

Rush to Help You run out of the trench and sprint towards the pinned down soldiers. As you reach them, you realize that it is too late. All four are dead. The only live soul left is you. You begin to run back towards the safety of your trench, when a massive explosion erupts….massive explosion erupts….

Stay in the Trench You decide that it is too risky to try and help the soldiers there. You watch and pray as shells narrowly miss their position. When the artillery fire abates, you see two soldiers emerge and race for the trenches. They were the lucky ones. Another hour passes and dawn is approaching. Your sergeant appears and tells you that you are relieved. Exhausted, you make your way back to your dugout.

Congratulations! You have survived your first day on the Western Front! Consider yourself fortunate, for many soldiers were killed or horribly wounded during World War I. The fighting was so brutal and so destructive that this war was known as “The War to End all Wars.” Having survived, what strategies did you use to make sure you survived? What mistakes did those who did not survive make?