Things We Want to Know

Abstract

The importance of the trench newspapers as mediators of the zones of war and as an outlet of the oral culture of the trench is well exemplified in their roles as rumour sheets and grassroots chroniclers of the conflict. Contemporaneous evidence for oral cultures is difficult to obtain except by direct or tangential documentary references and allusions. Even where such evidence can be obtained, it is often difficult to contextualise it adequately within social groupings and circumstances that have long disintegrated and faded into ‘history.’ In the case of the Great War soldiers’ experiences, the trench press provides almost unparalleled evidence of the oral culture of that time and place. Gossip, rumour and the circumstances in which they originated and evolved are conveniently provided in dated and located evidence produced by, for and about those to whom such communications were vital. Those things that the trench soldiers desperately wanted to know reveal a great deal about their concerns, attitudes and dreams.

I like your paper, but why print on it?

‘Private Trots’ responds to the first issue of Beach Rumours, January 1916