The document is a primary source from the diary of Billy Congreve, a British soldier who fought from 1914 to 1916. It describes a poor burial conducted behind trenches during World War I, where soldiers buried their dead with only an overcoat to cover the face. Due to the risk of stray bullets, graves were dug only a few yards from the trenches. The source provides a firsthand account of the difficult conditions soldiers faced and poor treatment of the dead during early stages of the war. However, as a primary source from the time of the event, it may exaggerate some details and lacks complete objectivity.

1. Source Analysis sample (adapted from an analysis written by Cata P. in level 4A)
We buried them behind the trench. One gets very callous I find. It was a poor sort of
funeral, no service, nothing; just an old greatcoat over the face … Naturally one
wishes to bury the body as far back from the trench as possible, but one doesn’t much
like leaving the shelter of the parapet, because of the risk of a stray bullet, so the
graves are dug just about two yards behind the trench.
From the diary of Billy Congreve. He kept his personal diary from 1914 until he was killed in 1916.
It is a primary source because it was written between 1914 and 1916, which is
the time we are studying now. It was written by a soldier while they were at war
on December 17th, 1914. At that time, the war had just begun and when the
soldier produced the source, he was at a burial, where the soldiers did not have
a proper burial, not an honorable burial, or not the burial they deserved for
being so brave. The purpose of this source is to demonstrate how poor the
burials were and how dishonored soldiers died: “no service, nothing; just an old
greatcoat over the face”. The author wanted to show what burials at those times
were like and how they affected their way of living. Because there was “risk of a
stray bullet” if bodies were taken far away, they were buried close to the
trenches, so the smell was terrible and rats came as a plague. This source is
part of a soldier’s diary. At that time, soldiers kept diaries and also wrote letter
to their families, although sometimes these letters were censored. This source
is valuable because it is a firsthand account and the historians can understand
a lot and get into the soldiers’ shoes. We see that they when they were at war
they could be killed at any moment, they were ill and lived in the worst
conditions, the smell was also terrible. Its limitations are that as it is a primary
source it is rather subjective and as the soldier was living the situation at the
moment and he did not know what was going to happen later, or if the soldiers
would be respected and honored in the future, he could have exaggerated
things, so it seems that things where much more terrible than they probably
were. If it was a secondary source, it could be more reliable because the war
would have already finished, so we know that enemies were not all the time
waiting behind the trenches for soldiers to leave their protection, but we also
know that as they were shot often, so risk was present anyway.