Quote:
Originally Posted by Errigal
I read recently that doctor's have found evidence of severe physical damage done to the brains of people who were near explosions but survived without serious external injury. The nearby bomb blasts left people with neurological disorders similar to boxers who have had their brain hit against the inside of their skulls repeatedly from punches. It had a strong effect on the patient's personality, making them quick to anger and finding too much noise intolerable. I would not be surprised if hundreds of thousands of veterans of the trenches suffered fom such brain injuries from the repeated nearby explosions.
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My garndfather wasn't under severe combat conditions, while my grand grandfather was, so it was for many granduncles and their friends.
Now, they were fine people, the only reported disease was a sudden awakening in the middle of the night, most often screaming and sweating: "all assalto" or "kill him, kill him", they were reviving bayonet attacks, it seems, possibly the worst ones.
But in their social life they were just as normal as before, even if many of such veterans ever refused to talk of their war experience while being normally warm and talkative.
Actually some infos I have were from my father's perusing pocket diaries, written often in an uncertain italianized venetian.
My grand-grandfather, the one buried and rescued by an hair, spent a normal life as a respected professional, in his last days he was meditating and praying like a monk while being a respected family chief.
He rarely had anger fit and his strong catholic morale kept him from being rude.
Only my grandfather could easily fall prey of rage, but he had had a very sad youth well before going into war, where he almost immediately managed to be transferred into a second line unit : he never saw extensively the action his brothers would see an dsufefr for much time.
My other grandfather's brother died on the Carso plains, one of the worst fighting situation, pretty similar to Verdun in its worst moments.