ht him the most success.
While serving in the trenches of the Western Front, Bairnsfather made the acquaintance of other military personnel who would also engage in artistic careers after the War, like Lieutenant A. A. Milne, creator of the eternally popular Winnie the Pooh series of characters and stories. World War I represented new strategies of warfare, from trench fighting to the use of poison gas. Bairnsfather was placed in charge of the Maxim Machine-Gun section, where he was so appalled and shocked by the horrors of existence in the trenches that, according to historians, he ôrefused to take leave, fearing that once he left, he would find it too difficult to returnö (Bruce, p. 1).
In an era before media images of the experiences of common soldiers were common, few realized the horrors and atrocities which soldiers in the trenches were subjected to. Bairnsfather knew of these horrors and miseries firsthand. It was while serving in the ômud and miseryö of the trenches, Holt and Holt[2] (p. 1) maintain, that Ba
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