Der Soldat an der Westfront – Militärpsychiatrie
Quelle 2: Augenzeugenbericht des britischen Corporal Henry Gregory

Kriegszitterer fanden sich nicht nur in Deutschland, sondern in allen am Krieg beteiligten Staaten. Der britische Corporal Henry Gregory berichtet als Augenzeuge über die Symptome eines Kameraden im Feldlazarett:

“It was while I was in the Field Hospital that I saw the first case of shell-shock. The enemy opened fire about dinner time, as usual, with his big guns. As soon as the first shell came over, the shell-shock case nearly went mad. He screamed and raved, and it took eight man to hold him down on the stretcher. With every shell he would go into a fit of screaming and fight to get away. It is heartbreaking to watch a shell-shock case. The terror is indiscredible. The flesh on their faces shakes in fear, and their tooth continually chatter. Shell-shock was brought about in many ways; loss of sleep, continually being under heavy shell fire, the torment of the lice, irregular meals, nerves always on end, and the thought always in the man's mind that the next minute was going to be his last.“

Henry Gregory, zit. n.: Wolfgang U. Eckert: Medizin und Krieg. Deutschland 1914-1924, Paderborn 2014, S. 146.