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Thank you. It's April 1917 in the city of Minsk in the Russian Empire.

21-year-old German corporal Ricard Zorga huddles in a trench as Russian artillery fire shakes the earth around him.

Gripping a pencil tightly in his hands, he presses his back against the wall of the trench

and tries to focus his attention on the letter he's writing to his family back home.

It's two and a half years since the outbreak of World War I.

When fighting began, Ricard volunteered for the German army almost immediately.

He saw action on the Western Front before being transferred to the east.

And right now, Ricard's battalion is part of a vast offensive against the Russians

who are putting up fierce resistance to the German advance.

Ricard looks up from his letter as the telltale sound of a falling shell

whistles through the sky above. He has just enough time to throw his arms in front of his face.

The blast blows Ricard out of the trench. His mud and soil rained down on him. He tries to lift his head

and instantly wishes he hadn't.

Pain floods through his body.

His uniform is ripped to shreds and his legs are covered in blood.

Ricard's vision begins to blur, and the last thing he sees before he blacks out is a stretcher-bearer, rushing to his aid.

Ricard's Sorga will lose three fingers in this explosion,

and the shrapnel damage to his legs will leave him with a permanent limp.

...