Many similar stories followed, among them that of 16-year-old Herbert Burden, who had lied that he was two years older so he could join the Northumberland Fusiliers. Just 35 days into the war, Private Highgate was executed at the age of 17. He was undefended at his trial because all his comrades from the Royal West Kents had been killed, injured or captured. Unable to bear the carnage of 7,800 British troops at the Battle of Mons, he had fled and hidden in a barn. Private Thomas Highgate was the first to suffer such military justice. But those who shirked their responsibility soon learned there was no way out of the horror - if they ran from German guns, they would be shot by British ones.
On some occasions whole battalions were wiped out, leaving just a handful of confused, terrified men. Day after day they would witness the annihilation of their friends, never knowing if or when they would be next. Most of the three million British troops soon knew they faced almost certain death on the battlefield. British troops witnessed the annihilation of their friends on a daily basis
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