Three of them lying on a beach, the nearest one half engulfed in sand, the bow of a sunken troop carrier jutting out of the water nearby.
The day was beautiful. Perhaps it was a good day to die for the right reasons.
A snapshot of Cambodia, 1973
“To dig stone out of the ground and build a house is the sin of the city dweller,” her father taught. “Such permanence leads to nothing but problems. First the ...
In a response to Alan Gillespie’s recent article for Litro on the impact of video games on teenagers’ creative writing, gamer and writer Jordan Erica Webber argues that we should ...
The Things They Carried is, essentially, a collection of related war stories. But it also redefines what a war story truly is: not a traditional hero narrative of courage, but ...
Life seemed so much simpler to Gavrilovich Gikalov during his youth. The Soviet regime was liberating the third world against the tyrannical US and her oppressive allies, as the radio ...
A major in a military regime in Sierra Leone faces a moral dilemma
when the daughter of his beloved teacher commits treason.
Read by Terence Anderson:
[audio:terenceanderson-thedepressingcommand.mp3|titles=The Depressing ...
Cover image is September und Schweigen, Oktober, 2006, 66 x 103cm watercolour on paper. Part of the 2011 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Courtesy of Galerie ...
A professor of 20th-century American history who fought in Vietnam intends to write a book about his experiences. When he finds he is unable to express his feelings, however, a ...
When Sofia and her granddad passed through the archway and into the square, everything was still under one big shadow. Her hand felt hot inside her granddad’s and he was ...
A soldier lies dying on the road when the enemy comes over for a souvenir.
For the first six days Hassan couldn’t leave the house he shared with his mother, father and two younger sisters, Haja and Farrah. As explosions juddered the floor and the ...
Because you expect me to speak about it, too, I suppose. Because if I have the medal, then there must be the stories to tell too, right? The stories; come ...
Louie Stowell has been drawing cartoons and other illustrations for Litro for a year or so. Her drawings have appeared in other off and online magazines and an annual charity ...
Lavishly camouflaged and armed with broken branches and sticks, customised until they resembled the latest in 1970s mercenary hardware, and with Army/Navy store cast-off berets and cap badges and a ...
One less friend to call on. I turned the shovel and tamped the earth over the grave. ‘Was it someone that I knew?’ Stearns had come up behind me with ...
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I don’t know how long I was awake in the night. I was lying on my bed wrapped in the darkness which was all over the country since the outbreak ...
# 56 – Glasses When the war comes, there won’t be any glasses. Eye glasses, I mean, not the kind you drink from, although those will probably be in short ...