Who said there are no atheists in the trenches?

The expression "There are no atheists in trenches. (foxholes in America)" is a phrase that means that when scared enough everyone will scurry off to beg a god for protection. This saying is used by the religious to dismiss the conviction of atheists to their position that there is no god and dead is dead. The theists feel everyone shares their dread of the "hereafter" part of death.

No one has ever asked atheists who went into the trenches of they ever made an instant conversion to theism when the going got tough. (Not counting the occasional "Jesus! That was close!" or "Gawdamme, this food stinks!")

Similarly no one ever asked the first troops into Nazi death camps if they abandoned their faith in the obvious proof that no god protected men, women and children at those sites.

In both cases some did and some didn't, but this cannot be proved.

If the saying were true the trenches would be full of atheists, the open air, with its whizzing bullets, would be populated with Christians confident in their god's protection - not a wall of Earth.