Product Description

A vivid and powerful diary of life in the trenches The horrors of war in the trenches are brought to life with a rare immediacy and power through the diary of soldier and artist Len Smith. Enduring battles such as those at Loos and Vimy Ridge, Len survives with a mixture of whimsical humour, bravery and sheer good luck. Len enlisted as an infantryman in the City of London Regiment on his 23rd birthday, 22 September 1914. During the war years he kept a journal on scraps of paper which he hid in his trousers to smuggle home at the end of the war. At the same time, he added to his thoughts with colour sketches of the people and places he encountered. His drawing skills were also put to good use to gather and record intelligence on German army positions which he did under great personal risk; they were later used to help plan military strategy. One of his many ingenious contributions to the war was to camouflage a watch tower in no man's land as a living tree. He had crept within yards of an enemy headquarters and drawn a tree so accurately that a hollow steel replica could be created. In the dead of night the real tree was removed and the fake one put in its place, with the enemy none the wiser. He also spent four days avoiding enemy fire to produce a two-yard long panoramic view of enemy troop lines at Vimy Ridge. Len, who was never honoured for his actions during the war, was extremely humble about his adventures - after delivering a message through heavy fire a General remarked that his efforts were worthy of a VC. With characteristic good humour Len writes, "I'd like to have assured him in that ordeal a WC would have been more appropriate." The diary as a whole creates a tremendous sense of being at his side during his extraordinary experiences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4055 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Review
"I wish I could have met him - a sniper's rifle in one hand and an artist's brush in the other." Christy Campbell

About the Author
Len Smith fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the First World War - at Loos and Vimy Ridge - before being drafted as an observer. After a severe bout of trench fever he was transferred to the Royal Engineers Special Branch where he worked on various camouflage devices. After the war he worked as a commercial artist, and died aged 83 in 1974. His nephew, David Mason, re-discovered the diary amongst family papers.

Customer Reviews

THE definitive WW1 eyewitness account
This has to be the best WW1 diary in print at the moment, it has the appearance of a book written long ago (which it obviously was) complete with sketches and paintings of battlefield positions, enemy lines, photographs, newspaper clippings and various documents complete with authentic yellowing pages, Len Smith was probably one of the germans dangerous enemies without each other realising it at the time, previously only available as an eBook, Lens great-nephew David Mason and publishers HarperCollins have bowed to public requests for it to be released in hardback, they won't regret the decision, it could only have been bettered by keeping lens handwriting throughout the book which is why I have only given 4 stars instead of 5 but to be fair they have kept quite a few pages with his handwriting on plus the font replacement text sticks faithfully to lens punctuation and spelling and layout throughout the book so its not such a major issue. This volume has the added bonus of about half of Lens wartime letters added to the back of this volume. The release of this book in hardback is all the more poignant in the 95th anniversary year of the outbreak of WW1 and when we only recently lost this country's last two remaining survivors Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, i'm sure all concerned with this book would agree that it is unofficially dedicated to them, not to mention the memory of Len Smith himself

excellant book
What a book, when I started reading it I couldn't put it down, seemed to draw me into it. It gives an insight into life at that time, what happened, what conditions they had to endure,how fit they must have been,a very good book if you are interested in WW1, or had family serving in the trenches. if the youth of today had to endure this they would not have a clue how to!

Unique and moving account
This book is quite unique in that it is partly in diary format and has drawings made at the time. I have read many accounts of WW1 and this stands out as one of the very best. The quality of the reproduction and the overall design and presentation is first class.