Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1165443 in Books
• Published on: 1989-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Customer Reviews

Some Desperate Glory
Edwin Campion Vaughan, a 19 year old novice joins the war 'trained' for the often deadly position of Oficer. At first he is naively excited, in blissful ignorance of the horrors to come. On his arrival in France, Vaughan is almost dissappointed not to be met with wire entanglements, shell bursts and trenches. His sense of army discipline receives a severe shock as he watches men lounge around smoking cigarettes. In his youth, Vaughan in incredulous - the battalion was supposed to be 'the last word in fighting effciency' and does not seem to live up to his expectations. At first, he wonders why others do not share his enthusiasm for the war, not realising that many of the men had been fighting for months and some even years. However, within a few days his attitude changes and he longs for the war to be over before his turn in the trenches.
Vaughan likes and respects the men placed under his charge, although at first he cannot relate to them well. The desolation felt by soldiers contrasts sharply with Vaughan's boyish nature. His youthful exuberance was unleashed onto physically and mentally drained men, so it is understandable that he was not always thought of kindly. It is through numerous 'ticking offs' that he receieves from other ranking officers (often infront of his troops) that builds the rapport that Vaughan later had with his men. Perhaps because of his youth, the troops saw a vulnerable and human warmth to an officer's personality that was often concealed from them by higher ranks.
I was struck by the banality of life of an army in action. Vaughan describes frustrating and monotonous tasks, such as moving troops to a destination only to be sent back again and many futile errands performed in intense cold, rain and endless swamps of mud. In the trenches men lived like animals and waited for the next round of slaughter. The sense of intimacy is striking. The men eat, sleep wash and fight together under a blanket of fear and hope. Vaughan is reduced to tears after a drunken quarrel showing the intense nature of friendships. The quarrel leaves Vaughan heartbroken, poignantly showing how the only real comfor men had came from each other. their lives depended on each other, not just in the chaos of battle but during the endless cold nights, months of bad food and the loneliness caused by being far from home. The men needed each other for both their immediate and ongoing, physical and mental survival.
Any associations between war and glory are torn apart in Vaughan's diary. He describes ridiculous falsities such as his desperately tired troops having to march 'in fine style' past a General, only to collapse with exhaustion around the corner. The sleeping quarters are shared with rats and lice, days spent in threnched knee deep in water and explosions that sent him 'grovelling in the mud'. He can hardly bear to look at the twisted corpses, suspended where they fell in ludicrous, animated poses over barbed wire.
It is surprising how casually Vaughan sometimes describes the horror he witnesses and he rarely mentions being afraid. As an officer he must have had a heavy repsonsibility to stay outwardly brave for the sake of the troops under his command. Fear spreads like infection. I was struck by the importance of humour in such a terrible situation. there is much laughter in the diary, whether through fear, relief or simple prankishness.
Vaughan drinks more whiskey as the war continues. he describes other officers as being 'very tight' on most occasions. The tone of the diary changes and disallusionment sets in after he experiences the massacre of Passchendale. Listen to men dying, their cries fading as the water level rises in the shell holes, Vaughan can see nothing but a 'black future'.
With war comes carnage. reading a first hand account such as Vaughan's diary can only provide a sense of the reality, of the horror. It gives the reader a taste of hell that can only be hinted at, a world where human pain, suffering and violent death become a way of life. How can Vaughan possibly convey what it feels like to stand on rotting corpses, reel from the stench bloated animals or to have your friend killed next to you whilst you were having a conversation? It is Vaughan's personality that keeps the hope alive in his diary. He has warmth for others including the enemy. His recognition of the mutual respect between opposing forces and the small mercies given by both sides as they try to destroy each other, along with the support of friends and the comfort of the whiskey bottle are the only things that get him through the horror and keep his faith in humanity.