Product Description

In July 1917, a young man in the 12th East Surrey Regiment kept a journal of his experiences at the front. This poignant and moving account, which has never before been published, is narrated with a keen sense of observation, bringing to life the sights, sounds, smells, and horrors of war. The anonymous author candidly describes his daily life, dodging shells to fetch meals from the rations cart; his regiment lost on a march, straying perilously near enemy lines; the selfishness of his commanding officer; the daily distribution of rum; the soar of shells ('whiz bangs') above his head, communicating by sign with a captured German soldier living in his trench; catching sleep in snatches 10 or fifteen minutes; and always, the endless mud. He begins understatedly, 'the first night passed uneventfully, except that we were shelled,' describing his journey to the front. It was nothing unusual to come across a dead horse sometimes two with great holes in their sides caused by shells, and now and then a dead comrade would be lying waiting for burial. Amid the horrors of war, there is humour, for example, in his pithy description of breakfast, 'bread and jam and mud but no drink,' or in the account of the menacing shapes which advance slowly one foggy evening over a period of several hours. 'In the morning we discovered that a good many of these Germans were nothing more than a few short willow shrubs waving about in the breeze. We had a good laugh.' Gradually, he describes how one by one, his fellow soldiers in his beloved 12th East Surreys fall until he is left with just three of his mates. Trapped in a hole in the ground, he sees an enemy soldier lob a grenade at him and turns face down in the mud to receive the blow, 'this I thought is the end, so far as I am concerned.' Landing on his back, the grenade failed to explode. The narrative ends abruptly, as he is taken prisoner by the Enemy. This brief, highly personal and compelling account of one soldier's experience, with a short introduction, will appeal to anyone with interest in the human condition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21807 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 64 pages

Customer Reviews

Interesting
We sometimes forget the sheer size of the world wars, especially as todays conflicts are viewed from the comfort of our back rooms via a satellite link-up. They didn't just devour the volunteer soldier, but ate into all catagories of people, rich, poor, educated, all faced the same grim reality. Here we see, if only briefly the workings, of what appears to be an educated mind, bogged down in the dirt and mud of warfare. A typically British outlook that at times can cause you to smile inwardly. Not only an interesting snap shot, but a good book for the GCSE pupil who wants to obtain 1st hand information. The book / diary is only short and due to its free flowing narrative style, can easily be read in one sitting. At first glance some may feel dissapointed at the few pages to found between the covers, but again, what else can we really expect; most soldiers did only serve for a relatively short period befor either being killed or injured, another matter that we today can tend to loose sight of.