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Ataxerxes posted:Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 The notebooks of a very lucky and very angry French soldier who survived WW1. I have heard many, many recommendations of this. This book is excellent and a rare translation of the French perspective and experience of the First World War into English. The French experience of the war is a huge blind spot of the English language historiography of that conflict. If you like first person accounts from the FWW I would recommend: "There's a Devil in the Drum" by J.F Lucy Lucy was in an Irish regiment which went into action at Mons in 1914, and he fought until 1917 ultimately surviving the war. "In The Trenches 1914-1918" by Glenn R. Iriam Iriam was a sniper in the CEF and fought throughout the war. The writing in the book is crude but the experiences related in it are vivid. "A Rifleman Went to War" by Herbert W. McBride McBride was an American who volunteered with the CEF on the war's outbreak. He also ended up becoming a sniper, and returned to the US to train soldiers on the entry of America in the war. "Storm of Steel" has already been mentioned, but I would like to recommend Erich Maria Remarque's "The Road Back" as it deals with a group of German soldiers who return home from the trenches at the end of the war and their experiences attempting to transition back into civilian life. I feel like there are many parts of this book which would ring true with vets today. The book is fiction but Remarque was a German veteran who had served at the front. For Second World War first person accounts, my go to is "Daedelus Returned" by Baron von der Heydte von der Heydte was a German Fallschirmjäger officer who fought through the war. This book mainly deals with his experiences during the operation in Crete. He was also a literature professor so the writing is excellent and he works in some of the island's mythology into his narrative.
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Jan 15, 2022 03:46
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 23:47 |
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