Description
Book SynopsisA superbly written personal account of fighting years on the Western Front.
Trade Review“A lucid and vivid account of one man’s experiences – but what terrible experiences, and what a remarkable man.” -- Alan Johnson MP
“Factual books providing this excellent basement level view of World War I are rare. Young... provides a meticulous, almost dispassionate record of day-to-day life and death during those terrible years. He leaves it to the reader to imagine the destructive impact such hardship and grief has upon the human soul, both at the time it is happening and in the years after the conflict has ended.” -- Dale le Vack, author of Stretcher Bearer!
“A Post Office sorter, a quiet, careful man, finds himself fighting for his country in France. He records his war story step-by-step in the penetratingly clear language of an able man.” -- Professor G. R. Evans, author of Edward Hicks: Pacifist Bishop at War
“A gripping, compelling memoir of a good man in extraordinary times.” -- Duncan Barrett, author of Men of Letters
Table of ContentsContents
Foreword by Alan Johnson MP 7
Introduction Walter Edward Young (1889–1957) 12
Chapter 1 March 1915: To France 24
Chapter 2 May 1915: Battle of Festubert 34
Chapter 3 September 1915: Battle of Loos 77
Chapter 4 March 1916: Vimy Ridge 114
Chapter 5 April 1916: “Time-Expired” 118
Chapter 6 March 1917: Back to France 130
Chapter 7 May 1917: Bullecourt Village 135
Chapter 8 June 1917: Hindenburg Line 146
Chapter 9 September 1917: Ypres 156
Chapter 10 Mid-September–November 1917: 164
Hospital and Light Duties
Chapter 11 November 1917: Back to the Ypres Canal 169
Chapter 12 December 1917: Poelcapelle 177
Chapter 13 February 1918: Barisis 189
Chapter 14 March 1918: Battle of Crozat Canal 195
Chapter 15 March 23rd 1918: Prisoner of War 208
Chapter 16 March–June 1918: Missing 213
Chapter 17 May–July 1918: “Zwei und Zwanzig” 224
(“Twenty-two”)
Chapter 18 July 1918: Czech–Prussian II Coal Mine 236
Chapter 19 Sheep without a Shepherd 251
Chapter 20 Post-War 262
Glossary 270
