Excerpts from the Introduction. FIGHTING in France is a very different matter to-day than it was when I went there with General Sir John French's First British Expeditionary Force, in August, 1914. Compared with the Germans, we knew but little of the machinery and organisation of modern warfare. In those days we fought against all sort of odds....Trench bombs and trench mortars, hand and rifle grenades, fresh intricacies of barbed wire, fine night lights, which fortunately illuminated the darkness for us as well as for ...
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Excerpts from the Introduction. FIGHTING in France is a very different matter to-day than it was when I went there with General Sir John French's First British Expeditionary Force, in August, 1914. Compared with the Germans, we knew but little of the machinery and organisation of modern warfare. In those days we fought against all sort of odds....Trench bombs and trench mortars, hand and rifle grenades, fresh intricacies of barbed wire, fine night lights, which fortunately illuminated the darkness for us as well as for the enemy, sniping brought to an exact science, gas and gas shells, trench and dugout construction on a business-like basis, and innumerable other attributes of trench fighting were practised by the Boches first, to be taken up, well learned, then gradually improved upon by us in turn. The French helped us in some ways. Their gunners were worth their weight in rubies to our gallant artillerymen. But most of our lessons came straight from Brother Boche. We paid for them. Like most lessons for which a high price is paid, they were well learned. "The only way they will learn is by their own experience" is a hackneyed phrase long since grown familiar when one is discussing new arrivals at the front. But words of advice may be spoken to good effect, nevertheless. I can remember with heartfelt gratitude more than one straight tip that saved me from undue exposure to danger and unnecessary hardship. "The cross-roads in a village in this part of the world," said my General to me one day in October, 1914, when our division was holding the Messines line, "is a good place to avoid when possible. Crossed pave roadways send shell-splinters whirring in all directions. The enemy may chuck shells on such points at any time, at random, on the chance of causing us inconvenience." That seemed reasonable. I arranged my halts so that the crossroads were at a respectful distance. A couple of days later a new division, fresh from England, came through Neuve Eglise, a Flemish town some miles back from the firing line. A halt was made. The men strolled curiously about the village cross-roads for half an hour. Smash! Bang! came a shell. Crash! came another. Just two. Two odd ones, apparently. No special reason could be assigned for their coming. Just two shells at random, striking the junction of two roads for general effect. But those two shells caught the new lot, halted at the cross-roads, and killed twenty-two of them and wounded as many more. Had the officer in charge of that company been given the warning my General had given me I doubt if he would have failed to have passed it on to his men, and thereby a handful of lives might have been saved. The little obvious things, however, sometimes escape the telling....
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Add this copy of Our Boys Over There: to the Young American in Khaki to cart. $57.00, very good condition, Sold by Between the Covers-Rare Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester City, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1918 by George H. Doran Company.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. First edition. 103pp. Decorative tan paper boards stamped in red and black. Ex-New York Mercantile Library copy with usual library markings, light wear, very good. Stories and notes from soldiers in France during WWI.
