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Frenchman In Khaki: Frenchman In Khaki
This outstanding memoir, introduced by Winston Churchill, who describes it as a vivid book, provides a very close view of the fighting on the Western Front as seen with French eyes from the English Staff. In the words of Sir William Robertson Maze became an “institution”, in fact he was unique and his story is a terrific one, undoubtedly one of the best of all personal accounts of the fighting. It begins with his watching the BEF disembarking at Havre in August 1914 and among the cavalry he noted a regiment with grey horses. He decided to join up with them as interpreter and get to the war with them. He was taken on with the Royal Scots Greys and was with them at Mons and through the retreat. At one point he got lost in 2nd Division’s area and was taken off to be shot as a spy. Fortunately an officer of the Greys saw and recognized him otherwise his war would have come to an abrupt end. From the Greys he was taken on by Gough, then commanding 2nd Cavalry Division, and he followed him to Corps and Army, and when Gough was relieved of command in 1918 he went to Rawlinson. He served them all as a combination of scout, liaison officer and interpreter. His courage and self-devotion were selfless. Year after year, in battle after battle he was always in the thick of it bringing back trustworthy, lucid and increasingly experienced information. He gained the complete confidence of the highest commanders and could walk straight in to the presence of the Army commander to make his report. He was wounded four times and awarded the DCM, MM and Bar. A truly remarkable man with a truly remarkable story.
386 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
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August 16, 2020
"A Frenchman in Khaki" is the memoir of Paul Maze, an Anglo-French painter from Normandy who fought in the British Army on the Western Front in World War I. He signed up just as the war began in September 1914 and fought until he was shot in the hand a few months before the Armistice.
His language skills (he was fluent in English, French, and German) made him a valuable asset to the British. He spent the war acting mostly as a translator and aide to several British Generals in the Fourth Army and was sent on many different missions, some of which nearly got him killed. He would do front-line reconnaissance, deliver messages to other French and British generals, act as an intermediary with French civilians, and even help interrogate German prisoners.
At one point in the autumn of 1914, he was separated from his unit and arrested by a British patrol who thought he was a spy. I won't reveal the details, but he narrowly escaped being shot.
Interestingly, during the war Maze met and became friends with a young Winston Churchill, who also wrote the preface to "A Frenchman in Khaki."
Since he was born and raised in France but of English ancestry, he had a foot in both cultures which gave him a unique perspective. Maze also had an excellent memory and describes what he saw in the war with great detail. He was often billeted with other officers in French civilian homes and tells interesting and charming stories of his interactions with them. His experience in dealing with many different units from France, Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States and his descriptions of them is also fascinating.
The society and people he describes had so much more personality, strength of character, education, and chivalry than the globalized, homogenized masses of the twenty-first century. Like his friend Winston Churchill, Maze was a gentleman and gave importance to the behavior and decorum befitting of a man of his class. When he is describing his fellow officers and men, it's almost like he is describing a different species of humanity. It is so tragic that the First World War did much to destroy that society and usher in the bland, globalized, effeminate, money-oriented modern era that we live in today.
At times Maze can go on and on about certain military details that might seem boring to the reader. His memoirs were not written in the same sensationalist style like war books today, but some readers may find them a bit long and monotonous.
"A Frenchman in Khaki" is an excellent Great War memoir that deserves a place on the shelf of anyone interested in that era.
His language skills (he was fluent in English, French, and German) made him a valuable asset to the British. He spent the war acting mostly as a translator and aide to several British Generals in the Fourth Army and was sent on many different missions, some of which nearly got him killed. He would do front-line reconnaissance, deliver messages to other French and British generals, act as an intermediary with French civilians, and even help interrogate German prisoners.
At one point in the autumn of 1914, he was separated from his unit and arrested by a British patrol who thought he was a spy. I won't reveal the details, but he narrowly escaped being shot.
Interestingly, during the war Maze met and became friends with a young Winston Churchill, who also wrote the preface to "A Frenchman in Khaki."
Since he was born and raised in France but of English ancestry, he had a foot in both cultures which gave him a unique perspective. Maze also had an excellent memory and describes what he saw in the war with great detail. He was often billeted with other officers in French civilian homes and tells interesting and charming stories of his interactions with them. His experience in dealing with many different units from France, Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States and his descriptions of them is also fascinating.
The society and people he describes had so much more personality, strength of character, education, and chivalry than the globalized, homogenized masses of the twenty-first century. Like his friend Winston Churchill, Maze was a gentleman and gave importance to the behavior and decorum befitting of a man of his class. When he is describing his fellow officers and men, it's almost like he is describing a different species of humanity. It is so tragic that the First World War did much to destroy that society and usher in the bland, globalized, effeminate, money-oriented modern era that we live in today.
At times Maze can go on and on about certain military details that might seem boring to the reader. His memoirs were not written in the same sensationalist style like war books today, but some readers may find them a bit long and monotonous.
"A Frenchman in Khaki" is an excellent Great War memoir that deserves a place on the shelf of anyone interested in that era.
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