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Combed Out
Frederick Augustus Voigt (1892-1957) was a British journalist and author of German ancestry, most famous for his work with the Manchester Guardian and his opposition to dictatorship and totalitarianism on the European Continent. In 1916 he was called up for military service in the First World War and spent nearly three years in the British Army, two of them on the Western Front. Out of this experience came his first published work, a book of memoirs of his war service based on his diaries and letters home from the front, entitled Combed Out (1920). In 1919 he joined the advertising department of the Manchester Guardian and the following year was dispatched by the editor, C. P. Scott, to act as assistant to the newspaper's Berlin Correspondent, J. G. Hamilton. He was among the first British journalists to bring attention to the threat to Germany and Europe posed by the nascent National Socialist (Nazi) movement and from 1930 he was an implacable opponent of Hitler and the Nazis.
- GenresHistory
154 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1920
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23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 8, 2014
Relates the adventures of a pacifist serving in WWI. Find your free download here --
Manybooks.net
http://manybooks.net/titles/voigtf163...
Or Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16355
Taken from my reading of Combed Out:
He was in reality quite a kind-hearted man, but he was bullied by his superiors just as we were bullied by ours. He was bullied into being a bully. And his superiors were bullied by their superiors. The army is ruled by fear--and it is this constant fear that brutalizes men not naturally brutal.
War changes men.
From the Recovery Room where a wounded German has been comforted by the thought that despite his arm being amputated, he will live, and the Orderly says that he has taken to the man because, after all, he (the German-the enemy) has a wife and children just like the Orderly (Englishman):
"Your profession of soldier, the most degrading on earth, has not degraded you. You are engaged in the most infamous and sordid war that was ever fought, and yet you have remained uncontaminated--there is no honour or decoration in all the armies of the world good enough for you."
On Leave - our young soldier has been granted a fortnight of leave. He returns to London and while dining with a family friend makes this observation:
For most people "thinking" is just the discovery of convenient phrases or labels, such as "pessimist," or "socialist," or "pacifist" or "Bolshevik." When any puzzling mental attitude comes before their notice, they pin one of their labels to it, and, having labelled it, they think they understand it. The Press supplies them with these labels, and, consciously or unconsciously, they store them up in their minds and always have a few ready for immediate use.
Wow! How astute.
7 SEP 2014 -- how does one write a review of Voigt's memoirs of his experiences as a common soldier during WWI? The horror, excitement, graphic detail, humor (yes, humor) found within this spare novel are all true. Voigt writes with openness and honesty. He writes that the politicians and war-mongers are the ones who gained the most from the lies which caused WWI to begin and proceed.
Like All Quiet On The Western Front, Combed Out is an outstanding novel and should be more widely read.
I read Combed Out as an ebook. I will be purchasing a real book version of this novel. Why, you ask? The answer is simple -- for me, the characters and events become more real if I am able to hold the book in my hands. Even if the book is closed, the act of touching and holding the book makes the characters and events come to life. I want very much to be able to hear these young men as they relay their war experiences to one another, to civilians during leave, and to me.
Manybooks.net
http://manybooks.net/titles/voigtf163...
Or Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16355
Taken from my reading of Combed Out:
He was in reality quite a kind-hearted man, but he was bullied by his superiors just as we were bullied by ours. He was bullied into being a bully. And his superiors were bullied by their superiors. The army is ruled by fear--and it is this constant fear that brutalizes men not naturally brutal.
War changes men.
From the Recovery Room where a wounded German has been comforted by the thought that despite his arm being amputated, he will live, and the Orderly says that he has taken to the man because, after all, he (the German-the enemy) has a wife and children just like the Orderly (Englishman):
"Your profession of soldier, the most degrading on earth, has not degraded you. You are engaged in the most infamous and sordid war that was ever fought, and yet you have remained uncontaminated--there is no honour or decoration in all the armies of the world good enough for you."
On Leave - our young soldier has been granted a fortnight of leave. He returns to London and while dining with a family friend makes this observation:
For most people "thinking" is just the discovery of convenient phrases or labels, such as "pessimist," or "socialist," or "pacifist" or "Bolshevik." When any puzzling mental attitude comes before their notice, they pin one of their labels to it, and, having labelled it, they think they understand it. The Press supplies them with these labels, and, consciously or unconsciously, they store them up in their minds and always have a few ready for immediate use.
Wow! How astute.
7 SEP 2014 -- how does one write a review of Voigt's memoirs of his experiences as a common soldier during WWI? The horror, excitement, graphic detail, humor (yes, humor) found within this spare novel are all true. Voigt writes with openness and honesty. He writes that the politicians and war-mongers are the ones who gained the most from the lies which caused WWI to begin and proceed.
Like All Quiet On The Western Front, Combed Out is an outstanding novel and should be more widely read.
I read Combed Out as an ebook. I will be purchasing a real book version of this novel. Why, you ask? The answer is simple -- for me, the characters and events become more real if I am able to hold the book in my hands. Even if the book is closed, the act of touching and holding the book makes the characters and events come to life. I want very much to be able to hear these young men as they relay their war experiences to one another, to civilians during leave, and to me.
Want to read
September 7, 2014Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
March 21, 2014
Wow. EXCELLENT book. If you are looking for a quick overview of 'real life on the Western Front of an ordinary soldier', this is it. And it is available to read free in its entirety at http://www.archive.org/stream/combedo....
Written by a man who would later become a journalist, Voigt, age 24-27 during his war service, wrote his memoirs. In 162 pages, he covers a lot of ground. Topics (chapter titles) include:
-Squad Drill
-Fatigue Party
-Detachment
-Casualty Clearing Station
-Walking Wounded
-Air Raid
-The German Push
-Home on Leave
-Across the Ridges
-The Armistice
I read it doing research on WW1, particularly looking for accounts of life at a Casualty Clearing Station. And though only one chapter covered that, it did not disappoint. I took a lot of notes and very much appreciated his specific, though often grizzly details: descriptions of the operating room, specific wounds, cleaning up the OR (including disposing of amputated limbs), anesthesia, shifts and more.
The entire memoir is a rich mixture of graphic, well-described images of war, and the thoughts and reactions of the author and (often) his comrades. He gives a lengthy description of an abandoned battlefield littered with corpses in various states of decay--including the remains of a man whose exposed flesh was devoured by rats, and other corpses "all covered with thick brown masses made up of the innumerable empty cases of maggot chrysalids."
He details his excitement of going home on leave, only to be disillusioned by attitudes reflected by those at home.
In one chapter "Air Raid," Voigt recalls a period during his time at the Casualty Clearing Station when they endured air raids almost nightly for several days. The sheer terror of it is illustrated through descriptions of the destruction and his comrades' reactions to it.
By the end, after 'seeing' what the author saw, the reader fully sympathizes with Voigt when he states: "Victory and defeat seemed irrelevant considerations. If only the end would come quickly—nothing else really mattered."
If I could recommend two books about WW1, I would include this one and Sapper Martin: The Secret War Diary of Jack Martin by Van Emden. Both were written by talented writers and give an excellent overall picture of life on the Western Front.
Written by a man who would later become a journalist, Voigt, age 24-27 during his war service, wrote his memoirs. In 162 pages, he covers a lot of ground. Topics (chapter titles) include:
-Squad Drill
-Fatigue Party
-Detachment
-Casualty Clearing Station
-Walking Wounded
-Air Raid
-The German Push
-Home on Leave
-Across the Ridges
-The Armistice
I read it doing research on WW1, particularly looking for accounts of life at a Casualty Clearing Station. And though only one chapter covered that, it did not disappoint. I took a lot of notes and very much appreciated his specific, though often grizzly details: descriptions of the operating room, specific wounds, cleaning up the OR (including disposing of amputated limbs), anesthesia, shifts and more.
The entire memoir is a rich mixture of graphic, well-described images of war, and the thoughts and reactions of the author and (often) his comrades. He gives a lengthy description of an abandoned battlefield littered with corpses in various states of decay--including the remains of a man whose exposed flesh was devoured by rats, and other corpses "all covered with thick brown masses made up of the innumerable empty cases of maggot chrysalids."
He details his excitement of going home on leave, only to be disillusioned by attitudes reflected by those at home.
In one chapter "Air Raid," Voigt recalls a period during his time at the Casualty Clearing Station when they endured air raids almost nightly for several days. The sheer terror of it is illustrated through descriptions of the destruction and his comrades' reactions to it.
By the end, after 'seeing' what the author saw, the reader fully sympathizes with Voigt when he states: "Victory and defeat seemed irrelevant considerations. If only the end would come quickly—nothing else really mattered."
If I could recommend two books about WW1, I would include this one and Sapper Martin: The Secret War Diary of Jack Martin by Van Emden. Both were written by talented writers and give an excellent overall picture of life on the Western Front.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews