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A Soldier's Diary
Diary of the last stages of WWI.
Originally published under the pen name "Ralph Scott"
Originally published under the pen name "Ralph Scott"
- GenresHistory
217 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1923
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 12, 2013
Available free here: http://archive.org/details/asoldiersd...
So you are interested in reading about World War One. Which book to choose? That is the question. What are you looking for? Do you want a complete non-fiction compendium explaining the cause of the war and the battles, then try A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918. I have heard it is very good. Do you want it clothed in fiction in a more palatable form? I have read both Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War and A Long Long Way. In fact I gave both of these two five stars, but I realize now that the scenes they draw are lacking. They don’t quite ring true.
If you want the real thing, the nitty-gritty of trench warfare as it was around Ypres, Belgium, you have here found the right book. Unadulterated truth, the filth, the vermin, the drudgery, the fatigue and the slaughter, in fact none of it is over-dramatized.
Another good book is: The Backwash Of War. It too is non-fiction.
Thank you, Steelwhisper, for directing me to these latter two books.
So you are interested in reading about World War One. Which book to choose? That is the question. What are you looking for? Do you want a complete non-fiction compendium explaining the cause of the war and the battles, then try A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918. I have heard it is very good. Do you want it clothed in fiction in a more palatable form? I have read both Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War and A Long Long Way. In fact I gave both of these two five stars, but I realize now that the scenes they draw are lacking. They don’t quite ring true.
If you want the real thing, the nitty-gritty of trench warfare as it was around Ypres, Belgium, you have here found the right book. Unadulterated truth, the filth, the vermin, the drudgery, the fatigue and the slaughter, in fact none of it is over-dramatized.
Another good book is: The Backwash Of War. It too is non-fiction.
Thank you, Steelwhisper, for directing me to these latter two books.
July 17, 2014
Of all war diaries I've read three have so far stayed most in my mind:
The Backwash Of War
Not So Quiet...: Stepdaughters of War
and this one.
All three have an immediacy, an honesty, a rage and openness so many others entirely lack. I am aware of why they lack this, because neither the public, nor the publishers really wanted to read about what it really meant, because then people simply didn't believe, because most of these men and women suffered gravely from PTSD and their only recourse was to lock what happened firmly away inside themselves.
All the more important to take note of those people who unlocked their inner selves and bared it stark and naked to everyone to behold. These three did and bled for it. Literally and I am sure also figuratively.
Atkinson is, for a male of the era, on par with the raw rage of Zenna-Smith and La Motte. He owns up to his shell-shock and battle fatigue, describing in brutal detail how he cowers inside roadside holes, too afraid and tired to even move, contemplating his revolver and a bullet through his brain. He writes about his abject fear, crawling home to his billet shivery and on all four. He describes how he frequently snaps and forces himself to get on with it, and how the man he once was, that young brilliant engineer out of public school, slowly disintegrates into the wreck he is at the end of the war and the taciturn cynic he becomes after it.
This is a brilliant, a straight, a fearsome and horrific account, completely apart from either jingoism or hyperbole, on par with the two abovementioned women. It is, as well, witness of the utter rage this war engendered.
The Backwash Of War
Not So Quiet...: Stepdaughters of War
and this one.
All three have an immediacy, an honesty, a rage and openness so many others entirely lack. I am aware of why they lack this, because neither the public, nor the publishers really wanted to read about what it really meant, because then people simply didn't believe, because most of these men and women suffered gravely from PTSD and their only recourse was to lock what happened firmly away inside themselves.
All the more important to take note of those people who unlocked their inner selves and bared it stark and naked to everyone to behold. These three did and bled for it. Literally and I am sure also figuratively.
Atkinson is, for a male of the era, on par with the raw rage of Zenna-Smith and La Motte. He owns up to his shell-shock and battle fatigue, describing in brutal detail how he cowers inside roadside holes, too afraid and tired to even move, contemplating his revolver and a bullet through his brain. He writes about his abject fear, crawling home to his billet shivery and on all four. He describes how he frequently snaps and forces himself to get on with it, and how the man he once was, that young brilliant engineer out of public school, slowly disintegrates into the wreck he is at the end of the war and the taciturn cynic he becomes after it.
This is a brilliant, a straight, a fearsome and horrific account, completely apart from either jingoism or hyperbole, on par with the two abovementioned women. It is, as well, witness of the utter rage this war engendered.
December 11, 2023
Having read a few WWI diaries in my day, this one certainly stands out among the rest. A manic, almost bi-polar highly-educated English officer chronicles the final year of the war in an honest, nightmare-inducing frankness. He often waxes lyrical on how if war to be portrayed this accurately in the history books, 'politico-legal' minds would not seek to create war.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews