Wounded: A New History of the Western Front in World War I

by Emily R. Mayhew

The number of soldiers wounded in World War I is, in itself, devastating: over 21 million military wounded, and nearly 10 million killed. On the battlefield, the injuries were shocking, unlike anything those in the medical field had ever witnessed. The bullets hit fast and hard, went deep and took bits of dirty uniform and airborne soil particles in with them. Soldier after soldier came in with the most dreaded kinds of casualty: awful, deep, ragged wounds to their heads, faces and abdomens. And yet the medical personnel faced with these unimaginable injuries adapted with amazing aptitude, thinking and reacting on their feet to save millions of lives.

In Wounded, Emily Mayhew tells the history of the Western Front from a new perspective: the medical network that arose seemingly overnight to help sick and injured soldiers. These men and women pulled injured troops from the hellscape of trench, shell crater, and no man's land, transported them to the rear, and treated them for everything from foot rot to poison gas, venereal disease to traumatic amputation from exploding shells. Drawing on hundreds of letters and diary entries, Mayhew allows readers to peer over the shoulder of the stretcher bearer who jumped into a trench and tried unsuccessfully to get a tightly packed line of soldiers out of the way, only to find that they were all dead. She takes us into dugouts where rescue teams awoke to dirt thrown on their faces by scores of terrified moles, digging frantically to escape the earth-shaking shellfire. Mayhew moves her account along the route followed by wounded men, from stretcher to aid station, from jolting ambulance to crowded operating tent, from railway station to the ship home, exploring actual cases of casualties who recorded their experiences.

Both comprehensive and intimate, this groundbreaking book captures an often neglected aspect of the soldier's world and a transformative moment in military and medical history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War I, War, Medicine, Biography, Medical

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Geevee · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The real horrors of the war were to be seen in the hospitals, not on the battlefield". John Glubb August 1917.

In this marvellous, thought provoking and deeply sad book Emily Mayhew shows the horrors of the battlefield, and what those horrors meant to the men wounded. She shows the horrors away from the battlefield and importantly in "Wounded: the Long Journey Home from the Great War" those horrors as they meet the medical systems designed to patch up, record, transport, support, make better or very often bury men. In the midst of the horror: screams, pain blood, gore and the dreadful smell of bodily decay are the men and women who make the medical systems function and do the jobs from carrying off the field of battle right through to ambulances delivering patients at hospitals in London.

The content - divided into neat sections around people's roles and responsibilities - uses records, diaries and the ever superb sound archives of the Imperial War Museum. This, and the author's ordered yet sympathetic telling, offer a rich, moving and very interesting read.

Having read a number of books on the medical systems of the two world wars there is for WWI many gaps in particular areas. This is partly as records were destroyed in WWII bombing (official army records and also some important personal/company records), but also that formal or unit histories were not inclusive (the former) or written up and published (the latter).

Emily Mayhew has helped to redress that with this book. I was very pleased to be able to read about the bearers whose courage and hard work in the face of immediate enemy fire across open but targeted fields or in shell holes or having to navigate complex and narrow trench systems was second to none. There is little written of these men. Likewise the wonderful orderlies and nurses on the Ambulance Trains and the London Ambulance Column. Other chapters brings us into the world of the Regimental Medical Officers, Surgeons, and the ever beloved (certainly in my own regiment and corps) Padres/Chaplains/Vicars whose - like those others I mention - personal courage, resourcefulness and calm are so valued and respected.

This is a very enthralling and saddening read but also a very valuable one as we read of the dreadful wounds and injuries presented with and in such numbers, and how men and women from all backgrounds and disciplines helped treat and care for those that lived - often learning and adapting as they went owing to the numbers, challenges and locations they operated in. For those that died that care was also there too; we read of careful collection of personal effects, preparation for burial and commitment. The damage and the memories were stark and mental health is ever-present in the lives of those featured in this book as varied in length and experience as they are.

The long journey from the Great War lasted into the 1990s as our nurses, doctors, chaplains, soldiers and civilian volunteers eventually faded away.

Chapters:
1. Wounded
2. Bearers
3. Regimental Medical Officers
4. Surgeons
5. Wounded
6. Nurses
7 Orderlies
8. Wounded
9. Chaplains
10. Ambulance Trains
11. Furnes Railway Station
12. Wounded
13. The London Ambulance Column
14. Epilogue

My copy was the 2014 paperback Vintage Books edition. The black and white plates were of good quality and nicely selected to show scenes and people from the book.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A clear overview of the stages of being wounded from battlefield to Blighty and informed by meticulous research, this misses just the same. A folksy authorial tone, the fabrication of context and details, and an overall attitude that strives for a false uplift make this irritating rather than informative. The facts are lost in YA-style fictional treatment and it's a pity.

[Iona Sharma]

Fascinating work of narrative non-fiction about the process of getting wounded soldiers from the front to hospitals in England during WW1. The author has assembled it from memoirs and letters of soldiers and others, and it's full of arresting details: a medical officer who brought ferrets to the trenches to catch rats, and worried about how disappointed with life the ferrets would be on their return to the West Country; nurses on ambulance trains who were brought wildflowers by wounded soldiers, who hadn't seen a woman in months and fell instantly in love with them; an army chaplain who had been a carpenter before he was ordained and became the most popular man in the hospital just because he could put up shelves. (My favourite detail is the medical officer reporting from a field hospital somewhere in the French countryside that they had had a visitor, a nice older lady in a Renault van. The nice lady turned out to be Marie Curie, who had brought them an X-ray machine - and when the unit found out Professor Curie was an engineer, they got her to fix all their wiring and change all their blown lightbulbs.) Of course a lot of the stories are extremely harrowing, and the book as a whole doesn't flinch from that, but it's extremely worth the read.

[Beth Cato · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read many books, fiction and nonfiction, in search of information on medical practices in World War I. I have found some good books, but this--this is the volume I was seeking all along. Mayhew relies heavily on primary source material to describe the nurses, doctors, and personnel who labored among the injured in the trenches. It's brutal, ugly, and beautiful all at once. The true face of humanity emerges amidst the darkest, most dire of circumstances.

Chapters focus on different aspects of the journey: the point of view of those who were injured in various ways; the stretcher-bearers, so often ignored in chronicles of the war; regimental medical officers; surgeons; nurses; orderlies; chaplains; ambulance trains; railway stations where the wounded were piled; and the London Ambulance Column.

Mayhew's extensive citations will provide me with a great deal of additional research material as well.

If you have an interest in--and the stomach for--the evolution of medicine a century ago, do check out this book. It's a quick and engrossing read, and one that will enlighten you.

[QuietlyKat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting personal accounts told in a compelling and easily consumed way. Mayhew devotes chapters to individuals involved along the way from the wounded, to the stretcher bearers, regimental medical officers, surgeons, nurses, orderlies, chaplains, ambulance trains, railway stations where the wounded were piled and finally to the London Ambulance Column responsible for the transportation of sick and wounded soldiers from mainline London stations to various hospitals in and around London.

5+ stars for content which includes extensive footnotes.
??? stars for the delivery. As another reviewer noted, the style felt somewhat like that of YA fiction. In that way, it was gripping, compelling and easily consumed. That said, at times the delivery was ever so slightly clunky and awkward. Given the excellent content, I hesitate to downrate this book due to the aforementioned niggle.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so sorry to see this one end. Assembled from personal letters, memoirs and other sources, this is a piecemeal history of the Great War's wounded British soldiers and the stretcher bearers, chaplains, nurses, orderlies and doctors who gave their all to help them -- sometimes quite literally. I could almost smell this book as I read. It reduced me to tears over and over, not least because I knew millions of others on all three fronts, from the Allies and the Central Powers, had very similar tales to tell. This book is not to be missed.

[Geraldine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely good book, which appears to have been thoroughly researched in a scholarly manner and yet reads very comfortably. I mean in terms of the syntax etc, not the subject matter. That is not comfortable.

The premise of the book is simple - concentrate on the medical aspects of the First World War, specifically on the Western Front. It covers this from the points of view a range of participants - doctors and nurses, of course, in field hospitals and on the ambulance trains; stretcher bearers and orderlies, and even someone who, as a volunteer, on top of her day job, acted as a basic nurse on the ambulances escorting injured men from the London terminus stations to hospitals across the capital.

I think the more I read about the awfulness of the Western Front, the less I am able to imagine it. I wonder if there comes a point where it's almost obscene to read such accounts. It's too easy to chant the mantra of 'Never Forget'. Certainly, buying and reading this book, or watching commemorative programmes on TV and tweeting about them, or writing reviews such as this contributes in just a little way to making it worthwhile for the authors or producers to continue to research and provide material such as this.

I don't want to write at length about the gruesome details demonstrated in this book. All I can say is that if, like me, you have an ongoing interest in Trench Warfare, you should absolutely read this. I've given it five stars, not because it has some sort of 'wow' factor that earns a 5 star for a book of fiction, but because it such an important book. I have also read The Roses of No Man's Land and I think it's worthwhile to read both.

[Dropbear123 · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5. Giving it a 3 stars as 2 would be a bit harsh.

Disappointing. Each of the various types of people involved in the British medical process on the Western Front (so stretcher bearers, nurses, chaplains, surgeons etc) all the way to arrival of the wounded back in Britain. It mainly relies on memoirs and it basically feels like a lot of short individual stories rather a history book. The writing is almost like something out of a fiction book. There isn’t much in the way of analysis or statistics or anything like that (but the author claims this is due to a lack of them as no one in the 20s saw a reason to keep them). Overall I don’t think I’ve gotten much out of this book. The book has its moments but overall not for me due to the storylike style. Decent endnotes for further reading examples though and pretty high quality pictures.

[Ceci · Rating 2 out of 5]

I personally would have preferred a more fact based approach Great War medicine. Mayhew's case studies, while compelling and meticulously researched, offer very little hard history besides "everything was terrible and dirty and there weren't enough supplies." There were so many life-changing medical advances between 1914 and 1918, from blood transfusions to modern psychiatry to unprecedented use of prosthetics. These developments were largely swept aside to make room for Mayhew's cast of characters.

If you're looking for a novella about medical professionals, this is your book.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only give books 5-star reviews if they had some impact on my life. This one has definitely inspired me to dig into primary sources about WW1 and WW2 medicine - it's well written, tells an engaging story, and provides a lot of information, but it also creates a desire to keep learning about the field. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in WW1, medicine, or that particular time period.

[Lecia Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Behind every good book stands other good (great) research books. I used this book for research on THE WOMAN AT THE FRONT. WOUNDED includes the stories about the medical services of WWI as told in accounts from nurses, surgeons, chaplains, stretcher bearers, and the wounded themselves. Well-written, readable, and fascinating!

[Charlie Newfell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really just a collection of personal stories. But that said, they are fascinating first-hand accounts of what it was like to be wounded in the first works war. Perhaps will get more notice, as with the 100th anniversary coming up and with mire people wanting to learn what it was like back then.

[Mommalibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vignettes of individual UK stretcher-bearers, nurse, doctors, and chaplains who dealt with the enormous numbers of wounded and dying in WWI based on written records in collections of military history and records of medical practice at the time.

[Zoë Kimber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant and in many ways profound read - Mayhew uses diaries and letters to give a narrative non-fiction account of medicine on the Western Front with each chapter focusing on a different role. There were many heartbreaking and even disturbing passages detailing the horrors of injuries, but many tales of human determination and perseverance shone through. I was particularly struck by how much comfort and positivity was brought by individuals going out of their way to do the best for their patients across the front - be it nurses on passenger trains foraging for flowers at every stop to bring some life into their carriages to chaplains growing gardens and becoming post officers for their patients - this is a tale of humanity at both its best and its worst.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I were to become a historian I would no doubt study the history of medicine. I simply do not find any area of humanity more relevant than how we have struggled to keep ourselves alive in the worst situations and it is absolutely incredible how much progress we have made in the last hundred years alone, not to mention all the centuries prior. Because the turn of the century is undeniably my favorite time period to read about, I could not resist a book that combined my two favorite historical subjects. It also promised to be gruesome and sad, always a good quality to have in a book (in my humble, but correct opinion).
In these three areas it did not disappoint. The author choose to 'show' the readers what the job of a medic (I'm using this as a blanket term to refer to all personnel involved in caring for or transporting the wounded) during the first world war rather than to 'tell'. She used first hand accounts to create narrative that at once described their role and duties but also played out like a story, with well written phrases and plenty of emotional power. She stated that part of the reason she did this was that first-hand accounts were simply most of what survives in the archives today. It's wonderful to know that there are people out there that take the time and care to write about people and moments in history that would eventually be forgotten about as the letters and out-of-print books slowly disappear. Aside from being a good historical reference (both with the main contents of the books as well as the sources she cites in the epilogue) it is also a chilling look into the loss of life and limb on the front lines.
We get good looks into many aspects of the medical team that I had never put any thought to such as the stretcher bearers, orderlies and chaplains (who were much more than someone to give last rites). We also got a look into the long and slow journeys of the hospital trains, a rare thing these days. We get the point of view of nurses, doctors, surgeons and the actual wounded soldiers, but in my opinion the memories from the stretcher bearers was the most poignant.
The only thing that I found lacking in Wounded was the fact that there was little detail about the treatment the wounded received. Not all people would miss this, but since I'm very interested in the nitty gritty of medical and nursing procedures, I would have liked more about it. Mayhew does not leave the reader with nothing, however. She lists her sources very clearing and many of them look very promising, as far as information on a more medical standpoint.
Overall, as far as nonfiction goes this is very good. Short, to the point and never a dull moment.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carefully researched and beautifully crafted, 'Wounded' tells of the people who gave themselves, sometimes paying the ultimate price, to care for wounded soldiers during World War I. It covers the journey from battlefield to Blighty (Britain and home) with recollections from stretcher-beareres, medical officers, nurses, surgeons, chaplains and ambulance drivers. It is comprehensive, deeply moving and a wonderful testament to those men and women who have often gone unrecognized.

[Michelle Ule · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and highly readable book about dealing with the wounded during World War I. Each chapter highlights experiences from a specific group--the wounded themselves, nurses, Medical officers, Chaplains, train-based nurses. Mayhew writes from the experiences of individuals and fleshes the information out into highly readable prose.

While I chose this book as research for a novel I'm writing, it makes an excellent option for anyone interested in reading about life during WWI.

[archive ☄ · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding..... (& made me weep uncontrollably!!) if i had to recommend one book on the great war to someone curious about its history, it would overwhelmingly be this one. mayhew brings the war to devastating life, both its sorrows and its too-fleeting joys.... she is such a talented storyteller (& scholar & researcher)!

[Charles M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different, but rather disappointing, new approach to looking at WWI through the eyes of the wounded soldiers and their caretakers. This book idea had lots of promise, but simply fails to deliver.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informing read about the individual stories of people working during WW1. Great insight into the roles that people had to play that weren't just as a soldier.

[Richard Wilcocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Wounded' is a homage to the heroic men and women who cared for the wounded in the Great War, described by her as “an undiscovered, somehow silenced group”. Using a remarkable collection of letters and diaries, and rooted in wide reading and original research, Emily Mayhew has produced a startlingly vivid and engaging account of the way the wounded (almost every other British soldier could expect to become a casualty) were rescued, treated and cared for by bearers, Regimental Medical Officers, surgeons, nurses, VADs, orderlies, chaplains, ambulance drivers and others during a conflagration which was sparked by a symbolic act of terrorism in Sarajevo, rolled on like a mad machine for four years, and which led to the crumbling away of empires and the destruction of countless lives. A modern conflict.

I found it to be invaluable background material when I was engaged in research for my own book 'Stories from the War Hospital' which was published a few months after 'Wounded'. See www.firstworldwarhospital.co.uk In fact Emily Mayhew even gave me a few words of advice at the time, so I am probably revealing some bias.

The military medical services hardly knew what had hit them at first, just like the British Expeditionary Force itself, which was nearly wiped out at Mons and the Marne in 1914. Veteran nurses and doctors were at the front at that time, possibly with Boer War experience, but dealing with ghastly shrapnel wounds on a large scale was very different to dealing with relatively straightforward bullet holes on the warm, dry South African veldt. In Flanders, the fields tended to be wet and heavily manured, and most of the tetanus and gas gangrene cases which resulted from just slight scratches as well as mangled limbs were destined to die horribly. The up-to-date cylindro-conical bullets were fast, hit hard and took tiny fragments of dirty uniform and other contaminants deep into bodies. The medics learned as fast as they could, and coped with almost impossible situations over and over again, a fact made clear through a collection of true stories about the ones who were there.

Take the story of Regimental Medical Officer William Kelsey Fry of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, who, after heavy losses taking a small town from the Germans, went out onto the battlefield himself to retrieve casualties. “Time after time he cleaned the mud off his glasses, braced himself and joined the fighting soldiers, oblivious to all but the cries of the man he was trying to find in the middle of the chaos. When he found him, Kelsey Fry hoisted him up onto his back and ran as fast as he could. During one of these trips, he was shot in both legs. The wounds weren’t serious, but he was lucky to make it back to the medical post with his patient.” It was his duty to look after the water supply as well, making sure it was fresh, and supervised the digging of latrines. His reputation for unflappability and efficiency caused the upper ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps to offer him a promotion away from the dirt and gunfire of the front line, but he preferred to stay. During a battle in 1916 he had so little time that a proper medical post could not be set up, so with his bearers he dug a hole as deep as time and the enemy would allow and put a tarpaulin over it, “It filled with casualties almost immediately, like rain collecting in a puddle. As in every aid post on the line, they worked so hard that they stopped hearing the shellfire and didn’t notice as it crept closer and closer…” Siegfried Sassoon, who knew him well, was one of many who was shocked when he heard of his death.

Or the story of surgeon Norman Pritchard, who found himself responsible for a ward of recently captured German prisoners. “When Pritchard first set eyes on them, in their special ward, he almost turned round and walked out again. The POWs were in a dreadful state. Most had been hiding for days, lying in abandoned trenches and shell holes, hoping that their side would retake the ground. They were fetid with infections and starved, many of them on the brink of death. It was difficult to know where to start. Pritchard had no German, and so a kind, firm tone would have to do…”

Or the story of Nurse Winifred Kenyon, who “never considered going anywhere else but a casualty clearing station. She wanted to be as close to the war as possible, to share in the adventure and excitement and to make her contribution”… “Perhaps the most unexpected thing Kenyon learned inside the ward tents was how much was left up to the nurses themselves. There were several wards that they ran without doctors, and they taught their new skills to the new arrivals like Kenyon. ‘Resus’ was one of them. The men were too weak to raise their heads, let alone be operated on, and it was the nurses who brought them back from the brink. Kenyon learned to administer the magic mixtures of hot saline, brandy and coffee, and that you could never have too many hot water bottles. Sometimes you put ten or twelve around a man close to death from hypothermia and gradually watched him come back to life. Men came in grey and went back pink.”

Or the story of Nurse Morgan, whose home was the No 3 Ambulance Train, 300 yards long, with a supposed maximum capacity of 440 and equipped with iron stands and straps where cots or stretchers were hung. “During the Somme offensive the pushload of 440 or more became the norm, as No 3 struggled to keep up. Carefully planned entraining and detraining routines simply went to pieces in the face of the sheer numbers of casualties at the railheads, and within a week of the Somme the whole system of transit simply broke down”… “Morgan tried to calm her patients, while all around them they could hear the moaning of men in agony, the train an island in a sea of human desolation.”

Most of the material in Wounded is new, from previously unused archival sources, and it is presented not in a cold, detached way, but with genuine warmth and engagement, because Mayhew has the skills of a novelist, the ability to empathise, to stand in the shoes of those who were so committed to saving lives a century ago. The reader is invited to engage with the senses, to smell the gas still clinging to the uniforms of those arriving at London’s Victoria Station on ambulance trains, to recoil from appalling injuries, to gasp at the madness of it all.

[Mark Sandvigen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I continue to be amazed at the clarity and perspective women like Emily Mayhew, Pat Barker, and others have brought to the entire genre of World War I literature. I was entranced by this book and the incredible backgrounds created to provide settings for the individual stories. This book was more than a collection of individual living history interviews, it was like being there. The only thing missing was the smell, the noise, and the lice.

Mayhew's nursing background imparted an immediacy and empathy that comes complete across more than a century since the Great War. When reading a book of this type, a litmus test for me has always been, do you care about these people? The short answer is yes; every single one. Their motivations, commitment, fatigue, and psychological despair caused by a War that never changed were as real as the trenches and casualty clearing centers they lived in. You know a nerve has been touched when the book has ended and you sit looking for more pages.

[Sam Dye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Mayhew has done a remarkable job of bringing the tradgedy of WWI to the page. I'm glad I picked up a first copy from the non-fiction new books display at the Denver Public Library. I have since bought a copy to have for reference. The chapters on bearers and the RMOs painted a vivid picture of the courage and insane conditions these individuals worked under and underscores the futility and the disregard of the worth of individuals in war. The book does an equally complete and impactful job of the other stories ie chaplains, nurses, surgeons, wounded, orderlies, ambulance crews/trains and the London Ambulance Column. There is one chapter on a specific train station "Furness Railway Station" that discusses what one person in this case Sarah MacNaughtan could do seeing a need and acting which was in the end what each chapter was about.

[Jon Wort · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily Mayhew writes a clear, well written and well researched book on FWW casualties and the evolution of the medical services and the RAMC.
As she states in her preface she could have tried to write a boring factual account with lots of tables and statistics or she could write in narrative form, based on individual's experience, which she chooses to do. That said I think it would have benefited from some statistics to show how the RAMC grew and adapted over the course of the war.
She covers the subjects well, eloquently and produces a well researched book that anyone wishing to obtain a greater understanding of the treatment of casualties in the FWW should read.
I enjoyed reading it, despite its horrific subject, I can strongly recommend it.

[Sarah Bierle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trying to comprehend the cost of World War I? Read this book. Trying to understand medical innovations and challenges during the era of trench warfare? Read this book.

The text is based on primary sources and reveals the daily life and struggles of medical personnel during World War I - stretcher bearers, nurses, orderlies, surgeons, ambulance drivers, and others. It also traces the journeys and experiences of wounded men. It's not a comprehensive study with lots of statistics and facts, but this book is a saga of human suffering, determination, and courage.

Not for the overly-squeamish - but highly recommended for all interested in the historical field of medicine or World War I.

[Layla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative book on the wounded and injured in ww1.this book shows the drs and nurses side of the story how they treated people from the front lines. Harrowing reading in places but would read this again. Nurses going to the front in the time of World war only only had weeks of training not years likenurses get nowadays. In case anyone does know it it 3 years training for a nurse nowadays. Maybe the nurses b ack then only had as little as 3 weeks. Then they were sent to “the front”. A great book if you want to know the medical side of ww1 and how the treatments and medical treatment was back 100 years ago.

[Kim Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this down, I was completely lost in the pages and could picture it all so clearly.
I already had respect for anyone involved in dealing with the dead and wounded during this war, but after reading this, wow. Completely fascinating accounts of the people who were right in the thick of it risking their lives constantly to save others.
It's impossible to imagine working the long constant hours these people worked under massive emotional strain constantly, and had no choice but to keep going. The strength and bravery is evident across all of the pages.
A must read for anyone interested in The Great War.

[Sue Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, amazingly descriptive narrative. This is a must read for all military healthcare providers. We have so much more now in the way of modern medical equipment, casualty evacuation and adaptive medical units....and yet future warfare and large scale combat operations could easily recreate these austere conditions. In that sense, this was great professional reading!

[Artie LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book.

It is rare for a book to bring such a new approach to the history of WWI. The structure, folowing the patient from wound to the UK, is inventive and works extremely well. Much of the book involves new research, and it is eminently readable, and very moving.

Highly recommended.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Painstakingly researched, it provides an absolutely fascinating look at the front lines of World War I, from the perspectives of soldiers wounded, nurses, chaplains, and many others whose voices have faded over time. The bibliography is a goldmine for further first hand accounts, in addition to providing further perspectives.