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A Yankee in the Trenches
Illustrated from Photographs
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1918
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 15, 2018
Really rather excellent little memoir - if anything, far too brief.
July 13, 2024
Fascinating, brutal, frank, firsthand notes about trench warfare in World War 1.
“I should say offhand that there was not one man in a hundred who was fighting consciously for any great recognized principle. And yet, with all their grousing and criticism, and all their overwhelming desire to have it over with, every one of them was loyal and brave and a hard fighter.”
“It was a large, wet night. Everybody made a speech or sang a song, and we didn’t go home until morning. It was a farewell party, and we went the limit. If there is one thing that the Britisher does better than another, it is getting ready to die. He does it with a smile—and he dies with a laugh.”
“I should say offhand that there was not one man in a hundred who was fighting consciously for any great recognized principle. And yet, with all their grousing and criticism, and all their overwhelming desire to have it over with, every one of them was loyal and brave and a hard fighter.”
“It was a large, wet night. Everybody made a speech or sang a song, and we didn’t go home until morning. It was a farewell party, and we went the limit. If there is one thing that the Britisher does better than another, it is getting ready to die. He does it with a smile—and he dies with a laugh.”
February 1, 2020
I took six pages of notes on A Yankee in the Trenches and could easily have taken more. We are teaching the students to employ sensory language in their writing responses to their reading of All Quiet on the Western Front. Holmes’ writing offers tremendous examples. Our students are also asked to describe conditions at the front in numerous writing examples. This book offers very descriptive examples and defines words of war within the context. My notes and this title will be added to my Remarque lesson plans as a very significant resource.
March 25, 2021
To say I loved this book would be an understatement. What an absolutely engrossing narrative of trench life and the horrors of the war.
November 11, 2010
Just in time for Veterans' Day:
I found this book to be informative, anti-sentimental, definitely NOT propagandistic as so many of the personal narratives about the First World War were. Holmes wrote this book in reaction to America joining the fight against Germany; he had survived two years in the trenches as a soldier in the British Army, fighting in the Somme. Receiving a "million-dollar wound", as referred to in the war to follow the First World War (The War to End All Wars), he is discharged from the King's Service in 1917.
What I find fascinating is the practical advice given to the parents of the young people who were about to go "over there" from America to fight in the war: what to send the soldiers, how to send it, how often, what did soldiers like to eat, what cigarrettes to send, etc. The reader comes to learn the existential detail, the minutiae that agglomerated into the daily life of a man in the trenches.
This book has the elegance of a survivor's, first-person narrative even if written in colorful, cockney language. I loved it. You can read it for free on Google Books.
On the 11th minute, of the 11th hour, of the 11th month of 1918, The First World War formally ended. This is a good read to commemorate this seminal event in world history.
Remember our Veterans today!
I found this book to be informative, anti-sentimental, definitely NOT propagandistic as so many of the personal narratives about the First World War were. Holmes wrote this book in reaction to America joining the fight against Germany; he had survived two years in the trenches as a soldier in the British Army, fighting in the Somme. Receiving a "million-dollar wound", as referred to in the war to follow the First World War (The War to End All Wars), he is discharged from the King's Service in 1917.
What I find fascinating is the practical advice given to the parents of the young people who were about to go "over there" from America to fight in the war: what to send the soldiers, how to send it, how often, what did soldiers like to eat, what cigarrettes to send, etc. The reader comes to learn the existential detail, the minutiae that agglomerated into the daily life of a man in the trenches.
This book has the elegance of a survivor's, first-person narrative even if written in colorful, cockney language. I loved it. You can read it for free on Google Books.
On the 11th minute, of the 11th hour, of the 11th month of 1918, The First World War formally ended. This is a good read to commemorate this seminal event in world history.
Remember our Veterans today!
April 10, 2018
Robert Derby Holmes was a Bostonian who in 1916 decided to enlist in the British army. Traveling across the Atlantic, he signed up with the Royal Fusiliers and, after a couple of months of training, was sent with his unit to France. His book is an unvarnished recounting of his experiences, one of particular interest as it was written for an American audience that was only just beginning to experience the conflict when Holmes's book was published. Interspersed with the account of his service are a number of tips as to how Americans at home might best support 'Sammy' at the front, all of which he follows up with a concluding chapter that reiterates some of his advice and follows up with additional suggestions.
Though many books have been published that recount the experience of trench warfare, Holmes's memoir is of interest for two reasons. The first is its date of publication; written while the war was still ongoing, it is undimmed by the intervening years that separate most accounts from the conflict. The other is its unusual perspective, which not only relates what life in the trenches was like, but attempts to interpret the customs, patterns, and language of the British army for American readers. In doing so, Holmes does not make assumptions of his reader's prior knowledge, which makes his memoir one of the most accessible accounts of the miseries of the Western Front.
Though many books have been published that recount the experience of trench warfare, Holmes's memoir is of interest for two reasons. The first is its date of publication; written while the war was still ongoing, it is undimmed by the intervening years that separate most accounts from the conflict. The other is its unusual perspective, which not only relates what life in the trenches was like, but attempts to interpret the customs, patterns, and language of the British army for American readers. In doing so, Holmes does not make assumptions of his reader's prior knowledge, which makes his memoir one of the most accessible accounts of the miseries of the Western Front.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews