The voices of those who actually lived through the hell of blood and pain during the Great War have fallen silent. But every now and then a treasure is unearthed – a secret memoir. Walter’s War is one such book. Written without his family’s knowledge and not discovered till after his death, this is the gripping account of an ordinary soldier, Walter Young, who battled through Ypres, Loos, and many of the key engagements, and was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry at Bullecourt. Although he never talked about the war, his writings vividly capture the mixture of boredom and terror that were so familiar to the soldiers on both sides. No one knew that he had captured his experiences so accurately – but this book gives us an extraordinary and moving insight into what life in the trenches was really like.
Inhoudsopgave
Contents
Foreword by Alan Johnson MP 7
Introduction Walter Edward Young (1889–1957) 12
Chapter 1 March 1915: To France 24
Chapter 2 May 1915: Battle of Festubert 34
Chapter 3 September 1915: Battle of Loos 77
Chapter 4 March 1916: Vimy Ridge 114
Chapter 5 April 1916: “Time-Expired” 118
Chapter 6 March 1917: Back to France 130
Chapter 7 May 1917: Bullecourt Village 135
Chapter 8 June 1917: Hindenburg Line 146
Chapter 9 September 1917: Ypres 156
Chapter 10 Mid-September–November 1917: 164
Hospital and Light Duties
Chapter 11 November 1917: Back to the Ypres Canal 169
Chapter 12 December 1917: Poelcapelle 177
Chapter 13 February 1918: Barisis 189
Chapter 14 March 1918: Battle of Crozat Canal 195
Chapter 15 March 23rd 1918: Prisoner of War 208
Chapter 16 March–June 1918: Missing 213
Chapter 17 May–July 1918: “Zwei und Zwanzig” 224
(“Twenty-two”)
Chapter 18 July 1918: Czech–Prussian II Coal Mine 236
Chapter 19 Sheep without a Shepherd 251
Chapter 20 Post-War 262
Glossary 270
Over de auteur
Walter Young was a Londoner, who joined the Territorial Army before the outbreak of war, and was called up to fight in the First World War in 1914, serving in the London Regiment of the Post Office Rifles. He earned a Military Medal for bravery and ended the war as a prisoner of war. He kept his memoirs secret and they were not discovered till after his death.
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