This is a compelling first hand account of the fighting on the Western Front, from a viewpoint rarely seen in British accounts of the war.

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History of War

Books about French soldiers serving during the First World War are not particularly common in this country and this example, straight from the horse’s mouth was no exception. First published in 1966 and again in 1981, 2003, 2008 and 2013, this outstanding personal account of life at the front from a French soldier’s perspective has finally been translated into English for the first time in 2016. It is interesting to note that earlier versions of this book had watered down Delvert’s account of life on the Western Front while this version is literally warts without the influence of post-war novelists and romanticises of war.
The diary entries begin on Friday 7 August 1914 at Saint-Cloud and ends on Wednesday 16 August 1916 at Maisons-le-Champagne when the author is seriously injured by ‘Minnie’ (a trench mortar). To quote that incident, ‘A Minnie had just exploded on the parapet of the boyau. In the quarter second of consciousness remaining to me, it felt as if my head, limbs, chest – every part of my body – was being pierced by a thousand jets of intangible, vaporizing gas. I was thrown 5 or 6 metres before hitting the ground.’
This book is a must for anyone who wants a direct insight into life on the Western Front from the French soldier’s point of view. An outstanding account superbly translated.

Military Modelling

There are hundreds of books about front-line activities during the first world war, but not that many first-hand accounts. Although this book by Chalres Delvert is the memoir of a French officer, the premise is the same as if it had been an Englishman. It is the writing of someone who got caught up in an horrific set of circumstances that led to the needless and meaningless killing of countless millions in a conflict that stretched out over five years. Harrowing and illuminating.

Books Monthly, November 2016 – reviewed by Paul Norman

This classic account of World War One from a French officer's perspective has not
previously been translated for the original French. Highly Recommended.

This book is particularly valuable because it is a translation of a diary kept by a French offer from 1914 to
1918.

There is no traditional photo plate section to illustrate the text, but there is no sense of loss at that. This
speaks for the vivid writing of the very personal account of life in the French Army one hundred years ago
during a terrible war of attrition.

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Firetrench