Fix Bayonets, by John Thomason.
The war memoirs of an AMERICAN officer, this time. Much less war to be exposed to.
Originally published in the American Mercury. That was H. L. Mencken's magazine. In the 20's. The story reads like just about all the WWI books. That kind of war experienced that way.... It got the same flavor as Remarque's masterpiece but written in a shorter form three years prior.
These are the memoirs of war from a 5th Marines officer. A bit more game at the game than All Quiet on the Western Front, but still dwells on the meaningless slaughter, all around. With graphic sections and description. All these WWI books have those. If you were looking for a slashed picture in the 1970s at a Grindhouse, you could have done better reading 50 year old war books
But the flavor is similar. Reading war memoirs from various wars... You get a flavor. A generic section and you can tell which war is on...
I am new here, so perhaps this has been mentioned before, but A Rifleman Went To War is a fantastic look into an allied sniper in WW1. You have motivated me to reread it. Also added Fix Bayonets and Goodbye To All That to my Amazon wish list.
ReplyDeleteWhat Lee said. MacBride (author of A Rifleman Went To War)also wrote The Emma Gees.
ReplyDeleteMacBride was an American National guard officer, who resigned his commission to enlist in the Canadian Army early on, got commissioned as a Canuckistani officer, and then resigned that commission so he could get into combat.