Good personal accounts of WWI ?

[Ruutiukko]

I was wondering if you could recommend me a good personal account of the WWI, form the allied point of view. I have read "All Quiet At The Western Front" and "Storms of Steel" and while these were certainly good books they were written by Germans. Are there similar books written by the British or the French?

[James]

For the British you might investigate Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon.

For Oral Histories look no farther than Lyn MacDonald; "1914", "1915: The Death of Innocence", "Somme", "They Called it Paschendaele", and "1918: To The Last Man" are ALL outstanding histories based on interviews with veterans, their diaries, and their letters home.

If you read nothing else about the Empire in the Great War, read MacDonald's stuff.

[SBL]

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[loganinkosovo]

good resource sites

http://www.worldwar1.com/reflib.htm

http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/welcome.htm

[madjack]

More on the Brit perspective:

Some Desperate Glory by Edwin Campion Vaughan. Tremendous read. Vaughan went to France as a young infantry officer and this is his memoir. It's every bit as touching as Sassoon's book.

There is a great one written by an American infantryman. I'm sure the title was A Rifleman Went to War. He talks about the war at doughboy level. A great book, but good luck finding it.

[James]

If you're interested in stuff about Americans...

"Suddenly We Didn't Want to Die" - Elton Mackin, USMC
"A Doughboy in the Fighting 69th" - Albert Ettinger
"His Time In Hell" - Elton Jackson, USMC
"A Youth in the Meuse Argonne" - William Triplet
"Fighting Soldier" - Joseph Douglas Lawrence

[11 Bravo]

Here are a couple specifics I can list off hand looking at my shelves : ( most are available in reprints still )

Under Fire = Henri Barbusse

Old Soldiers Never Dier = Frank Richards

A Subaltern On The Somme = "Mark Seven"

A Private In The Guards = Stephen Graham

A Passionate Prodigality = Guy Chapman

Over The Top = Guy Empey

A Rifleman Went To War = H.W. McBride

Ghost's Have Warm Hands = Will Bird

The Middle Parts Of Fortune = Frederick Manning

Goodbye To All That = Robert Graves

The Memoirs Of George Sherston = Siegfried Sassoon

Wilfred Owen = John Stallworthy

Fix Bayonets = John Thomason

Dear Marraine 1917-1919 = Robert W Kean

Sniping In France = Hesketh-Pritchard

Private Peat = Harold R. Peat

Some other excellent Great war reads :

The Great War and Modern Memory = Paul Fussell

Eye Deep In Hell = John Ellis

Gas ! ; The battle for Ypres 1915 = J. McWilliams & R.J. Steel

The Lost Generation Of 1914 = Reginald Pound

Steel Wind = David Zabecki

Gallipoli = Alan Moorehead

The Great War In Africa = Byron Farwell

[Labud]

I know many books about it, but they are in Serbian. :(

[ex1cdo]

I was wondering if you could recommend me a good personal account of the WWI, form the allied point of view. I have read "All Quiet At The Western Front" and "Storms of Steel" and while these were certainly good books they were written by Germans. Are there similar books written by the British or the French?

An English tranlation of Le Feu (Under Fire), by the French soldier Henri Barbusse can be read on-line. (http://www.greatwar.nl/books/lefeu/underfire.html)

(http://www.greatwar.nl/books/lefeu/underfire.html)

[Hutz]

There's The Journal of Private Fraser: Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918

[mas-36]

"The Price of Glory" by Alistaire Horne. I think he's British. Anyway, it's one of THE finest books on WW 1 I've ever read. This book is mostly about the Battle of Verdun, and much attention given to the French and German perspectives, given they were the two opposing forces.

[LoveMeister]

I would suggest:

'True World War I Stories'

It's published by Robinson and has this ISBN no: 1-84119-095-0

It's 425 pages of veteran interviews (all of them British). I've read it a couple of times myself. It's very very good.

Cheers

[PELEIDES]

Pierre Burton "Vimy". Canadian perspective on the Battle of Vimy Ridge, April 1917.

[USGRANT64]

Hard to find but Excellent
"No Hard Feelings" By John L. Barkley, 4th Inf. 3rd I.D. AEF MOH fantastic account by a veteran of the Marne and Meuse Argonne fighting who received the Medal of Honor.

[janush]

Louis Barthas wrother a very good book on his war experiences. Stayed on the front front november 1914 until mid 1918 when he ''collapsed'' survived a number of battles including verdun

[YoungGun]

Hi,

it's from a german, but I've lately read the personal accounts of Rommel in the WWI and found it quite interesting, although the translation (it's the english version) is rather strange...

[James]

Hi,

it's from a german, but I've lately read the personal accounts of Rommel in the WWI and found it quite interesting, although the translation (it's the english version) is rather strange...

Is it "Attacks"?

[YoungGun]

Is it "Attacks"?

Yes, exactly. Thx.

[GeraldDuval]

An English tranlation of Le Feu (Under Fire), by the French soldier Henri Barbusse can be read on-line. (http://www.greatwar.nl/books/lefeu/underfire.html)

(http://www.greatwar.nl/books/lefeu/underfire.html)

I'll second this. IMHO it's one of the best descriptions of a soldiers experience in the great war I've ever read. Certainly the best book on the French Experience....

[Atlantic Friend]

"Comment fut déclarée la guerre de Quatorze" by Raymond Poincaré, then President of the French Republic. Not a personal frontline experience, of course, but a very good insight on the diplomatic stage at the time.

[roland]

There is a book of an American that vonlonteered in the French Foreign Legion at the beginning of the war: Blaise Cendrars in "La main Coupé' (the cutted hand).
But surprisingly I didn't found the book in English. Too bad the book is excellent.

And since it seems that the thread turned more about WW1 book than personal account here is two in English written by a French:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/185375479X.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/Marne-Battle-Saved-Changed-Course/dp/185375479X/sr=8-5/qid=1163244780/ref=sr_1_5/104-1556887-2873540?ie=UTF8&s=books

and

[/URL][URL]http://www.amazon.com/Verdun-Georges-Blond/dp/B0006AYPYQ/sr=8-25/qid=1163244843/ref=sr_1_25/104-1556887-2873540?ie=UTF8&s=books (http://www.amazon.fr/Verdun-Georges-Blond/dp/0727400746/sr=1-8/qid=1163244271/ref=sr_1_8/403-2845075-0686021?ie=UTF8&s=english-books)