Black Maria Posted 20 April , 2014 Share Posted 20 April , 2014 Get thee behind me Satan (Great lists! Two already on order from Amazon sellers. I was particularly taken by the title "Memoirs of an Academic Old Contempible" and I have a decent sounding copy turning up for a fiver) But please stop, I don't want my wife to divorce me! David Get thee behind me Satan (Great lists! Two already on order from Amazon sellers. I was particularly taken by the title "Memoirs of an Academic Old Contempible" and I have a decent sounding copy turning up for a fiver) But please stop, I don't want my wife to divorce me! David And I was just about to list all my older memoirs too... only kidding I couldn't come between a man and his better half Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 20 April , 2014 Share Posted 20 April , 2014 And I was just about to list all my older memoirs too... only kidding I couldn't come between a man and his better half I think you owe us the earlier memoirs list now. I for one would be fascinated to read it. Should keep you busy for the bank holiday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 20 April , 2014 Share Posted 20 April , 2014 I think you owe us the earlier memoirs list now. I for one would be fascinated to read it. Should keep you busy for the bank holiday! It would keep me busy till the August bank holiday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 21 April , 2014 Share Posted 21 April , 2014 I think you owe us the earlier memoirs list now. I for one would be fascinated to read it. Should keep you busy for the bank holiday! I'm on it ....the list... but aargh.... the more you add, the longer it will take ... MM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe19612 Posted 21 April , 2014 Share Posted 21 April , 2014 The Burgoyne Diaries, is one of my favourites, re read a part the other day. has a lot to do with Plugstreet Wood. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 21 April , 2014 Share Posted 21 April , 2014 The Burgoyne Diaries, is one of my favourites, re read a part the other day. has a lot to do with Plugstreet Wood. Joe I agree, it's very good and there are not that many memoirs / diaries that cover that time period on the Western Front in detail (Dec 1914- May 1915). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 25 April , 2014 Share Posted 25 April , 2014 A few R.F.C/ R.N.A.S memoirs from the 60's and 70's= I Chose the Sky, L.Rochford , Kimber 1977 Wings over the Somme, G.H Lewis , Kimber 1976 Air of Battle , W.Fry, Kimber 1974 Combat Report, B.Lambert, Kimber 1973 Early Birds , W.G Moore, Putnam 1963 Sailor in the Air, R. Bell Davies, Peter Davies 1967 Open Cockpit , A. Gould Lee, Jarrolds 1969 No Parachute, A. Gould Lee , Jarrolds 1968 Memoirs of an Old Balloonatic , G.Hodges, Kimber 1972 Observer, A.J Insall, Kimber 1970 Sopwith Scout 7309, G.Taylor , Cassell 1968 Airship Pilot No 28, Capt Williams , Kimber 1974 Fighter Pilot on the Western Front , E.D Crundall ,Kimber 1975 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 26 April , 2014 Share Posted 26 April , 2014 There is an interesting chapter in Ismay's 'Memoirs' on his "Scallywag" war in Somaliland, in the company of Carton de Wiart. Apologies if this has already been mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 4 May , 2014 Author Share Posted 4 May , 2014 I have just finished reading The Distant Drum by Frederick Noakes. This is one of the best-known memoirs of the war, and I'm sure that most forum members know of it. In case they don't....F.E.Noakes was a sickly (asthmatic) boy who had repeatedly tried to join the army, and eventually got in when conscripted. He joined the Household Battalion, went to France in October 1917, and later was transfered to 2nd Coldstream Guards. He was in action just a couple of times, and was slightly wounded twice, but the value of this well-written and readable book is his account of training (which he rather enjoyed), his spells in hospital and convalescing, his time in the Army of Occupation in Cologne, and his time back in London - the parades and his rather lengthy demobilisation. I bought my (second-hand) copy for a tiny sum, using the forum fund-raising link, and recommend others to do the same. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 4 May , 2014 Share Posted 4 May , 2014 I have just finished reading The Distant Drum by Frederick Noakes. This is one of the best-known memoirs of the war, and I'm sure that most forum members know of it. In case they don't....F.E.Noakes was a sickly (asthmatic) boy who had repeatedly tried to join the army, and eventually got in when conscripted. He joined the Household Battalion, went to France in October 1917, and later was transfered to 2nd Coldstream Guards. He was in action just a couple of times, and was slightly wounded twice, but the value of this well-written and readable book is his account of training (which he rather enjoyed), his spells in hospital and convalescing, his time in the Army of Occupation in Cologne, and his time back in Lonodn - the parades and his rather lengthy demobilisation. I bought my (second-hand) copy for a tiny sum, using the forum fund-raising link, and recommend others to do the same. William Thanks for the tip William, in fact I had not heard of it but will hunt around for an old copy David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 4 May , 2014 Share Posted 4 May , 2014 Thanks for the tip William, in fact I had not heard of it but will hunt around for an old copy David The 2010 reprint is widely available for around £5. The 1952 original will set you back £250 however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 4 May , 2014 Share Posted 4 May , 2014 The first memoire on this list was by Sidney Rogerson, 'Twelve Days', I would also like to add, 'The Last of the Ebb', by him- concerned with the Aisne a Battle of 1918, which is also superb. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 4 May , 2014 Share Posted 4 May , 2014 The 2010 reprint is widely available for around £5. The 1952 original will set you back £250 however. Thank you. 2010 reprint it is!! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 26 May , 2014 Author Share Posted 26 May , 2014 After a recommendation earlier on in this thread, I picked up a copy of "We Who Knew - The journal of an infantry subaltern during the Great War" by Matthew Cooper, for £1. It is a slim 100-page hardback memoir. Cooper came from a family of protestant Dubliners (his father was a barrister - an unpleasant man whose bullying nature prevented him from having the career that his talents deserved, according to his son) who joined up at the beginning of the war. Initially a private in the 8th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, he rose to Sergeant and whilst the battalion was still in Ireland he was commissioned early in 1916, and married his girlfriend May (against his father's wishes, but they went on to have a long and very happy marriage) before being posted to France in February 1916. He first fought in the Loos sector, and then in the summer was posted to the Ypres sector, where he remained for over a year. He vividly describes the attritional fighting at Kemmel and the setting off of the mines on the Messines Ridge in June 1917. Sent home on leave in July, he was in poor health, and didn't return to the front until spring 1918 when he served just north of Ypres. He was home on leave seeing his newly-born son when peace was declared. There are simply loads of memoirs by junior officers in the war, and this one is no less sincere and well-written than most. But it does have its own unique incidents which make it worth reading - sheltering in captured pill-boxes (and hence open at the wrong side), descriptions of holding the line along the canal north of Ypres, and a first-hand account of that astonishing day when the mines were blown all along the Messines Ridge. Well worth a read if you come across a copy. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 5 June , 2014 Share Posted 5 June , 2014 There are currently 6 copies of 'We who knew' on Amazon at the moment at reasonable prices. Oh, make that 5, as I've just bought a copy following William's recommendation! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purbecksteve Posted 6 July , 2014 Share Posted 6 July , 2014 I have just commenced reading for the second time , first read it in the 1980's, "An Artillery Officer in the First World War" by Colonel R Macleod. I think I purchased this manuscript at a book auction in Sussex in the early 1980's in very good condition. I had kept it wrapped up in a cupboard for years away from the light and humidity;it's still an enjoyable read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last_Puttee Posted 9 July , 2014 Share Posted 9 July , 2014 Hello All, First of all, many thanks for your advices and books lists, it's a real treasure. I've just read "With A machine Gun to Cambrai" G.Coppard and "Telwe days in the Somme" S.Rogerson. I enjoyed them particularly the Coppard's one because my own great granddad was a machine gunner and he fought and eventually died of his wounds during the Battle of Cambrai. So I learnt a lot of what was probably his daily life and soldier's tasks. But I'd like to find an infantry man's autobiography with a lot of heavy fighting, a memoir describing attacks through No Man's Land, hand to hand fighting, survival under heavy shell barrage bombing...etc...I'm sure my call will be heard by the many experts of WWI litterature around here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 9 July , 2014 Share Posted 9 July , 2014 'Up to Mametz' by Wyn Griffiths certainly paints a pretty grim picture of trench warfare. A rare book in its original edition but I believe its been reprinted a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 9 July , 2014 Share Posted 9 July , 2014 Most of the memoirs I have read contain descriptions of battle somewhere in their pages, though one realises after a while that a lot of the authors were lucky to avoid being in the first waves of an offensive, many of those who were never lived to write their memoirs. Just the usual routine of trench warfare could be dangerous enough with the chance of being picked off by a sniper or being blown to atoms by a chance shell or 'minnie'. After reading lots of memoirs they seem to merge in the brain so it's hard to pick out one that contains more 'action' than another, although having said that the one that does stand out for me is Charles Yale Harrison's 'Generals die in bed', it's a novel rather than a memoir but it does contain vivid battle scenes and it's pretty obvious the author was writing from experience , as indeed he was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 9 July , 2014 Share Posted 9 July , 2014 'Up to Mametz' by Wyn Griffiths certainly paints a pretty grim picture of trench warfare. A rare book in its original edition but I believe its been reprinted a few times. A wonderful book. Fairly recently republished as "Up to Mametz and beyond" with the "beyond" being Griffith's diaries for the war after 1916. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 9 July , 2014 Share Posted 9 July , 2014 After a recommendation earlier on in this thread, I picked up a copy of "We Who Knew - The journal of an infantry subaltern during the Great War" by Matthew Cooper, for £1. It is a slim 100-page hardback memoir. Cooper came from a family of protestant Dubliners (his father was a barrister - an unpleasant man whose bullying nature prevented him from having the career that his talents deserved, according to his son) who joined up at the beginning of the war. Initially a private in the 8th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, he rose to Sergeant and whilst the battalion was still in Ireland he was commissioned early in 1916, and married his girlfriend May (against his father's wishes, but they went on to have a long and very happy marriage) before being posted to France in February 1916. Well worth a read if you come across a copy. William Thanks again for the recommendation William. Just finished reading it and found it thoroughly enjoyable. Have stuck a brief review on the What are you Reading thread David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last_Puttee Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 @Dust Jacket Collector & blackmaria Thanks to both of you for your replies. @Dust Jacket Collector "Up to Mametz" seems to be really interesting. Another one added to my booklist...Many thanks! @blackmaria I do agree with you, I'm not particularly hunting for sensational writing or being drawn by some morbid curiosity. I'm really into trying to "feel", to "taste" the real "thing", this absolute insane experience of modern warfare. And I know that some men succeeded in trying to put their crazy war experiences in words. Actually, I don't know if some of you are also interested in WW2 memoirs but there is one that I put far above on top, it's the one called "The Forgotten Soldier" written by Guy Sajer. He was a poor french guy living in Alsace, and as Alsace was annexed to the Third Reich in 1940, every Alsatian man reaching the age for enlistment was then forced to fight in the Werhmacht. When Germany started to suffer some set backs they even lowered the official enlistment age and Guy Sajer was enlisted at 17 and drafted to Russia in 1943! He eventually survived the whole German retreat in the most insane war ordeals. He wrote his memoirs on school notebooks immediately upon his return, so everything is vividly fresh, he recalls every tiny details. In two occurences he experienced the terrifying shelling of the russian heavy artillery and thanks to him, you can actually feel the horror of shell shock, the absolute power of destruction of artillery shelling. In this book you'll experience many many dreadful situations. That's the kind of book I'm looking for. Written by some guy sensitive enough to tell everything: the horror, the fear, the madness even the regression to bestial states for the sake of survival. I'm sure that when our Tommies were ready for an attack in the trench at the bottom of the ladders with their full gear waiting for the blow of the whistle they went though terrible states...because up there in No Man's Land, death was the common conclusion for most of them. But I do agree with you that in trench warfare the danger was continuous. I discovered for instance through the Coppard's book that snipers were a constant threat and I was quite surprised, I didn't know that sniping started as early as WWI. Same for the Verey lights, I thought their use started during WWII. Or I didn't know about the tremendous underground mining explosions or the "minnenwerfers", meaning that death could come from the underground or from the sky at every second. Well, to say the least, the WWI Tommies had a hell of a life and I'm looking for the best memoirs rendering it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 For one of the best accounts of fighting in the trenches in WW1 you.can't do much better than Henry Williamson's 'Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight' series of novels. There are 15 books altogether, but only 5 of them deal with his War experiences, beginning with 'How Dear is Life' up to 'A Test to Destruction'. The books are in novelized form but are based on his own service. Of all the many books I've read on the War, these more than any others made me think 'Yes, that's exactly as it must have been' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 12 July , 2014 Share Posted 12 July , 2014 I started reading WW1 memoirs because like you I wanted to try and understand what life was like for a WWI soldier (or airman), including going over the top, and I still find it fascinating to read men's descriptions of battle, for example I read not long ago in 'The Great War : I was there ' the description of a British bayonet charge during 1914 by someone who took part and how he remembered the sun reflecting off the brass underneath the German's cloth covered pickelhaube's as they ran towards them. I would suggest reading a few of the classic memoirs (N&MP have reprinted most of them) like 'Old Soldiers never die',' Somme Harvest' ,' Haunting Years' and 'There's a devil in the drum'. A good officer's memoir is 'A Subaltern's War' by Charles Edmonds (Carrington) and Patrick Magill's 'The Great Push' has a very good description of going over the top on the first day of the battle of Loos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 12 July , 2014 Author Share Posted 12 July , 2014 I would suggest reading a few of the classic memoirs (N&MP have reprinted most of them) like 'Old Soldiers never die',' Somme Harvest' ,' Haunting Years' and 'There's a devil in the drum'. A good officer's memoir is 'A Subaltern's War' by Charles Edmonds (Carrington) and Patrick Magill's 'The Great Push' has a very good description of going over the top on the first day of the battle of Loos. If you go back to earlier posts in this thread, all of these have been discussed/mentioned. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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