Book: A German Deserter's War Experience.

[JOHN BALL]

Hi,

Has anyone read or knows about the above book? Published 1917 with five printings by a B.W. Huesbsch, New York,USA. I've read the first chapter on line, the march into Belgium, fighting at Liege etc.

Dates and places seem correct,later chapters include the shooting of civilians,crossing the Meuse,battle of the Marne,further fighting,deserting etc.

The author is described as 'Anonymous' in order to protect his identity. Genuine story or what ?. For anyone interested the book can be viewed on Gutenberg, any comments most welcome.

John

[ph0ebus]

An interesting read so far, but certainly reads like a wartime propaganda work to me.

Daniel

[JOHN BALL]

Hi Daniel

Only one review on Amazon, 'difficult to verify without research,however no obvious signs of fakery'.

Anti German propaganda?. Could well have been.

Cheers, John

[David Filsell]

From memory this is book I have judged as fraudulent. But to be sure i will look up my research notes and post on it in day or so.

David

[Moonraker]

Also an

audiobook

Moonraker

[David Filsell]

MY notes on the book

Mt take on the book

During the early stages of the war anti German mood sentiment was projected through the publication of a number of books presented as German and sold in Britain and the United States which were almost certainly works of British propaganda. Each used an ‘author’ to present Germans war aims, its morals and its army in the worst light. The first to be published, My Years with the German Army, it was claimed was written by a British citizen who had served with the Prussian Army. Three more were presented as the work of German soldiers: A German Deserter’s War Experiences, Forced to Fight -The Story of a Schleswig Dane, and The Diary of a German Soldier.

The themes and style of A German Deserter’s War Experiences, published in United States after the author’s claimed flight to America, and Erich Erichsen’s Forced to Fight, told in similar tales. Both were published in 1917. The literary merits of both are limited. The were relatively fairly skilled in their fabrication, their authors probably as fictitious as the books content and onsiderable suspicion should surround the veracity of translations of German works published in Great Britain and the United States during the War. Britain and Germany both mounted comprehensive propaganda campaigns at home and worldwide. Until 1917 the neutral USA was seen as a particularly important target for the attempted manipulation of public opinion. Maintenance of anti-German sentiment at home was, quite naturally, also important to the British Government.

ANON - 1917

A German Deserter’s War Experience was first published in New Yorker Zeiting, a US German language newspaper endorsed by both the Socialist Party of the United States and the Socialist Party of Germany. It was the only German language daily paper in the United States and one of the oldest of the of the nation’s radical papers. The text was subsequently published W B Huebsh, New York, in April 1917, going into at least four editions the same year. The book was published in Britain in 1917 by Grant Richards, London. No German copy of the book seems to exist.

The unnamed author was described as an “intelligent young miner” who fled to America, via Holland, after 14 months service in the German Army. Questioning the justification for the war, and unable to reconcile his own private morality with that of the nation, the author made his decision to desert whilst on leave. His name was suppressed because his forthright account might have rendered his relatives open to the “wrath” of his countrymen.

The book details the author’s military career, the units in which he served and his movements and actions from the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 to the Battle of the Marne and then in the Argonne, with initially convincing, detail. The anonymous author claims to have served with 1^st Company, 30^th Pioneer Battalion (translated in the account by J Koettgen as a sapper battalion) based on peacetime at Koblenz. As can be confirmed, and as detailed in the text, the battalion was attached as Army Troops to 18^th Division (21^st and 25^th Infantry Divisions) commanded by Prince Albrecht of Wurttemberg. The division served in Belgium and Northern France and internal evidence in the test suggests that the author’s company was attached to 21^st Infantry Division. In 1915 his regiment was attached to Infantry regiment 67 and the author claims to have served some 4 months in the Argonne.

Although the author makes no mention of having kept a journal, through the book offers a meticulous account of his company’s movement - almost village by village - with a degree of detail missing from virtually every other first hand German account on the Great War published in the English language. It also contains extensive reports of actions in which the author was involved against Belgian and French units and detailed accounts of vicious had to hand actions in which he participated. Amongst other episodes he records his presence in a firing squad at Bertrix during which a number of men accused of being francs tireurs were executed.

Certainly much of the detail in A German Deserter’s War Experience appears to stand close scrutiny. The most recent analysis of German atrocities in the Great War reveals that they lead to the deaths of some 6,500 Belgian and French civilians. Its authors note that “the inhabitants of Bertrix were taxed with firing on the XVII Corps from their church tower.

As early as 1915 Commandant de gerlache de Gommery, basing his text on a Commission of enquiry in” Violations of the Regulations of the Law of Nations and Usages of War”, instituted by the Belgian Minister of Justice in August 1914 had catalogued the claims. He noted that 20 houses had been destroyed at Bertrix and that 21 people had been shot

But accusations of gross military misconduct in Belgium surfaced early I the war, were well known. They became effective grist to Britain’s propaganda mill. Atrocities were widely reported, buttressing an image of “poor little Belgium” in the cause of whose defence Britain had declared war on Germany.

Overall, the book is both bitterly anti-establishment , highly accusatory of the German Army’s conduct. In addition to condemnations of a series of claimed atrocities, in which the writer claims that he was forced to participate or which he witnessed. He cites evidence of high level military incompetence, widespread cowardice by officers and dissatisfaction in the ranks.

The text is unvarnished in its political motivation and explicit in its accusations; offering frequent expression of his socialist values and dissent which he claims were shared by many in the ranks of the German Army in1914. Although such views are not unusual in published accounts of service in the German Army from late 1916, they are extremely rare from those who served early in the war

It seems highly likely that A German Deserter’s War Experience is a counterfeit memoir , the product of British propaganda. Certainly it should not be considered a reliable source of information. The fact is anonymous authors are rarely able to retain their anonymity and few writers on the Great War can offer so detailed an account of their war experiences. There is little in the books detail that would have not have been unknown by allied intelligence or from prisoner of war interrogation. There are very few German great writers as vitriolic about their homeland as those conjured up by propagandists. Handle with caution.

Long forgotten, the book was republished in Britain in a paperback edition re-titled Warrior Against his Will: A German Sapper’s Account of WW1, complete with its original introduction written by J B Koettgenby. Strangely, the books publisher, the Cornish based Diggory Press, was a Print on Demand/Publish on Demand operation about whose service – it has been claimed - many clients expressed considerable dissatisfaction.

with the German Army, it was claimed was written by a British citizen who had served with the Prussian Army. Three more were presented as the work of German soldiers: A German Deserter’s War Experiences, Forced to Fight -The Story of a Schleswig Dane, and The Diary of a German Soldier.

The themes and style of A German Deserter’s War Experiences, published in United States after the author’s claimed flight to America, and Erich Erichsen’s Forced to Fight, told in similar tales. Both were published in 1917. The literary merits of both are limited. The were relatively fairly skilled in their fabrication, their authors probably as fictitious as the books content.

Readers should be aware that considerable suspicion should surround the veracity of translations of German works published in Great Britain and the United States during the War. Britain and Germany both mounted comprehensive propaganda campaigns at home and worldwide. Until 1917 the neutral USA was seen as a particularly important target for the attempted manipulation of public opinion. Maintenance of anti-German sentiment at home was, quite naturally, also important to the British Government.

Anon, Translator’s preface to A German Deserter’s War Experience, New York, Huebsch, 1917

[JOHN BALL]

Many thanks for this David,

No reason to read any further, book deleted.

John

[ph0ebus]

I am glad you brought this book to our collective attention, as wartime propaganda is one of my areas of interest.

David, a great and quite thorough review. Thanks for that!

-Daniel

[David Filsell]

My pleasure. I have written about 100 of these pieces about German works translated into English. I guess I should start. A web thingy or a blog in I knew what they where or how to do do them in total there seem be about 160 pr so translated works.

David

[trajan]

Thanks David for this review - I have only just come across the work and wondered as to its authenticity...

 

Julian