Notes

A Soldier's Memoir of World War I

Bearing his medical discharge from the fledgling American Expeditionary Force after only four months as a trainee in the 1st Massachusetts Ambulance Corps, the author became one of thousands of American youths who sought adventure and validation by traveling North to offer their wartime services as members of the C.E.F. His account, finished in 1927, chronicles his brief U.S. Army experience, and more extensively, the next 20 months--from the signing of his Attestation papers in September, 1917 in Fredericton, N.B., to his release from active duty at St John, in May, 1919--as a Canadian soldier. Beginning with basic drill and an introduction to light artillery in Canada, he moved on to more intensive training in England, to become a charter member of an entirely new unit--the 12th (6-inch howitzer) Battery, 3rd Brigade, CGA.

Not just a record of combat in France, the story encompasses a totality of military life as it impacted the author and his close companions. He faithfully records battlefield and bivouac experiences, anecdotes of both legal and unsanctioned absences in five countries, the formation (and shattering) of close friendships, of the strange realization of his having been wounded, and gassed, and his consequent hospitalization and recovery. Following an unauthorized reunification with his Battery mates in Belgium, he describes the boredom of post war occupation, demobilization via Kinmel Park in Wales, his return to Canada, and finally, the long and eagerly anticipated, yet strangely abrupt and poignant emptiness that attended his return to civilian life. The author's highly personal and well documented narrative is enhanced by the inclusion of letters written home, numerous scans of photographs and memorabilia that survived his epoch journey as well as a number of original pen and ink drawings that complement his writing.