Critiques
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I was surprised to learn there was so much drinking among the officers, even at the front, and it seemed to be accepted and even condoned. And the officers each were attended by a personal 'servant' too, who prepared their meals and saw to their uniforms and quartering, cleaning and polishing, and even preparing them baths and laying out their pyjamas!
It isn't all fear and horror, because Vaughn also offers some very funny stories of high jinks and practical jokes during the company's downtime in the rear.
The famous 'mud' of trench warfare is often center stage, particularly in the heat of combat and forward advances as Vaughn more than once finds himself waist deep in the slime. And, in the final section of his narrative, during the infamous Passchendaele offensive, he is horrified to witness scores of wounded men drowning in rain drenched shell holes, screaming in fear and pain as they slipped below the surface.
As his narrative ends, Vaughn notes that of his original company of ninety men, only fifteen are left, and he has become the company commander through attrition. Because this is a real war diary, there is no real ending or conclusion. But the introduction tells us Vaughn did become a fine soldier, also serving on the Italian front. And that after the war he married and had four children. He never wrote anything else about the war, and this diary was discovered nearly forty years later, after Vaughn died, in 1931, from a 'medical accident,' when he was injected with cocaine instead of novocaine.
This is, most of the time, a riveting read, especially considering Vaughn was not a professional writer. Very highly recommended. War lit buffs take note.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA½