A Yankee in the Trenches. Robert Derby Holmes

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       Robert Derby Holmes

      A Yankee in the Trenches

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664586551

Table of Contents

       FOREWORD

       A YANKEE IN THE TRENCHES

       CHAPTER I

       JOINING THE BRITISH ARMY

       CHAPTER II

       GOING IN

       CHAPTER III

       A TRENCH RAID

       CHAPTER IV

       A FEW DAYS' REST IN BILLETS

       CHAPTER V

       FEEDING THE TOMMIES

       CHAPTER VI

       HIKING TO VIMY RIDGE

       CHAPTER VII

       FASCINATION OF PATROL WORK

       CHAPTER VIII

       ON THE GO

       CHAPTER IX

       FIRST SIGHT OF THE TANKS

       CHAPTER X

       FOLLOWING THE TANKS INTO BATTLE

       CHAPTER XI

       PRISONERS

       CHAPTER XII

       I BECOME A BOMBER

       CHAPTER XIII

       BACK ON THE SOMME AGAIN

       CHAPTER XIV

       THE LAST TIME OVER THE TOP

       CHAPTER XV

       BITS OF BLIGHTY

       CHAPTER XVI

       SUGGESTIONS FOR "SAMMY"

       GLOSSARY OF ARMY SLANG

FOREWORD

       Table of Contents

      I have tried as an American in writing this book to give the public a complete view of the trenches and life on the Western Front as it appeared to me, and also my impression of conditions and men as I found them. It has been a pleasure to write it, and now that I have finished I am genuinely sorry that I cannot go further. On the lecture tour I find that people ask me questions, and I have tried in this book to give in detail many things about the quieter side of war that to an audience would seem too tame. I feel that the public want to know how the soldiers live when not in the trenches, for all the time out there is not spent in killing and carnage. As in the case of all men in the trenches, I heard things and stories that especially impressed me, so I have written them as hearsay, not taking to myself credit as their originator. I trust that the reader will find as much joy in the cockney character as I did and which I have tried to show the public; let me say now that no finer body of men than those Bermondsey boys of my battalion could be found.

      I think it fair to say that in compiling the trench terms at the end of this book I have not copied any war book, but I have given in each case my own version of the words, though I will confess that the idea and necessity of having such a list sprang from reading Sergeant Empey's "Over the Top." It would be impossible to write a book that the people would understand without the aid of such a glossary.

      It is my sincere wish that after reading this book the reader may have a clearer conception of what this great world war means and what our soldiers are contending with, and that it may awaken the American people to the danger of Prussianism so that when in the future there is a call for funds for Liberty Loans, Red Cross work, or Y.M.C.A., there will be no slacking, for they form the real triangular sign to a successful termination of this terrible conflict.

      R. DERBY HOLMES.

      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

       Corporal Holmes in the Uniform of the 22nd London Battalion, Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, H.M. Imperial Army Frontispiece

       Reduced Facsimile of Discharge Certificate of Character

       A Heavy Howitzer, Under Camouflage

       Over the Top on a Raid

       Cooking