These gripping tales from the trenches of France and Belgium offer firsthand testimony to the mayhem that devastated Europe from 1914 to 1918. Written mostly by veterans, they offer moving accounts of life and death amid the constant terror of bombs, poison gas, and machine guns. In addition to the more familiar perspectives of American and British soldiers, the tales encompass German, French, and Russian points of view. Featured stories include "Introduction to the Trenches," a narrative of a soldier's first night in No Man's Land by Imagist poet Richard Aldington; Mary Borden's "Blind," based on her service as a nurse in a hospital on the Western Front; and "A Raid Night," in which H. M. Tomlinson recounts a zeppelin attack on London. Additional contributors include Rudyard Kipling, Ford Madox Ford, John Galsworthy, Somerset Maugham, Katherine Mansfield, and others. Editor Bob Blaisdell introduces the anthology and provides notes on each author.
