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Between the Lines
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
- GenresHistoryWorld War I
267 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1915
19 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Boyd Cable
54Ìýbooks3ÌýfollowersErnest Andrew Ewart (1878-1943) was an Australian author who wrote under the pseudonym Boyd Cable.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 29, 2020
Its been awhile since I read this book, which was history of the WWI front told in story style, based off of actual reports from the lines. It takes a perspective of reading between the lines of what the reports or papers would say. For example, if the report was "Detonated a mine under the enemy trench" it would detail what that was like for the soldiers on the line and the engineers who did the painstaking work to construct the mine, so it's a really cool perspective. It was very well written and interesting. Recommended to history fans.
September 8, 2017
During WWI the folks at home were mostly fed a steady diet of propaganda and vague press statements that didn't really reveal the reality of life in the trenches. This book, written by a journalist 'at the Front and within the sound of the German guns' aimed to remedy that.
What did it actually mean when the newspapers informed their readers that, for example, 'On the Western Front there is nothing to report. All remains quiet.'
In the author's dramatisation of this typical statement a new battalion to the frontline experience a day and night of constant shelling and mortaring in which nine men perished and thirty-six were wounded, where the enemies nearest trench is taken and lost not once but twice but no substantial territory was gained.
Men are alive one minute and randomly dead the next, ricochets claim as many lives as direct hits, bodies lie everywhere and rot in the mud before they can be removed and given a decent burial. I highly doubt the purpose of this publication was to discourage volunteers but I fail to see how it could have motivated anyone to rush down to their local recruiting office.
And yet despite being more graphic than most of the reportage from WWI that I have read, there was still something held back. The more obviously dramatised the individual stories were, the more unrealistic the element of personal drama they injected, the better they were for it.
Stories about the work of a sapper and a doctor were proof of this. The former was particularly suspenseful, the later especially tragic. I guess I'm used to reading subsequent accounts of the horrors of war, which have hidden nothing. As such, a story is preferable to a half-truth.
Also worth a mention though was the insight into the soldiers of both armies hurling songs and insults across the trenches at each other as well as bullets and grenades. In one episode a cockney regiment appropriate the German's famous 'Hymn of Hate' and have lots of fun singing it back to the enemy.
What did it actually mean when the newspapers informed their readers that, for example, 'On the Western Front there is nothing to report. All remains quiet.'
In the author's dramatisation of this typical statement a new battalion to the frontline experience a day and night of constant shelling and mortaring in which nine men perished and thirty-six were wounded, where the enemies nearest trench is taken and lost not once but twice but no substantial territory was gained.
Men are alive one minute and randomly dead the next, ricochets claim as many lives as direct hits, bodies lie everywhere and rot in the mud before they can be removed and given a decent burial. I highly doubt the purpose of this publication was to discourage volunteers but I fail to see how it could have motivated anyone to rush down to their local recruiting office.
And yet despite being more graphic than most of the reportage from WWI that I have read, there was still something held back. The more obviously dramatised the individual stories were, the more unrealistic the element of personal drama they injected, the better they were for it.
Stories about the work of a sapper and a doctor were proof of this. The former was particularly suspenseful, the later especially tragic. I guess I'm used to reading subsequent accounts of the horrors of war, which have hidden nothing. As such, a story is preferable to a half-truth.
Also worth a mention though was the insight into the soldiers of both armies hurling songs and insults across the trenches at each other as well as bullets and grenades. In one episode a cockney regiment appropriate the German's famous 'Hymn of Hate' and have lots of fun singing it back to the enemy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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