Notes: A Soldier's Memoir of World War I

Book Synopsis: 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.