The harrowing story based on George Herbert Hill's experience of the Battle of St Quentin during the First World War.
At 2 o'clock on the morning of 21 March 1918, the Battle of St Quentin began. The German assault, consisting of trench mortars, mustard gas, chlorine gas, tear gas and a heavy artillery bombardment, was said to be one of the most fierce and devastating of the Great War. Over the course of 6 days, thousands of British troops lost their lives and yet this would prove to be the turning point of the war.
George Hill was just sixteen when he enlisted into the army, eager to fight for his country and full of pride in the role he would play. After only a few weeks in France, he was in the midst of St Quentin and the full horrors of trench warfare.
After several months at the front, he was gassed and spent the last days of the war in a field hospital. Hill turned nineteen on the day of the armistice, with the end of the war in sight. Incredibly, he survived the war - one of the few members of his battalion to do so.
Autorentext
George Herbert Hill was born in Ireland in 1898. Following the year he spent in France during the Great War he became a reporter at the Belfast Telegraph. After the publication of his book Retreat from Death, he worked successively with the scriptwriter Alexander Korda and film producer Brian Desmond Hurst. In 1939 he returned to the Belfast Telegraph as a war correspondent and after the war joined the Daily Mail until his retirement. He died in 1969.
Inhalt
Foreword by Richard Holmes
BOOK I
The Start
The Camp
The Girl
The Draft
The Arrival
The Hero
The Rest
The Road
The Trench
The Reckoning
The Bridge
The Old Men
The Marching Song
The Estaminet
The Cavalry
The Nail in the Boot
The Shot Between the Eyes
The Bugle Call
The Uhlan
The Relief
The Dump
The Adjutant
BOOK II
The Veteran
The Tin of Bully
The Letter Home
The Holy Bible
The Lucky Lad
The Telescope
The Harpy
The Unlucky Lad
The Return
The Company Officer
The Complaint
The Cure
The Signal Lamp
The Old Soldier
The Shell to Himself
The Old Motto
The Comrades-in-Arms
The Advance
The Casualties
The Gurgle
The Tent
The Finish