Notes (ePub)

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.