E BOOKS FOR ANTIQUARIANS VII: THE CANNONEERS HAVE HAIRY EARS: A DIARY OF THE FRONT LINES (WWI)

In this post, dear readers, we take a diversion (a meander) into the the seventh installment of my e-book for antiquarians.  In these, I share passages and commentary on open access e-books of interest that have been scanned and are available in their original form on the interwebs, rendering as close to an authentic reading experience as possible. If you click the "e-book" link in the blog labels to the right, you can find the other e-book posts.  In this case, we visit the American Experience in the Great War...

Scan of the Meander's Copy

Above is the Publication information (clix pix for BIG PIX): the "Anonymus" author was actually Robert J Casey who would go on to become an adventure writer, journalist and War Correspondent (WWII) for the Chicago Daily News (a bit more on his later career and publications will follow at the conclusion of this post). This turn to professional writing by our anonymous artillery officer comes as no surprise once one begins to read this text: to say that it is a page turner is an understatement.

But before I get carried away with the contents, let me provide information on where you may access this book yourself.  It is available for reading online via the Haithi Trust through the University of California Library and University of Michigan Library.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS: INFLUENZA

The writing is splendidly colorful and engaging.  In addition to being the narrative of an officer in a US 75mm artillery battery in WWI, it provides excellent glimpses into the underside of history, an unvarnished look at "big events" from the perspective of those who lived them.  For instance, our hero begins the story, somehow appropriately, with the influenza, and we are colorfully introduced to Doc Duffy and his saving cure of raw eggs and cognac (and keeping our hero out of the clutches of the Army Hospital).  In this post, I have scanned the passages and pasted them into the blog in the hopes that they will expand sufficiently to allow visitors to read along.  So as usual, please clix pix for BIG PIX and further reading enjoyment...

PEOPLE'S GAS LIGHT & COKE CO

This book, like others coming from the US experience in the Great War, often has an "attitude"--an irreverent take on authority and a glibness towards potential (and real) dangers.  The below description of the wearing and handling of gas masks is one example of many (and is representative of the soldier's take on items of military equipment that persists to this day, however necessary they may be--I can attest to the fact that in the US Army  75 years later we held our gas masks in similar esteem)...

THE FRENCH WAY

After recounting the elaborate attention that his and other US Artillery batteries had paid to operating "by the book" as they went into their first action--keeping hidden in daylight, erecting camoflauge nets, proper handling and storage of shells, obliterating tracks and trails indicating occupation, deliberate laying of the guns, etc--the author shares a hilarious anecdote of the reaction of US gunners to seeing a veteran French battery of 75s pull into position next door...

THE GOOD GUYS AND GAS: ST MIHIEL

The narrative follows along with the trajectory of US operations in the Great War, with the battery going into combat in the St Mihiel Offensive.  Although I consider myself well read on the Great War, this narrative is the first that I have run across that openly discusses the extent to which the US used chemical warfare in the Great War, and it is an eye opener. By the end of this book, it is quite clear that chemicals were an integral component of US artillery preparations. It is also illuminating to see that the gunners were cognizant of the nature of gas warfare...

...following on from this, the author recounts the reaction of he and a fellow battery officer upon seeing a dispirited group of teen-aged German POWs being marched through their positions on the way to the rear at the conclusion of the operation...

SIGNAL SHOT, BARRAGE, AND MONT SEC AFLAME

The description of the opening barrage of the St Mihiel offensive is quite vivid and reminiscent of other memoirs that describe the thunderous barrages of the Great War...

...the primary target was Mont Sec...

Contemporary Image of Mont Sec, with the US Memorial visible on top 

(image from the Doughboy Center Website)

LIFE AND DEATH "BEHIND THE LINES" WITH THE ARTILLERY

Although one unacquainted with the reality of the Great War may imagine that artillerists, being technically "behind the lines," lived a protected life, this was far from the truth. In addition to active counter battery fire, which meant incoming large caliber rounds by definition, the tremendous amounts of artillery fire directed at harassing and interdicting areas behind the trenches meant that gunners were subjected to horrendous artillery fire, often without the benefit of being entrenched.  Although the author makes light of many otherwise dire incidents, his descriptions of being under artillery fire are unsparing...

A LACONIC FELLOW: TAKING CARE OF A CUSTOMER

The book is sprinkled with character studies, incidents, and observations. An amusingly characteristic one is when our hero was sent forward to do some liaison work.  He "discovers" a German machine gun position (the hard way), which leads to an encounter with a US infantry officer and his men...

  

EYEWITNESS TO EVENTS

Moving into the much larger and costlier later US Meuse-Argonne offensives, the narrator provides first hand witness to the casualties and costs...

...and the chaos of the operation--as well as a remarkable example of the bond between soldiers fighting for one another that motivates them to carry on...

Obviously, I was very taken with this book, both as a good read and a source of information.  I hope that this post has been of interest to others as well.

 LATER LIFE AND WRITING

Robert J Casey, would go on to author of other books, be something of an adventure writer between the wars, a war correspondent in WWII, and a journalist with the Chicago Daily News.

 

 Two of the author's books of war correspondence:  I Can't Forget: Personal recollections of a War Correspondent in France, Luxembourg, Germany, and England, 1941) and Torpedo Junction, With the Pacific Fleet from Peral Harbor to Midway, 1942.(My copy of I Can't Forget is on its way).

Here is a snippet of his WWII correspondence.  In this case, when he was in London and heard the motor of a V-2 rocket cut out, "I could have sworn that it was squarely above me, though it was probably two or three blocks to the north.  A few seconds later, fire squirted upward through the near distance...and the sky glowed red. The pavement trembled underfoot, a sudden concussion pressed against my stomach and a snarling roar came back to us" (from Ray Mosley's Reporting War: How Foreign Correspondents Risked Capture, Torture, and Death to Cover World War II. Yale University Press. 2017)

Another of his books, from 1949, is available free online on the Internet Archive: The Black Hills and Their Incredible Characters.  

When I think about the state of contemporary media and what I read and see today, I can't help but feel that we have lost much since Casey's days, when the written word was prime and we had journalists/authors who were capable of rendering such fine stories (both fiction and non fiction) so well told. 

Excelsior!