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Old 09-12-18, 01:33 PM
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Drew Drew is offline
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Default Somme Harvest, Memoirs of a P.B.I. in the Summer of 1916

Charles E. M. Eyre was a Rifleman in the 2nd Battalion, K.R.R.C. during WW1. This account takes place over only two or three months in the summer of 1916 as he is returning to theatre after recovering from being wounded.
Rifleman Eyre describes the Somme battle in horrifying detail. He also details all the humorous japes and capers that he and his chums get up to. This makes it all the more poignant as his group is whittled down by the war. What struck me about this book was that Eyre uses real names, such as his pal William Mariner V.C. As well as this, and the shocking detail, Eyre often reverts to use of the first person present tense which makes the action feel very immediate. Eyre seems very concerned to make the reader understand what happened so that the same mistakes won't happen again in the future- and yet he is writing in 1939. I think he feels that every man should do his duty, but he knows what that costs.

A big thanks to Jelly Terror for recommending this book to me.
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