Publisher's Synopsis
An American Doughboy in World War 1. What was it really like?...
Literally a century in the making, this book is the result of one street-wise and peace-loving but fiercely patriotic American soldier who went well beyond the typical censored letters, pocket diaries, and post-war memoirs to help answer that question for future generations.
Through a unique combination of skill, circumstances and strong personal motivation, Private William J. Graham (Company B, 103rd Military Police Battalion, 28th Division/First Army) delivers one of the most compelling, detailed, and true real-time eyewitness accounts of an American soldier's W.W. 1 experience ever recorded and available in its entirety now for the first time!
Through his keen eyes and artful powers of description, it is not difficult to imagine yourself slogging through the muddy blood-spattered fields of the Western Front as the earth trembles and German shells scream overhead...where hunger, "cooties," and death are constant companions. Private Graham's uncensored journal of over 900 hand-written pages was penned by him - not from fading memory but incredibly in France and Germany while the events he describes actually unfolded around him under raw, filthy field conditions. Private Graham not only provides his own accounting, but also that of other "grunts on the ground" that shared their stories with him.
A portion of this book was originally published under the title Hell's Observer. This work includes significant and previously undiscovered additional materials provided by family descendants to create a comprehensive narrative of Private Graham's experience from his enlistment in 1917 through his return home in 1919.
Richly illustrated with rare original and previously unpublished images, this book gives readers an authentic and powerfully moving description of the horrific sights and emotions of Americans at war with the German "Hun" in the world's first-ever global conflict. This work is of unique value to the historian or student of the period serving as an accurate and superbly detailed description of what many U.S. soldiers experienced "doing their bit" while struggling to survive yet another day ..."Somewhere in France"!
