Forgotten Voices Of The Great War - Max Arthur

...a recently published book; Forgotten Voices Of The Great War tells the story of the war “in the words of the men and women who were there”. This first-hand account is more harrowing and more moving than any dry-eyed textbook could ever be.

The book started life as an oral history project undertaken by the Imperial War Museum back in the early 1970’s. Thousands of interviews were recorded - not just with British veterans but with American, ...
...then more or less
forgotten - available to only a very few people with a special interest in the subject.

In recent years, there seems to have been a greater interest in the First World War than
at any other time since it’s end in 1918. Armistice Day , November 11th, is once again commemorated whereas for years there was only Remberance Sunday, the nearest Sunday to November 11th, to remember the dead of all conflicts.
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The First World War, The Great War, The War To End All Wars. Endless books have been written , films made and television documentaries produced about this; possibly the most dreadful and futile of wars.
Most of us probably think that we know all there is to know about the conflict but a recently published book; Forgotten Voices Of The Great War tells the story of the war “in the words of the men and women who were there”. This first-hand account is more harrowing and more moving than any dry-eyed textbook could ever be.

The book started life as an oral history project undertaken by the Imperial War Museum back in the early 1970’s. Thousands of interviews were recorded - not just with British veterans but with American, Canadian, Australian and even German survivors. The interviewees also included accounts by women who had “kept the
home fires burning” working in factories, serving in the Land Service Corps or Women’s Emergency Corps.

Having created a vast archive of wartime memories, the tapes were then more or less
forgotten - available to only a very few people with a special interest in the subject.

In recent years, there seems to have been a greater interest in the First World War than
at any other time since it’s end in 1918. Armistice Day , November 11th, is once again commemorated whereas for years there was only Remberance Sunday, the nearest Sunday to November 11th, to remember the dead of all conflicts.

Maybe, as the years pass, we have realised that as the last of the World War One survivors are claimed by old-age soon there will be no one left to tell their story and remember their actions.
Or, maybe, in our 21st century way, we are trying to make sense of something that is beyond our experience and our understanding. We live in an era when we want to know not just what people did - but how they felt and reacted to things.

The historian, Max Arthur, perhaps sensing that the time was right to do so, has produced, in book form, many of the “Voices” from the long-forgotten 1970’s tapes.
Each year of the war is introduced by a short background of the major battles and strategies of that year. And then the men and women are left to speak for themselves.

The result is a book that leads you from August 1914 - when men quickly joined up for fear of missing out on something that most believed would be over by Christmas -
On being told that they were being shipped to the front one group of men:
“ kicked their legs in the air and cheered and cheered and cheered”.
- through to November 1918 and the Armistice, when one man commented that he
was:
“ so dazed you just didn’t realise that you could stand up and not be shot”.

Most of the book covers the fighting on the Western Front, although there are accounts too of the fighting in Gallipoli too (of which I knew next to nothing). Often the accounts are harrowing, especially when describing life in the trenches.

This is not a book to be read from cover to cover like a novel. It is better to read short extracts at a time and that way not only are the horrors distilled slightly but you are able to appreciate the content more. I found that at times I was only able to read a few pages and was unable to continue. At other times I picked the book up to read it and felt overcome by a kind of apathy - as if I was just not able to take any more. This is not a criticism of the book - but of the war itself, which I found at times unbearable.
I considered myself lucky - I could put the book down, walk away, eat, drink, have a long, hot bath - the men in the trenches could do none of those things. I knew that the war lasted for roughly 5 years, the men who had joined up so full of excitement and adventure had no idea when it would end - or if it ever would. Yet there is very little self-pity in this book.

There is however, fear, anger, exhaustion, bewilderment and doubt. And there are
harrowing tales of life in the trenches, of mud so thick that a man could drown in it and of clothes and bodies alive with fleas. There were also rats. so big, that:
“if they were put in a harness they could have done a milk round”
How these men put up with such dreadful conditions - and the knowledge that they could at any time be killed is a tribute to their strength of character. This is war as it really was.

I found this book deeply moving and often disturbing. I would recommend it to anyone who is not just interested in World War One from a military view point but as a fellow human-being.

I do, however, have a few small criticisms of the book:
Because I don’t really know much about the army I think it would have been helpful to explain the various ranks. Saying someone is a “Sergeant” or a “Corporal” means very little to me.
It would also have been helpful to a lay-person such as myself to include maps showing the location of the various battles. (The book is well illustrated)
Lastly, and this is my 21st century “need-to-know” emerging, I would have dearly liked some details at the end of the book of what became of those “Voices” after the war. All we know is that they survived the war and were still alive in the 1970’s whenthey took part in the oral history project. What I would have liked to know was what happened to them in the years between. Did the young widow re-marry? and the 19
year old blinded in a mustard-gas attack go on to live a happy and fulfilled life. We will never know.
What we do know is that their memories of that conflict were probably never far from their thoughts for the rest of their lives.

This year at 11 o’clock on November 11th, my thoughts were with those “Forgotten Voices” and with the other voices, long-silent, who didn’t live to tell their tale.

 

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