George Guynemer, Knight of the Air (WWI Centenary Series). Henry Bordeaux
incredibly important part of life as a soldier. Receiving and writing them helped keep them sane, and could take them away from the realities of trench life. Every week, an average of 12.5 million letters were sent to soldiers by family, friends, and partners. More formalised memoirs have also become a key way of understanding the conflict, from gas attacks, the fear of going over the top, methods of coping with death - as well as the jovial camaraderie which often grew up between the men. The first memoirs of combatants were published in 1922, not long after the armistice: A Tank Driver's Experiences by Arthur Jenkins and Disenchantment by Charles Edward Montague. These were shortly joined with Good-Bye to All That (1929) by Robert Graves, A Subaltern's War (1929) by Charles Edmund Carrington, and Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) byPercy Wyndham Lewis. Nurses also published memoirs of their wartime experiences, such as A Diary without Dates (1918) by Enid Bagnold, and Forbidden Zone (1929) by Mary Borden. Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth (first published 1933) has been acclaimed as a classic for its description of the impact of the war on the lives of women and the civilian population - extending into the post-war years.
Storm of Steel, written by Ernst Jünger, published in 1920 was one of the first personal accounts to be published - a graphic account of trench warfare, unusually glorifying the sacrifice encountered. The book has consequently been criticised for lionizing war, especially when compared with works such as Remarque's (albeit fictional) All Quiet on the Western Front. In the preface to the 1929 English edition, Jünger stated that; 'Time only strengthens my conviction that it was a good and strenuous life, and that the war, for all its destructiveness, was an incomparable schooling of the heart.' As is evident from this short introduction to the memoirs, diaries, letters and poems of the first world war - it is an intensely complex field. Dependent on military rank, geographic position and placement, nationality and subjective experience and character, they take on a wide variety of forms and focuses. Such works give an amazing insight into the experiences of combatants and it is hoped the current reader is encouraged to find out more about this thoroughly worthwhile topic.
Amelia Carruthers
GEORGES GUYNEMER, KNIGHT OF THE AIR
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| I. | THE GUYNEMERS |
| II. | HOME AND COLLEGE |
| III. | THE DEPARTURE |
| I. | THE FIRST VICTORY |
| II. | FROM THE AISNE TO VERDUN |
| III. | “LA TERRE A VU JADIS ERRER DES PALADINS” |
| IV. | ON THE SOMME (JUNE, 1916, TO FEBRUARY, 1917) |
| I. | ON THE 25TH OF MAY, 1917 |
| II. | A VISIT TO GUYNEMER |
| III. | GUYNEMER IN CAMP |
| IV. | GUYNEMER AT HOME |
| V. | THE MAGIC MACHINE |
| I. | THE BATTLE OF FLANDERS |
| II. | OMENS |
| III. | THE LAST FLIGHT |
| IV. | THE VIGIL |
| V. | THE LEGEND |
| VI. |
IN |