Reminiscences of a grenadier, 1914-1919
Daily Telegraph says: "As mere pictures of prison life these powerful and effectively-written tales by Mr F. C. Vernon Harcourt are positively fascinating in their realism. They are far more interesting, far more vivid and attractive, than nineteen-twentieths of the average detective and criminal stories which have come into fashion in the past twenty years, and constitute now so large a portion of the current literary output. . .
There is, moreover, a purpose in each one of these masterly tales, a purpose with which every thoughtful and thinking man cannot but sympathise. ' It is scarcely an exaggeration/ says Mr Vernon Harcourt, ' to assert that every prison throughout the length and breadth of this Christian land is a standing monumnent to the non-success of all past and present systems of criminal administration.' And with every word of this and his admirable introduction, we cordially agree. . .
There is no type of offender, no form. the aspect of prison life, which Mr Vernon Harcourt has not studied and turned to ac- count in his vivid and fascinating volume. We commend it, with its powerful introduction, to every reader who admires realism in fiction and can appreciate fiction based upon reality. No better pictures of prison life have ever been written in this country, and the evils of the present penal system were never more graphically and interestingly laid bare."
Contents:
I. THE EARLY DAYS 1
II. AT VARIOUS BASES 9
III. THE WAR AT LAST 15
IV. IN THE TRENCHES : WULVERGHEM AND KEMMEL
(TO THE END OF 1914) 20
V. MORE KEMMEL 29
VI. ST. ELOI AND THE CADET SCHOOL 36
VII. EARLY DAYS AS A GRENADIER 41
VIII. CUINCHY AND GlVENCHY 48
IX. THE GUARDS' DIVISION AND THE BATTLE OFLoos 54
X. THE SRD BATTALION AND THE HOHENZOLLERN
REDOUBT 62
XI. LAVENTIE 76
XII. YPRES, 1916 82
XIII. YPRES, 1916 (CONTINUED) 95
XIV. THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 103
XV. SAILLY SAILLISEL AND ST. PIERRE VAAST ... 122
XVI. THE GERMAN RETIREMENT AND AFTER ... 135
XVII. YPRES SALIENT, 1917 141
XVIII. THE PILKEM OFFENSIVE 149
XIX. THE PILKEM OFFENSIVE (CONTINUED) 161
XX. Six MONTHS AT HOME 174
XXI. BERRY ST. MARTIN 178
XXII. THE 1918 OFFENSIVE : (1) MOYENNEVILLE ... 187
XXIII. THE 1918 OFFENSIVE: (2) CANAL DU NORD ... 206
XXIV. THE 1918 OFFENSIVE : (3) ESTOURMEL TO
MAUBEUGE ... ... ... ... ... 217
XXV". THE MARCH TO GERMANY 233
XXVI. COLOGNE: AND HOME AGAIN 238