Transcriber’s Note: Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
MY YEAR OF THE GREAT WAR
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Going to War in Greece
The Ways of the Service
The Vagabond
With Kuroki in Manchuria
Over the Pass
The Last Shot
My Year of the Great War
MY YEAR OF THE
GREAT WAR
BY
FREDERICK PALMER
Author of “The Last Shot,” “With Kuroki in Manchuria,”
“The Vagabond,” etc.
Toronto
McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart
Limited
Copyright, 1915
By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
First Edition October
Second, Third and Fourth Editions November
Fifth Edition December
Printed in U. S. A.
In “The Last Shot,” which appeared only a fewmonths before the Great War began, drawing frommy experience in many wars, I attempted to describethe character of a conflict between two great Europeanland-powers, such as France and Germany.
“You were wrong in some ways,” a friend writesto me, “but in other ways it is almost as if you hadwritten a play and they were following your scriptand stage business.”
Wrong as to the duration of the struggle and itsbitterness; right about the part which artillery wouldplay; right in suggesting the stalemate of intrenchmentswhen vast masses of troops occupied the lengthof a frontier. Had the Germans not gone throughBelgium and attacked on the shorter line of the Franco-Germanboundary, the parallel of fact with that ofprediction would have been more complete. As forthe ideal of “The Last Shot,” we must await the outcometo see how far it shall be fulfilled by a lastingpeace.
Then my friend asks, “How does it make youfeel?” Not as a prophet; only as an eager observer,who finds that imagination pales beside reality.If sometimes an incident seemed a page out of mynovel, I was reminded how much better I might havedone that page from life; and from life I am writingnow.
I have seen too much of the war and yet not enoughto assume the pose of a military expert; which is easywhen seated in a chair at home before maps and newsdespatches, but becomes fantastic after one has livedviat the front. One waits on more information beforehe forms conclusions about campaigns. He is certainonly that the Marne was a decisive battle for civilisation;that if England had not gone into the war theGermanic Powers would have won in three months.
No words can exaggerate the heroism and sacrificeof the French or the importance of the part which theBritish have played, which we shall not realise till thewar is over. In England no newspapers were suppressed;casualty lists were given out; she gave publicityto dissension