Steele's Battalion: The Great War Diaries: The Great War Diaries
A scholar finds diaries in an old steamer trunk. The diaries tell the story of a young man, Ned Steele, who embarks on a journey from Detroit to Germany.
Ned joins the Army in 1914, earns a commission in 1917, leads a machine gun company on a Flanders hill, and then a machine gun battalion in the AEF in France. In between, Ned finds romance, terror, exhaustion, friendship, death, and the misery of World War One....
23rd November, Colline Mortelle..
I have seen the Inferno from the edge of Purgatory...mud, wire, holes, water, and the remains of man, beast, and civilization. There is no sadder sight than a ruined town...No training can get anyone ready for this expletive].
I could never have imagined what a howitzer shell landing so close could have felt like.... machine-gun bullets hum like giant bees or kazoos in the air and sound like meat hooks hitting a side of expletive] beef when they hit...Sgt. Thorsten and I went down to the "front line"...like expletive] animals in unbelievable filth and indescribable stink...in the forward posts, we endured a small bombing raid...Don't think I've ever been so expletive] humiliated in my life....
"Get ready..." the voice on the telephone said softly....the night stillness was ever-so-gently broken by the rumbling of heavy guns, followed by the crack of light howitzers...then, the shush-shush-shush of shells passing overhead...then, the ground seemed to explode...
The Maxims opened fire, the bzzz-bzzz-bzzz of the bullets ending abruptly in a muddy torrential blizzard of thut-thut-thut as they hit the hill...Half of Steele's guns were on the west side of the hill...where most of the bullets were falling...
The telephone crackled again.... "Steele "
"On our left and right," the voice said. "Missions 6 and 9."
"Out," Steele answered, grabbing his company phone and Missions List. "1st Platoon fire Mission 6, standing; 2nd Platoon Mission 9, standing...Forward post now "
His machine guns opening fire...and kept firing...
"Fire Mission 5, sweep left to right..."
"B Boy Company: my flank is open. Give me your Mission 12, and a lot of it."
"Fire Mission 12, standing. Split fire."
"B Boy again. Shift east two hundred; you're too bloody close..."
"Out. Give me 1st Platoon...sweep left two hundred..."
"Give me 3rd Platoon...Mission 9, standing..." Steele's guns kept firing...he kept adjusting..."Give me 2nd Platoon...Mission 7, standing bump left..."
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