Beschreibung:

WORLD WAR I. Autograph manuscript journal of Harold E. Hamilton, a non-commissioned officer of the U.S. 319th Field Signal Battalion, 1 January - 25 December 1918, 200 pages, 8vo , roan (worn).
WORLD WAR I. Autograph manuscript journal of Harold E. Hamilton, a non-commissioned officer of the U.S. 319th Field Signal Battalion, 1 January - 25 December 1918, 200 pages, 8vo , roan (worn). The journal of a 'doughboy', covering his training (at Camp Sherman, Ohio), his departure for France, disembarking at Brest on 18 May, and life in camp principally at Houdelaincourt (24 May: 'a typical peasant village ... wrinkled old women, attractive girls and a host of children'), La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, from which he visits Paris ('truly magnificent ... Rumors as to the immorality of the city have not been exaggerated') and Ruppes ('A more God-forsaken hole could hardly be imagined'): this latter is close to the front, but although the 319th is known to have taken part in the St Mihiel offensive and the Meuse-Argonne offensive in September-November 1918, Hamilton seems not himself to have seen active service. Nevertheless, camp life is enlivened by the discovery of French cuisine and landscape, occasional bombing raids, and the passage (13 September) of a large number of German PoWs, 'Under a guard of jubilant though exhausted "doughboys" they came plodding along, many of them completely exhausted and all smeared with dirt. One significant thing was the great number of old men among them. Some must have been over 60'. News of the armistice is met with great relief; on 11 November 'At eleven all firing ceased. Up to that time our artillery kept up a terrific bombardment and east of the Meuse the boys went ahead twenty kilometers'; on 25 November, Hamilton views Verdun, 'All was desolation and graves dotted the scarred fields'. The journal concludes with a drab Thanksgiving and Christmas, and thoughts of home.