The Western Front Diaries

Hidden under the shadow of Gallipoli for decades, the breathtaking story of what really happened on the Western Front has finally been brought into the bright light of day. Five times greater than Gallipoli, the Western Front had: five times more soldiers (250 000 rather than 50 000), more than five times the amount of men killed (46 000 compared to 8709), more than five times as many battles, with troops serving there for four times longer, and five times the sum of Victoria Crosses earned (a total of 53). Thankfully, the diggers serving in this first Australian Army Corps and under an Australian commander for the first time, actually helped win the war. Using hundreds of brutally honest and extraordinary eyewitness accounts of the diggers in the muddy and bloody trenches, Western Front Diaries reproduces their private diaries, letters and postcards to tell of their heart-rending experiences, battle by bloody battle. With its gallery of unpublished photographs, Western Front Diaries tells without embellishment the stories of the Australian soldiers and finally puts the Western Front on the map.

Australia's official First World War correspondent Charles Bean saw more of the Australian army's activities and battles on the Western Front than anyone. Bean's private wartime diaries, held by the Australian War Memorial, form a unique and personal record of his experiences and observations throughout the war and were the basis of his monumental twelve-volume official war history. While his diaries relating to the Gallipoli campaign have been published in four editions, Bean's Western Front diaries are published here for the first time, edited by esteemed historian Peter Burness, and accompanied by over 500 incredible photographs, sketches and maps.

This, the first in a series of four unique War Diaries produced in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, will tell a story that is rarely heard: the experiences of a nurse working close to the Western Front in the First World War. Incredibly, Edith Appleton served in France for the whole of the conflict. Her bravery and dedication won her the Military OBE, the Royal Red Cross and the Belgian Queen Elizabeth medal among others. Her diary details with compassion all the horrors of the 'war to end wars', including the first use of poison gas and the terrible cost of battles such as Ypres, but she also records what life was like for nurses and how she spent her time off-duty. There are moments of humour amongst the tragedy, and even lyrical accounts of the natural beauty that still existed amidst all the destruction.

Teenage Simone's diaries for 1917 and 1918 reveal her experiences as a carefree member of New York society, then as a "Hello girl," a volunteer switchboard operator for the Army Signal Corps in France.

Julian Henry Francis Grenfell, son of William Henry Grenfell (1855-1945) and Ethel Anne Priscilla Fane (1867-1952), was born 30 March 1888 in London, England. His father was the first Baron Desborough. Julian died 26 May 1915 in France.

Of war, yet overall he remained remarkably cheerful and resolute - and certain of his own impending death. A great many soldiers in 1915 did not survive long enough to record their experiences. It was nasty, close-range fighting, with fearsome instruments of death. Nobody yet knew how to fight the first mechanized global war. Lionel Sotheby, sensitive and enthusiastic, tried hard in his letters to give his family the look and feel of the war. In so doing, this young man.

An ordinary soldier’s day-by-day account of the Great War Vernon E. Kniptash, an Indiana national guardsman who served in the Rainbow Division during World War I, observed firsthand some of the Great War’s fiercest fighting. As a radio operator with the Headquarters Company of the 150th Field Artillery, he was in constant contact with French and British forces as well as with American troops, and thus gained a broad perspective on the hostilities. Editor E. Bruce Geelhoed introduces and annotates Kniptash’s war diaries, published here for the first time. With clarity and compelling detail, Kniptash describes the experiences of an ordinary soldier thrust into the most violent conflict the world had seen. He tells of his enthusiasm upon enlistment and of the horrors of combat that followed, as well as the drudgery of daily routine. He renders unforgettable profiles of his fellow soldiers and commanders, and manages despite the strains of warfare to leaven his writing with humor. Readers will share Kniptash’s ordeals as he participates in the furious effort to stem a major German offensive, followed by six months of violent combat and the massive Allied counteroffensive that ended the war. Because Kniptash was called to remain with the Army of Occupation in Germany after his unit was shipped home, his diaries cover the full extent of American participation in the war.