IN THE LINE 1914 – 1918

Description

Georg Bücher, a German infantryman from 1914 had lost almost all of his closest friends by 1918. The last friend he lost, Riedel, was crushed by a tank in one of the last battles of the war. A sergeant by 1918, Bücher describes nearly every part of the Western Front – the Marne, Verdun, Somme, Ypres, the Vosges and the 1918 Spring Offensive in vivid detail. He illustrates how his psychological state changed over the course of the war, how a soldier can in a split second turn from a human being into a killing machine without pity, killing as second nature, without thought. The raw endurance required to survive the trenches is narrated in undiluted fashion, no horrors are spared; the quagmire of 3rd Ypres, unrelenting lice and rats, the stench of death and descriptions of abhorrent actions such as (so Bucher alleges) French soldiers, under the influence of absinthe, mutilating some of his company for revenge on the Senegalese. Fans of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ or ‘Storm of Steel’ will be delighted to discover Bucher’s work.