It has been over eighty years since the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) fought its great battles in France during World War I.

World War I has also been a great war of words. Although the conflict has attracted more than its fair share of bores, there are nonetheless a lot of interesting reads in its massive bibliography.

In the process of researching and writing my series of guidebooks to the battlegrounds of the AEF in France and Belgium, it has been my pleasure to have read hundreds of unit histories, fictional and non-fictional books relating to the AEF and its combat operations. One finishes his reading of this literature with his emotions and thoughts stirred by some of the better novels. In spite of the fact that World War I has been over for eighty years, and has been eclipsed by cataclysmic events since, the intensity of passion spread upon the pages of many of these novels still has a great impact. Many of these writers felt deeply, and their intense involvement in the issues of the war was well-translated in auto-biographical or fictional form to the written page. They made the war and their positions come alive for readers of that period, and their words still have that power. It is this type of book which it has been the compiler's purpose to list.

We sometimes overlook the testimony of the ordinary soldier - not a scholar or an expert in the accepted sense - but he who knew certain limited things because he was there, he was personally involved, he did the fighting himself. The serious historian should always seek out such first-person accounts because they can frequently correct a record that was distorted in the first writing and was perpetuated by scholarly experts copying each other. Eyewitnesses and participants have memories of things not previously in print or commonly known. The soldiers observed people and events from a special viewpoint. They should therefore be considered prime sources for the military historian and author.

Authenticity is a prerequisite of the good war novel. Of all the books, both pre-and post-Armistice, there are too few which have caught the reflection of the American doughboy so that he himself may recognize the image. Of that which Barbusse did for the French poilu in "Le Feu" and Ian Hay for the British Tommy in "The First Hundred Thousand," our shelves show but faint traces.

Who can fail to be moved even today, in a world grown callous by brutality and destructiveness, with the poignant writing of Hervey Allen about the fighting of the Pennsylvanians in Fismette, the little suburb of Fismes (by the Vesle River in France), or of John W. Thomason's account of the capture of Hill 142 on the left flank of Belleau Wood, on the morning of the day on which Belleau Wood was assaulted. Yet these books are so intensely personal and historical at the same time that each one individually still reveals new insights to an understanding of that period out of which they came and of later periods as well.

Here then, are the twenty-eight books which I would like to recommend to the readers of this article, the books which give the reader a "gut-feeling" of life and combat in the AEF.

Some of these books may be easily and currently available at your local library. Often large libraries will have them in their collection. If not available, the reference department of your library can get the book for you on the National Interlibrary Loan Program. Any library will be able to order any titles for you on the national interlibrary loan program; they are well worth searching out and reading.

Allen, Hervey. TOWARD the FLAME. NY: Doran, 1926. Hervey Allen's account of his experiences as an infantry lieutenant showed that one man's battle role was so insignificant that the war aims faded into the background. Once in action, the individual's struggle to survive eliminated all other considerations. In most cases, success depended on a combination of fortunate circumstances, seldom on skill. Allen's graphic account of service in the 28th Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, AEF, and the vicious battle for Fismes and Fismette during the Aisne-Marne offensive of 1918 is very lucid. The five day fight for Fismette was said to have been the worst five days of fighting by the American Expeditionary Forces. This book is very candid in its observations and formed a basis for some of Allen's later war stories.

. IT WAS LIKE THIS: TWO STORIES of the GREAT WAR. NY.: Farrar & Rinehart, 1940. "Report to Major Roberts" tells of a young Yank lieutenant who comes to enjoy killing and whose only hold on reality during combat is his title, "Blood Lust" sees the transformation of a simple youth into a professional soldier via a heavy-handed introduction to the horrors of combat.

Barber, Thomas H. ALONG the ROAD. NY.: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1924. Thomas Barber, formerly a captain in the Pioneer Infantry, writes graphically about twelve ordinary days of combat experience by his engineer company in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. Barber has presented a small cross section of that war with which the majority of the AEF were familiar. Reading Barber's book is akin to the feeling one has when strikng gold on a worked-out claim. A tale told with simple vigor that, to those who knew the Argonne front, will make the shadows of October 1918 leap out from the past into sharp reality. Such boldness and homely honesty of line could only have been drawn by one endowed with rare powers of observation and human sympathy.

Through the lines of a soldier's diary emerges the soldier himself. That strange mixture of discontent and cheerfulness, stubbornness under discipline and tractability under leadership, sentimentalism and repression, garrulous incoherence. Barber has captured the spirit of the "middle army" which sweated unsung through seas of mud, heaving, cursing, straining to get supplies up to the front lines.

Webmaster's Note:  An excerpt from this book appears in Tom Gudmestad's feature article "Along the Road" on this website.

Barkley, John Lewis. NO HARD FEELINGS. NY.: Cosmopolitan, 1930. John L. Barkley's narrative takes the reader from Château-Thierry to the Argonne, where he was a winner of the Medal of Honor. Enough said!

Boyd, Thomas Alexander. THROUGH THE WHEAT. NY.: Scribner's, 1923. Reprinted 1978 by Southern University Press, Carbondale, ILL. Boyd's book stands at the top of the list. War's utter waste and futility permeate Boyd's novel. During the Château-Thierry and Soissons battles, Boyd revealed in each member of a marine platoon his motives for fighting, his fears, and his ambitions. He knew the men who fought and he has crystallized their actions, both physical and mental, with an unerring pen in this novel concerning marines in France during World War I and their adjustment to the daily tasks of surviving under front-line conditions and the constant advance into almost certain death. Considered by many to be not only the best combatant story of the World War I but the best American war book since "The Red Badge of Courage." The characters are all familiar, but the action, thrilling, horrifying, vivid, is, fortunately, unfamiliar to a great majority of the American army.  Boyd served with the 4th Marine Brigade, 2nd Division, AEF, and when he wrote about the Battle of Soissons, he knew that many of the men of his Marine Brigade would judge his record.

March, William. [Pseud. Campbell, William E. M.]. COMPANY "K", by William March, psued. NY.: Smith, Haas, 1933. Also Hill & Wang, 1957, and University of Alabama Press, 1995.

Arguably the best work of American Great War fiction is William March’s 1933 classic Company K. March, the pen name for William Edward Campbell, served with the 5^th Marines in France and was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross for his heroism under fire. The book contains 113 small chapters that works its way through the entire personnel roster of the fictitious company. March manages to completely capture every aspect about the war in the highly personal insights of the men of Company K.

Dos Passos, John. THREE SOLDIERS. Doran, 1921. Reprinted 1964. An American war classic that traces the experiences of three doughboys through World War I, showing how all are broken by the pressures of conflict and the "system"; a bitter attack on what the author conceived as the misery, tyranny, and degradation found in Pershing's American Expeditionary Forces.

Elliot, Paul B. ON the FIELD of HONOR: A COLLECTION of WAR LETTERS and REMINISCENCES of THREE HARVARD GRADUATES WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES in the GREAT CAUSE. Boston: D. B. Updike, 1920. The Merrymount Press. A collection of wartime letters written by three young lieutenants in the AEF, all three of whom were killed in action. Don't let the title of this book fool you! In reading these letters, the reader cannot help but become emotionally involved with the feelings of these men.

Fredenburgh, Theodore. SOLDIERS MARCH. NY.: Harcourt, 1930. Examines 18 months in the life of an American non-com with the Field Artillery, AEF, in France in 1917-1918.

Hemrick, Levi E. ONCE A MARINE. NY.: Carlton Press, 1968. Although written some forty years after the war, Mr. Hemrick presents a thought provoking memoir of his service in the Marine Corps during World War I.

Hoffman, Robert C. I REMEMBER the LAST WAR. York, PA.: Strength & Health Publishing Co., 1940. Infantry officer's service with the 111th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 28th Division, AEF.

Jacks, Leo V. SERVICE RECORD: BY an ARTILLERYMAN. NY.: Scribners, 1928. Artillery service in the AEF- 119th Field Artillery Regiment, 32nd Division.

Mackin, Elton E. SUDDENLY WE DIDN'T WANT to DIE: MEMOIRS of a WORLD WAR I MARINE. Novato, CA.: Presidio Press, 1993. Private Mackin participated in every campaign in which the Marine Brigade saw action. A runner with the 1st Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, he miraculously escaped serious physical injury, but as this evocative memoir shows, his psyche did not. In the tradition of All Quiet on the Western Front, Mackin offers a soldier's eye view of not just the horrors of battle, but also the subtle little everyday experiences that make the life of the combat soldier both tolerable and soul-shattering.

Morgan, Daniel. WHEN the WORLD WENT MAD. Christopher Publishing House, 1931. Pike, 1993. Memoirs of a marine sergeant in the 77th Co., 6th Machine Gun Battalion, U.S. 2nd Division, who went through all five of the USMC campaigns in World War I. Sgt. Morgan does a good bit of editorializing, and is very acrimonious, but his book contains many gems of eloquence.

Nason, Leonard H. A CORPORAL ONCE. Garden City, NY.: Doubleday-Doran., 1930. Good general account of a soldier's life in the AEF from the Mexican border to France.

. CHEVRONS. NY.: Doran, 1926. A superior portrayal of combat in the infantry and artillery of the AEF.

. SERGEANT EDIE. Garden City, NY.: Doubleday, Doran, 1928. The sequel novel to Chevrons by the same author.

. THE TOP KICK. NY.: Grossett & Dunlap, 1928. A very good trilogy of combat and life in the AEF. The first of the three short stories is entitled "A Sergeant of Cavalry," and, although not mentioning its locale by name, is obviously a story of the fighting along the Vesle River in France during July and August, 1918.

. THREE LIGHTS from a MATCH. NY.: Doran, 1927. Another superior book of three short stories dealing with life and action in the AEF. Leonard Nason is one of the best and most prolific writers of AEF fiction.

Scanlon, William T. GOD HAVE MERCY ON US: A STORY of 1918. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1929. The author was with the 97th Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Brigade, U.S. 2nd Division and wrote this first person fictional memoir of Marines in action from Belleau Wood to the Armistice.

Stallings, Laurence. PLUMES. NY.: Harcourt, Brace, 1924. Stallings, who lost a leg while a marine officer in Belleau Wood, is well qualified to write of the treatment accorded our wounded men in post-war days. Stallings reiterated war's destruction of individual rights in his novel, Plumes. Richard Plume, descendant of many civilian-soldiers, went to war against his wishes and returned from France with a shattered leg. Plume comes to hate war. A moving novel dealing with an infantry officer's combat experiences and the sordid treatment accorded him as a severely wounded and crippled veteran in the postwar years. Later, at a rally when the crowd sang "America," he mused: "War was wrong. Fighting was stupid...never was a battle worth while." He fought futilely to expose war's shams. Patriotic slogans, the return to "normalcy," and the resistance of those who thought his behavior "un-American," convinced him there was no use struggling to avoid ano ther war. This is a soul-wrenching story of what war has done to a human body and of AEF amputees in post-war Washington, D.C.

. THE DOUGHBOYS: THE STORY of the A.E.F., 1917-1918. NY.: Harper & Row, 1963. Another very good read about the general history of the AEF. This book contains the reflections of one man (like William Manchester's World War II memoir Goodbye Darkness) and its value is in setting the "tone of the times," not for its rendering of facts. History it is not, a good read it is.

Stevens, James. MATTOCK. NY.: Knopf, 1927. The experiences of one Kansas doughboy from training camp through the battles in France and back to America.

Suskind, Richard. DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER? NY.: Paperback edition only, Bantam, 1964. A very good read about the marines at Belleau Wood. Be forwarned, however, that the book does not represent accurate history.

Thomason, John W., Jr. FIX BAYONETS! NY.: Blue Ribbon Books, 1926. Five short stories built around the actions of the 49th Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment at Belleau Wood, Soissons, and Blanc Mont. A superlative story of combat in the 4th Marine Brigade of the 2nd Division, AEF. Thomason's descriptions of combat on Hill 142 are without peer, however, they are not an accurate chronicle of events and should not be read as such. Lieutenant Thomason did not join the marines on Hill 142 until several days after June 6th, the day of the fight. Most of what he relates is from his brother marines and probably from stories he heard around campfires.

Westover, Wendell. SUICIDE BATTALIONS. NY.: Putnam's, 1929. Machine-gun officer's service with the 4th Machine Gun Battalion, 2nd Division, AEF.

Wharton, James B. SQUAD. NY.: Coward-McCann, 1928. Very good account of life in the AEF and of infantry combat. The war chronicle of eight men, the smallest of military units - a squad, and their feelings. The critics said of this book,"what ""All Quiet on the Western Front"" does for the common soldiers of the German Army, this book does for the doughboys of the AEF."

Wood, Lambert. HIS JOB: LETTERS WRITTEN by a 22 YEAR OLD LIEUTENANT in the WORLD WAR to HIS PARENTS and OTHES. Portland, OR.: Metropolitan Press, 1932. These letters written home by a young AEF combat officer perhaps express the feelings of the average American soldier better than most writings. After reading these letters you will hopefully know what the war was about as far as the American soldier was concerned. The soldier writer of the beautiful letters was killed at Soissons.

Copyright January, 2004 by David C. Homsher