HIUS 222-B01
An American Soldier in World War I

An American Soldier in World war one provides readers with a historical and personal first hand experience of World War I. In the introduction of the book it the writer is careful to state that, “While the soldier’s story has been told on occasion, most of these studies fall short in several areas. First, they do not provide the soldier's point of view. Second, they provide few, if any, citations for their examples and factual information...” This book defines the war exactly for what it was by telling the story of George “Brownie” Browne. All of the troubles and shortcomings that Browne went through can be familiarized by many other soldiers during WWI. This book also attempts to show the difficulties of a soldier’s long distance relationship during the war and as many know these are not easy. An American Soldier in World War I follows the life of George “Brownie” Brown, an American soldier who joined the United States Army on July 8, 1917, at the age of 23. He was put in the 117th Engineering Regiment which was a part of the 42nd, or also known as …show more content…
Though they had been previously trained with guns and artillery, nothing had prepared the 42nd for the greatness and intensity of the Champagne front. In particular, the battle of Ourcq, was unbelievably intense. Guns were firing without hesitation or breaks, and were so loud that “Pvt. Paul Bolin 'thought all hell had cut loose'”. The book then goes on to describe the battle, and the great number of casualties. It tells of many terrible injuries and deaths that had been seen by the survivors of the war, these injuries were very graphic including shootings, losing limbs, and even decapitations. It was a very gruesome encounter; the Rainbow division alone “reported 696 dead, 4,240 wounded, and 578 missing.” This was a devastating statistic and should have been