An ordinary german infantryman, 1914-1918

On 2 August 1914, a German infantryman called Michael received his mobilisation papers and made his way to the barracks indicated on the call up papers. A few weeks later he found himself on campaign in a regiment on the Western Front. We know a little about his wartime experiences from August 1914 to October 1918, thanks to the notebooks that he kept. These documents have been translated, re-written and completed with observations that make up this book.

Written from biographical elements and a timeline when equipment was known to have been introduced within units, this book is in fact fictitious. It relates the imaginary life of an infantryman who served with the same regiment through nearly all the war. It looks at his thoughts and lingers on his preoccupations, especially his living conditions as well as all that happened around him.

This book contains considerable information about the life of a German soldier during the First World War. As well as text, there are 170 illustrations, postcards, photographs and period documents. More than just a book about war, it is a sort of eyewitness view of the men that lived through the war «on the other side», making it an original approach.