I Survived, Didn't I?

The true stories of a soldier's experiences on the battlefields of World War I.

Charlie “Ginger” Byrne was a typical young volunteer soldier of 1915, a soldier's son seeking a part in what seemed a great adventure. If his experiences mirror those of thousands of others, his account stands out from so many because it is set down in the authentic voice of the soldier. Unlike hundreds of thousands of his contemporaries, Byrne survived into old age. Sound in body and mind, and blessed with almost total recall, he was persuaded to tell his tale to an interested, informed, and acute listener.

Now Joy Cave has triumphantly made the transition into print of Charlie's war. It is not a tale of strategy, a recital of epic heroism, but a trench's-eye view of the great tragedy. In the often searing descriptions of going into the action with the Newfoundland Regiment on the Somme in July 1916; of a catastrophic gas attack in the Ypres Salient; of raids, wiring—and ration—parties; of work details and transport duties; of front line and reserve trenches, and life in billets behind the lines; of the endless incomprehensible moves, and the shattered landscapes of France and Flanders; of the ever-present dangers and the ever present evidence of their effects—there shines through the chaos the good humor and forbearance of the soldier who fought and survived.

Gallant, proud, humorous, and enduring, Charlie Byrne reminds us that wars are fought by ordinary people, but that in each of them there is always something extraordinary.