The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas

Poilu is an excellent match with "All Is Quiet on the Western Front". This book is an evocation of one soldier's daily penance in the mud, disease, wounds, and death that was the Western Front from 2014 through 2018. It is amazing that he survived with his sanity.

Very predictable. A corporal that despises his officers. As an Army officer, I understand. The war he landed in was bizarre. It was run by outdated men fighting with almost modern weapons. The disrespect for life was hidden by the mask of "courage" and "duty". Nowadays we just openly disrespect life even before war starts. We call it "pro Choice". Tally up the numbers.

The author writes nothing or little about his confrontation with the enemy. It appears that he tried to avoid using his gun and he confesses to socialism and pacifism. Perhaps he never shot at a German. It's mostly about being cold and wet and moving around between rest and the trenches.

This is an amazing and horrifying perspective on WWI, and well-written to boot, not something his officers would have expected a "hairy one (Poilu)" to write. Sadly, there's no reason to think modern day leaders are any brighter or more caring, as Cheney, Wolfowitz, et al, have proven over and over. My only criticism of the book is its length; after 200 pages the details change a bit but it's more or less the same comments over and over. The book could have been more powerful with a bit more editing.

This is an amazing and horrifying perspective on WWI, and well-written to boot, not something his officers would have expected a "hairy one (Poilu)" to write. Sadly, there's no reason to think modern day leaders are any brighter or more caring, as Cheney, Wolfowitz, et al, have proven over and over. My only criticism of the book is its length; after 200 pages the details change a bit but it's more or less the same comments over and over. The book could have been more powerful with a bit more editing.

Wow - this book is fascinating at times and brings ti light the lives and deaths of the french soldier. It shows in clear words the stark, harsh reality of WW1. It is fascinating, exciting and horrifying all at the same time.

BUT the author's extreme political views very badly contaminate the book, He openly states he is a socialist and it shows. His VERY bitter hatred of the military, the French government and anyone of a higher social class then his own shows all too often. He literally has nothing good to say about any officer. All are portrayed as nitwits, crooks, liars, schemers and fools. I do understand that the French had problems with bad leadership but according to Barthas all of the officers were terrible. And you'd think every German soldier wanted to jump from their trench, hug a French soldier and sing the International. What I wonder is how much of his troubles with officers was self inflicted because of his intense hatred of them and his attitude. When his unit got some new and better piece of equipment did he have something good to say? No. He complained about how some capitalist was getting rich making them. Annoying.

What I wish was there was some other source to compare this against. But alas this is the ONLY book of it's type. I mean with all the 'I was there' books out there for World war 2 he was the only French infantryman to write about WW1? A valuable resource BUT take everything he says about the officers and military with a grain of salt.

.My grandfather was an Austrian soldier in WWI, killed during the Caporetto Offensive of '17. My father won the Silver Star in Germany, December '44. Me, I did Iraq x 2, Guantanamo, Africa, etc. I was a flight surgeon, so while I got shot at only once or twice, I didn't see warfare up close and personal....except when an IED went off behind me in Mosul, '08.

I have walked the ground at Verdun, the Somme, Vimy, etc., and Monsieur Le Corporal Barthas' book is unmatchable in its simplicity, pathos, and description of what the common footslogger faces versus the leg-humping higher officers. Every single American voter needs to read this book and get a better understanding of war. Wars have to be fought, but they have to be fought smart; treating enlisted and noncoms like dogs is the way they may teach 'em at West Point, but that's just an academic recipe for carnage.

Reading this book, plus John Hersey's "Into the Valley: A Skirmish of the Marines", plus Ernie Pyle's "The Death of Captain Henry Waskow" is worth all the time wasted watching NFL and NCAA football and the like. And anybody who chooses to continue with an attitude towards the French....Get over it.

What a beautifully translated book! Having had no chance to read the French original, I dare not comment on the writing style of Barthas the barrel-maker, but the "tonnelier" has succeeded in delivering to readers the horrifying tragedies of trench warfare. His description of the December 1915 fraternization between German and French soldiers in one corner of Artois had better be included in the history textbooks. One may suspect part of what Barthas had jotted down in his war diaries might have been inadvertently exaggerated, but one does not agree with Audoin-Rouzeau who pointed out Barthas "pushed to paroxysm the deformation of memory." The barrel-maker surely did not have a deformed memory, even if his memory could have been distorted by the intimation of a series of impending conflicts.

Truth is truly stranger than fiction when judged by the history behind this book, written by a barrel maker with whose education stopped at the equivalent of our middle school but whose depth of knowledge, insight and prose far exceeds that of many of today's college graduates, and who not only survived 4 years in the lethal trenches of northern France but managed to keep a journal of his experiences. Fluid writing coupled with humor and remarkable wisdom makes this rare first hand version of a French infantry man's life in the trenches not only an easy and enjoyable read but truly a must read even if one is not devotee of military history. This is a story of one modest man's humanity in the face of the inhumanity of war but also the inhumanity of the individuals responsible for his well-being - the incompetent and callous French Army officers corps. Small wonder that the French have lost so many wars given the quality of their senior leadership but, unfortunately, that problem seems to universal in the upper echelons of certain other nation's armies as well. This book survived so that we could read it.

Top notch personal on -the-ground history of the futility and stupidity of such a war as WW1. Louis Barthas was an exceptional human being and readily recognized the brutality and nonsensical attitudes of the generals and politicians who bumbled their way into Hell on earth taking millions of innocent souls with them. This is a must read for anyone interested in military history and especially WW1 buffs. No detail of the war in the trenches is left out. Excellent primary source material.

This is a light, lively, infuriating and ultimately depressing look at a particularly brutal and pointless war: WWI. It's a first-person account of trench warfare that ranges from the mundane - battling boredom and endless marches and small-minded officers and horrible food - to the grotesque: people having their heads sheared off by shrapnel, slogging through rancid corpse water, being feasted upon by rats and lice, bombs unearthing stacks of bodies tossed from the trenches and poison gas.

Barthas was, by his own description, an unremarkable French pacifist, socialist and barrel-maker who laboriously, painstakingly chronicled his experiences in the trenches. In any other time, he would have likely come and gone from the world mostly unnoticed - a loss, because he was a naturally talented writer - but he had the misfortune of reluctantly participating in World War I.

Reading this book, one can't shake the utter hopelessness, psychological damage and despair that must have gripped a generation drawn into the war. Along with riveting and at times almost comical descriptions of the daily routine of the infantryman, he pursues some radical lines of thought, pointing out the vast hypocrisy of war, media spin to gin up support and the utter disregard the military leaders had for human life. What kind of insane mind can knowingly send tens of thousands of men into meat grinders of machine gun fire under a hail of rockets and across fields of barbed wire, all to gain or regain a few inches of worthless territory? Generals, safe and sound and well behind the lines, that's who.

It's no wonder, as he ably illustrates, so many French and German soldiers maintained an uneasy truce mere yards apart from each other. It's the height of irony that those who resisted the urge to kill were threatened with death from their own officers. In other words, "you must defend against those who would kill us or we will kill you."

Luckily, we've learned so much in the last hundred years, like how violence can never solve the challenges of co-existence.

This is a fine read, only recently translated into English, that provides an invaluable perspective on the (not so) Great War.

just finished this phenomenal book and intimate look at the first person narrative of a French Infantryman during the first world war. This isn't a book about strategy, generals or the geo-politics of the day but the Soldiers experience in the trenches, for this is a collection of the intimate and private entries from Corporal Louis Barthas' journals. He kept these journals for four years managing to survive the industrial death of 20th century warfare. It is a front lice look at the extraordinary battles he survived to include the Somme, Verdun (Mort Homme and Cote 304), Champagne, the Marne and St. Mihiel. It also touches the Christmas Truce and other details often overlooked by scholars in favor of the causes of the war. It traces the gas attacks, cold, the lice, vermin, death, toxic leadership, struggles and trials that afflicted the French Army in the trenches against the onslaught of the Imperial German war machine of the day. Interestingly enough, there are many parallels to the issues and complaints of Soldiers then, 100 years later in our Army today; the food, living quarters, supplies, counter-orders, leadership etc. A raging socialist and pacifist of his day, he speaks with authority of the fraternization between the French and German Soldiers, the opinions of like minded individuals and the conflict between life and death. This book is not an epistle as to the causality of war but the muddy, blood soaked fight each day bullet by bullet and shell by shell, but fight against nature, drowning, trench wall collapses during heavy rain and the struggle for water and meager rations. His evocative descriptions of swimming through trenches, sleeping under the stars in snow without fire during four European Winters, discarding of bodies just over the top of the trench, buried and reburied by artillery barrages and their ghastly "resurrection" as body parts ethereally reached from within the trench walls and seemingly grabbed the equipment or kicked the boots out from the living, truly and vividly illustrates the horrors of this war.
I strongly recommend anyone to read this, but especially military Soldiers and leaders as you will be able to see that a Soldier is a Soldier is a Soldier. Enjoy.

A book that literally cannot be put down. Louis Barthas' diaries are a tremendous insight to what was life really like in the trenches during the First World War. Don't expect any grand tales of leadership and strategy; these diaries focus on what really counted for the French soldier: a dry and warm place to sleep, safety from the bullets and shells, and how to survive under bumbling, moronic and tyrannical leadership. The fact that Corporal Barthas survived through the entire war is a miracle... and an equal miracle is that his journals have finally appeared in an English translation. Highly, highly recommended.

A pacifist, Barthas Served in the French Army in the Infantry from 1914 to 1918. A fascinating account of of life in the front line trenches, although coloured by his political views and beliefs, he fails to see the problems faced by his higher officers and their need to drive the Germans out of France.

Excellent read if you love World War history. Provides an in-depth view from the trenches of France and the everyday life of an French solider. It can also provide you an alternative view of the First World War.

Louis Barthas has painted the raw reality of bravery and top level incompetence that continues today. Louis takes you through all the hardships and physical suffering that exemplifies that horrible war.

A truly memorable read.

A dull story of a Communist/socialist in the French army slogging from one trench to another in WW I. This guy hates his country, his officers (with some justification) and never fires a shot in anger. A good lesson in why the French have never won a battle since Napoleon!