Conscripts: Lost Legions of the Great War (1999) By Ilana R. Bet-El
 
Drawing on diaries, letters and personal accounts from conscripts who served on the Western Front in the latter half of the Great War, this is the first book to explore the contribution they made to the war effort. By the end of the war more than 2.5 million men had been conscripted, but their memory has not lived on; they are the lost legions of the First World War. Here, at last, their story is told: the story of ordinary men, from manual workers to clerks and solicitors, who became soldiers, fought and - for those who survived - went home. In this ground breaking work, Ilana Bet-El explains their absence from the imagery of the war. She reconstructs the daily life of soldiers on the Western Front as we are told, in the conscripts' own words, of the grim reality of dirt and lice and hunger, the mysteries of army pay and military discipline, and the joys of leave and cigarettes. It is a compelling journey back in time, which finally gives them an image, and explains their absence from the public one. It is a discovery of the 'forgotten memory' of Britain's conscript army of the First World War.
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
237 pages
In Good Condition