A Month at the Front: The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (review)

This is a rather unexpected production on the part of the Bodleian Library, given the richness of its manuscript collections. Compiled by an unknown member of D Company, 12th (Service) Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment, a "Pals" Battalion raised in Bermondsey, the diary was part of a larger collection of material donated in 2005. It covers the brief period between mid July and the wounding and temporary capture of its author on 5 August 1917 during a German counterattack at Hollebeke in the Ypres salient. Its authorship can thus be narrowed down to one of fourteen members of the company known to have been wounded on that day. It is suggested from photographs and a letter of condolence that accompanied the notebook that it was given at some stage to the parents of a private in the regiment who was subsequently killed in September 1917. Presumably, it was compiled while the author was recovering in hospital.

Without saying anything unfamiliar, the diary gives reasonably interesting detail on the activity of battalion working parties; on the attack in which the author took part on 31 July 1917, the first day of the Passchendaele offensive; and on his capture and then release by other men of his battalion on 5 August. It certainly reinforces the dangers at the moment of captivity, to which Niall Ferguson and others have drawn attention. No less than three NCOs, for example, sent back to accompany to the rear Germans taken prisoner by the East Surreys were never seen again, and it seems apparent that the author was himself wounded by his rescuers rather than the Germans.

Unfortunately, however, none of this amounts to very much and, though supported by a short introduction and a few grainy photographs, the diary would have benefited from far more detailed footnoting. It is apparent from a close reading that the author was not only new to the battalion but also new to the Western Front: he writes of his first sight of a battlefield, his first sight of shell holes, and his first experience of seeing British heavy artillery in action. Consequently, it might well be suggested that he was perhaps a conscript, the battalion itself having been on the Western Front since May 1916. This, with the additional fact that he was clearly married, might enable the list of potential authors to be further whittled down through research into any surviving soldiers' documents at the National Archives. The editor misses such nuances. Similarly, there is no recognition that the White Château, the ruined site of which is mentioned, had been Haig's headquarters in the first battle for Ypres in 1914. Moreover, while there is a contemporary panoramic photograph of the Hollebeke sector, there is no map for those unfamiliar with the area.

In short, while of some interest, this is hardly the "poignant and moving" account suggested by the Bodleian, and it could have been far better presented.