The War as I Saw It: 1918 Letters of a Tank Corps Lietenant

During World War I, soldiers in the American Expeditionary Force rarely fought in the newly developed tank, and those who did manned British and French tanks since American models did not become available until after the war. Harris joined the Tank Corps because it was considered the elite unit of the ground forces and had a certain amount of romance connected with it. Initially assigned as a driving instructor, he later saw action at the St. Mihiel salient and on the Meuse-Argonne front. This book, which offers an extensive preface, summarizing Harris’s life before, during, and after the war, along with some penetrating insights into his character, collects 46 letters he wrote home while in service. As they show, Harris saw war as a game not unlike the football games he played in his youth. Although he spent only 18 months in Europe, he looked upon it as a bold adventure, surviving the bad periods and enjoying the better moments. He returned from war apparently unscathed in both body and mind. The letters provide an entertaining if hardly probing portrayal of World War I from a tank officer’s point of view.