A scholar finds diaries in an old steamer trunk. The diaries tell the story of a young man, Ned Steele, who embarks on a journey from Detroit to Germany.
Ned joins the Army in 1914, earns a commission in 1917, leads a machine gun company on a Flanders hill, and then a machine gun battalion in the AEF in France. In between, Ned finds romance, terror, exhaustion, friendship, death, and the misery of World War One....
23rd November, Colline Mortelle..
I have seen the Inferno from the edge of Purgatory...mud, wire, holes, water, and the remains of man, beast, and civilization. There is no sadder sight than a ruined town...No training can get anyone ready for this [expletive].
I could never have imagined what a howitzer shell landing so close could have felt like.... machine-gun bullets hum like giant bees or kazoos in the air and sound like meat hooks hitting a side of [expletive] beef when they hit...Sgt. Thorsten and I went down to the "front line"...like [expletive] animals in unbelievable filth and indescribable stink...in the forward posts, we endured a small bombing raid...Don't think I've ever been so [expletive] humiliated in my life....
"Get ready..." the voice on the telephone said softly....the night stillness was ever-so-gently broken by the rumbling of heavy guns, followed by the crack of light howitzers...then, the shush-shush-shush of shells passing overhead...then, the ground seemed to explode...
The Maxims opened fire, the bzzz-bzzz-bzzz of the bullets ending abruptly in a muddy torrential blizzard of thut-thut-thut as they hit the hill...Half of Steele's guns were on the west side of the hill...where most of the bullets were falling...
The telephone crackled again.... "Steele!"
"On our left and right," the voice said. "Missions 6 and 9."
"Out," Steele answered, grabbing his company phone and Missions List. "1st Platoon fire Mission 6, standing; 2nd Platoon Mission 9, standing...Forward post now!"
His machine guns opening fire...and kept firing...
"Fire Mission 5, sweep left to right..."
"B Boy Company: my flank is open. Give me your Mission 12, and a lot of it."
"Fire Mission 12, standing. Split fire."
"B Boy again. Shift east two hundred; you're too bloody close..."
"Out. Give me 1st Platoon...sweep left two hundred..."
"Give me 3rd Platoon...Mission 9, standing..." Steele's guns kept firing...he kept adjusting..."Give me 2nd Platoon...Mission 7, standing bump left..."
