Campaign diary of a French officer by Lieutenant René Nicolas
"Campaign diary of a French officer" by Lieutenant René Nicolas is a war diary written in the early 20th century. It offers a first-hand account of a young French infantry officer’s service on the Western Front, capturing trench life, combat, and the emotional and physical toll of war. Expect vivid frontline scenes in Champagne and Artois, from long marches and bombardments to raids, captures, and moments of camaraderie and reflection. The opening
of the diary sets the context with a friend’s preface and the author’s foreword, framing the notes as unadorned, contemporary entries from the front. It then follows the officer from his eager departure and billeting behind the lines into his first trench tour in Champagne, where he experiences bombardments, a staged diversionary fire, and a repelled German attack. He describes the trenches in detail, nightly patrols, wiring parties, a surrendering Bavarian who provides intelligence, and the relentless presence of mud and corpses. A harrowing sequence shows a charnel-house trench under enfilade, night digging to link positions, and a sudden German assault that he and his men counter, seizing an enemy trench in close combat and taking prisoners. Exhausted relief, a moving parade before the regiment’s flag, brief rest and duties in reserve (including burial details), and a visit to a concealed 75mm battery lead to his promotion. The section ends as he returns to a perilous sector where French and German lines are separated only by a sandbag barricade under constant grenade duels. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Nicolas, René, Lieutenant |
|---|---|
| Translator | Babbitt, Katharine, 1871-1925 |
| LoC No. | 17010365 |
| Title | Campaign diary of a French officer |
| Original Publication | Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917. |
| Credits | Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | D501: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: World War I (1914-1918) |
| Subject | World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- France |
| Subject | World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, French |
| Subject | Nicolas, René, Lieutenant -- Diaries |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77912 |
| Release Date | Feb 11, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 292 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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