I Survived Didn't I?

4124 Private Byrne, C., 2nd Battalion The Hampshire Regiment, latterly the Machine-Gun Corps, provides an account of an infantryman's life in the trenches of the Western Front during the Great War. Charlie ("Ginger") Byrne was a typical young "tommy" who had no liking or aptitude for writing, but at the age of 82, sound in body and having a mind blessed with total recall, he was persuaded to tell his story to an interested and observant listener. Joy Cave has achieved the transition into print of Charlie's war, set down in the form in which he related it, with an added commentary on the larger events in which, like so many of his generation, this humble soldier found himself caught up. It is not a narrative of grand strategy, nor a recital of epic heroism (although courage enough is evident), but the reminiscence of the ordinary infantryman - the individual viewpoint of one tiny cog in a colossal war machine. Through the account of chaos shines the tolerant good humor and forbearance of the soldier who fought and survived.