Have I Told You About WWI? In novels and film.
Now that my articles and obsessive fascination have piqued your interest in World War I, you may want to do a little exploring on your own. But where to begin? If you’re like me, some good fiction is an easy way to wade into a historical period. Below I’ve listed some of the stories that have been helpful to me on my journey, and what aspects of the war they focus on.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. If you want to know what life was like for an ordinary soldier on the Western Front, this is the book for you. Beautifully yet simply written, it is both deeply specific about personal experiences, and general in its understanding of the war as a whole. It’s the narrative of a young German soldier who joined the army right out of school along with several classmates. Though it is fictional, the author served in the German army himself during the war, and likely based much of the book on his own experience. It may be the only book about World War I that is occasionally read in American high school classrooms. If you only read one book about the war, read this one.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. I hesitate a little to recommend this book, because I wasn’t wild about it. But that had nothing to do with its representation of the war, and everything to do with the fact that I just don’t care much for Hemingway. If you like Hemingway, this will work just fine for you. Also loosely autobiographical, it tells the story of a young American who ends up in the Italian army, falls in love with a British nurse, and flees military life to try to find happiness with her in a world that is consumed by war. The historical value lies in its representation of life on the Italian Front, which so often gets overlooked. There is also a harrowing scene in the aftermath of the Battle of Caporetto, when a combined German and Austro-Hungarian force finally routed the Italians from the border after twelve battles fought over the same contested ground. As the Italians retreated, their army fell apart. Hundreds of thousands of Italians were taken prisoner (with little resistance), desertions soared, and many commanders took justice into their own hands and quickly executed anyone they found suspicious. Eventually the chaos led to the fall of the government in Rome, and the reorganization of Italy’s bureaucratic and military leadership. Hemingway paints a vivid picture of this frightening defeat.
A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot. Though the armistice was signed in 1918, the devastation throughout Europe was far from over. This is a story that tries to make sense of what happened, and figure out how to move on. The protagonist is a spirited, stubborn girl named Mathilde, who is engaged to her childhood best friend before he goes off to war. Later she is told he was killed, executed for cowardice — but the circumstances are suspicious, and she begins a long and difficult investigation to discover whether or not he is really dead. What I like about this story is its exploration of the mental toll of the war. Medical professionals started seeing cases of what came to be called “shell shock” from the conflict’s opening days. Initially attributed to damage to the nervous system from the shock waves of artillery bombardment, it soon became clear that this phenomenon could affect any soldier at the front, regardless of how often he was under fire. While some doctors were eager to study the condition, most commanders had no patience for it. When men in mental breakdown disobeyed orders, or resorted to self-mutilation or even attempted suicide to escape, they were harshly punished. The book manages to give ample weight to the very real psychological injury caused by war, but it is also carried above and beyond this tragedy by the twists and turns of the story. If you like a little mystery with your history, try this one.
1917, film from 2019. This movie is not only a faithful representation of trench warfare on the Western Front, it’s also a well-made and heartbreaking story. If you haven’t seen it, you’re really missing out. But once you have seen it, you might have some questions. After all, having faithfully revisited my article on The Basics, a diligent reader still won’t have a clear idea of the moment in the war when this movie takes place. In 1917, the Americans joined the war, the French mutinied, and the Bolsheviks took over Russia. What were these British guys up to?
Another great event of 1917, which I unfortunately omitted in The Basics, was the German retreat to the Hindenburg line. It was an incredibly bold move, executed only out of desperation. In retreat, they gave up a thousand square miles of long-contested territory. However, they also shortened their line by 25 miles, freeing up much-needed manpower. Most important of all, the Hindenburg line was designed for defense, engineered using all the hard-earned lessons of two and a half years of bloody trench warfare. It incorporated tank traps and nests of barbed wire; camouflaged bunkers of machine gun teams; subterranean tunnels and barracks built of reinforced concrete; and an elastic structure that allowed quick retreat beyond artillery fire before an enemy attack, and then the ability to mount a fresh and deadly counterattack. Compared to any other trench system across the fronts of the war, it was essentially impregnable. Though it was a move born of desperation, the retreat indisputably put the Germans back at the advantage. The British messengers at the center of the film journey through the old, abandoned German line on their way to warn other divisions not to be fooled into throwing themselves at this bastion of defense.
The First World War: The People’s Story, documentary miniseries from 2018. Okay, so this one isn’t fiction. But if you like miniseries, this one is amazing. It is about Britain’s war, so it focuses on the Western Front, mainly Flanders, and on the experiences of those on the home front. The exceptional part of this series is that it includes filmed interviews with the last British survivors of the war — soldiers, nurses, and civilians. There is nothing quite like hearing about history firsthand. There are just three episodes, and at the moment they are available for free on Amazon Prime.
