In the Flash Ranging Service

The quiet departure of troop transports from New York harbor in June 1918 begins Edward Alva Trueblood's account of service in France. Writing as a private in Company C of the Twenty-ninth Engineers, he describes repeated lifeboat drills, the feeling of leaving home and the poor meals aboard his transport. His complaints about food are concrete and insistent, giving the opening chapters a concern with ordinary soldiers' treatment as well as military movement.

Preparations for the St. Mihiel drive bring ammunition, artillery, fresh troops and tanks into view. Trueblood records the effort to conceal this equipment and the training carried out in the woods. Smaller details share the page with the growing operation: water carried from a distant spring and blackberries gathered for pie. Published in 1919, the narrative gives readers a personal view of the First World War, with practical discomforts and brief pleasures set beside a soldier's confidence and unease before battle.