Epic figures and stories of the Great War, 1914-1918 BY CAPTAIN G. P. CAPART Late of General Pétain's Staff Translated from the Original French BY J. C. DROUILLARD New York W. J. Watt & Company PUBLISHERS...

This volume contains an ensemble of true episodes about the French poilu taken from my diary. The reader will regret, perhaps, the absence of continuity in the following chapters; that will rapidly disappear, however, when he sees the characteristic figures he should better know and love for a long time to come. A scruple has always guided me: to write the truth. I have been strict in writing nothing but what I have seen or heard. In giving these souvenirs to the American public, I have had but

To have known the author intimately is a rare privilege which has materially aided me in retaining, if I have been successful in so doing, the spirit and atmosphere of the original pages of "A Blue Devil of France." In every sense of the word I am a literalist. Barring a very few instances I have been particularly rigid in my efforts to render a literal translation. Where it has been impossible to do this, the reader will find the original French to enhance the charm and simplicity of the storie

This deals with the battle of Verdun. The author took part in the first days of the battle on the right bank and the left bank of the Meuse. He spent, likewise, almost all the month of March at the Verdun front. On June 7, 1916, Sub-Lieutenant Capart became attached to the General Staff of General Pétain, but often he continued to fight and work with the poilus and also with his old comrades. At dawn the sky is unbroken. It is a veritable spring day that is here! A ray of sun in this spot—what g

The author assisted in two important episodes of the great war. On October 24, 1916, he flew over Fort Douaumont with Major Armengaud at the precise moment the poilus swarmed over it after eight months' of incessant battle. The first men who entered Douaumont were the same sappers of the 19th Company, 2nd Engineers, with whom the author fought at Grande Dune. (Chaps. I and III.) It is during this period that the author was appointed first lieutenant in July and Captain in October after the captu