Somme Mud: An Australian Teenager in the First World War

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"It's the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can't escape it, not even by dying." Private Edward Lynch was just 18 when he enlisted in the army. When he returned to Australia almost three years later, he wrote Somme Mud, a vivid account of the horrific realities of trench warfare from an ordinary infantryman's point of view: the traumatized soldiers and ravaged landscapes, the curious mixture of hatred, empathy, and admiration for the equally naive enemy soldiers, the disillusionment and the camaraderie. Lynch's candor and down-to-earth wit make Somme Mud engaging for any reader, while archival photographs, a full glossary, and editor Will Davies' explanatory chapter introductions make this edition an illuminating text for students. As well as a memoir of one man's experience of war, Somme Mud is an evocative record of the language and attitudes of early twentieth century Australia.