The Beauty and the Sorrow (86 page)

19
. Paolo Monelli—trooper in an Alpine regiment of the Italian army, twenty-three

20
. Laura de Turczynowicz—American wife of a Polish aristocrat, thirty-five

THE WESTERN FRONT

1
.
SMS
Helgoland,
Richard Stumpf’s ship:
“Reveille is blown as early as four o’clock this autumn morning. The ship and its crew wake to a morning of frantic activity.”

2
.
A column of Belgian infantrymen on the beach at De Panne, 17 October 1916:
“[Coppens] now finds himself in the strip of trench-scarred Belgian ground, stretching from Nieuwpoort on the Channel coast down to Ypres and Messines on the French border.”

3
.
Sanctuary Wood, October 1914:
“The Germans have detonated a large mine under the British lines in a wood the British call Sanctuary Wood at Zillebeke outside Ypres, and then they occupied the enormous, corpse-filled crater it made.”

4
.
View of Kiel, with the naval base in the background, 1914:
“It is evening when they arrive in Kiel. [Stumpf] notes that they have begun to ease up a little on the blackout that used to be so strictly enforced.”

5
.
A street in Lens:
“The projectiles come whistling down here and there. An unusually big one hits a house a small distance in front of [Andresen] and he sees how the greater part of the roof is lifted thirty feet or more up in the air.”

6
.
Fort Douaumont at Verdun under heavy bombardment, 1 April 1916:
“[Arnaud] sinks down with his head between his knees. ‘I was on the battlefield at Verdun but was hardly conscious of the fact.’ ”

7
.
British water carriers at Zonnebeke, August 1917:
“On the road up towards Zonnebeke Canadian troops, caked in mud, jostle with lorries, cannon and mules laden with ammunition.”

8
.
Beach scene in Boulogne-sur-Mer, May 1918:
“In the afternoon Cushing is back at the large seaside villa where he is living. The warm spring air streams in through the open window. He looks out over the English Channel.”

9
.
A blown-up bridge at Villers-Cotterêts, September 1914:
“When [Arnaud] arrives at his destination today he hears that his regiment is still there, at Villers-Cotterêts. He hitches a lift in a butcher’s van for the last section.”

10
.
Péronne, end of March 1918:
“[Pollard] is now on the train to Péronne, where he hopes to be met by someone from the battalion. He is so cold that he is shaking and he is still being plagued by unpleasant fever dreams.”