A Soldier Unafraid Letters From The Trenches On The Alsatian Front

A Soldier Unafraid - Letters From The Trenches On The Alsatian Front

Nearly 1.7 million French soldiers died in the First World War fighting for their homeland against the invading German Armies; it is difficult to comprehend that hecatomb. It is indeed difficult to comprehend that many lost lives, perhaps the only way to do so is in representative figures such as the Unknown Soldier or by the many memoirs and diaries that have been left behind. One such diary is that of Captain André Cornet-Auquier, a passionate but moral man, well-known for his leadership skills in and bravery on the battlefield. The conditions in which he served on the Alsace front were always tough, being often within forty-five yards of the enemy’s front lines, his faith in his cause and God sustained him even in the most trying situations. Despite being in the front line fighting for so long his luck ran out in February 1916, mortally wounded by a shell splinter. A symbol of French stoicism and courage he died beloved by his men, one of his sergeants said “It is not a spectacle often witnessed, — that of soldiers, accustomed to face death, weeping like children as they stood round his bier.”

SOLDIER UNAFRAID

Soldier Unafraid

Excerpt from Soldier Unafraid: Letters From the Trenches on the Alsatian Front But he was an enthusiast not only of moral beauty and purity; he loved also artistic and natural beauty. He was passionately fond of poetry, music and song his father says, and in more than one passage of the following letters this fact comes out. The grand works of God, the sea, lofty moun tains, lakes and sunsets ravished him to the point of ecstasy. If he had not been an ardent Christian, he would surely have become a pronounced pantheist. The letters abound in evidences of this. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.