Showing results for "The Diary" in World War I

Friedrich Reck might seem an unlikely rebel against Nazism. Not just a conservative but a rock-ribbed reactionary, he played the part of a landed gentleman, deplored democracy, and rejected the modern world outright. To Reck, the Nazis were ruthless revolutionaries in Gothic drag, and helpless as he was to counter the spell they had cast on the German people, he felt compelled to record the corruptions of their rule.

Published posthumously in 1919, this collection of diary entries presents a scathing picture of army life and is said to be one of the most vivid accounts of daily life in the trenches. It chronicles West's increasing disillusion with war and his move toward pacifist and atheist beliefs. The final part consists of his powerful war poems, including God, How I Hate You, You Young Cheerful Men, and Night Patrol. West was killed by a sniper in 1917. In view of some of his poems, one wonders if death was not unwelcome.

Sir Barnes Wallis CBE became a household name after the hit 1954 film The Dam Busters in which Michael Redgrave portrayed a shy, slightly abstracted genius at odds with bureaucracy. Yet this was a simplified picture of a complicated, mercurial man. Wallis' contribution to British aircrafts and weapons is legendary; from the R100 intercontinental airship and innovative aircrafts like the Wellesley and Wellington, to bombs that destroyed hitherto invulnerable targets, and variable-geometry aerodynes.

"Moglie mia, ti dico che sto bene e sono vivo, e vedo morire e morire ogni giorno." Tra il 1914 e il 1918 un’unica trincea divide e unisce l’Europa e il mondo: per la prima volta nella storia moderna, infatti, dalla Francia al Medio Oriente uomini di ogni estrazione culturale e sociale si trovano a condividere – gli uni contro gli altri, gli uni come gli altri – le medesime misere condizioni di vita sui campi di battaglia, le medesime paure, la medesima vicinanza con la violenza e la morte.