Mottram, R. H. Journey to the Western Front

Twenty Years After

This book was first published in 1936; Ralph Mottram served for the greater part of the war on the Western Frontinitially with the "Royal Norfolks" and later as a liaison officer to civilians in the forward areas of the BEF, primarily along the Franco-Belgian border. He undertook the preparatory work for the book in late 1935 and early 1936, although he had already revisited the old battlefields prior to that time. He covers vast stretches of the former war zone in France and Flanders, adopting the original approach of dividing the region into five sectionsa structure that roughly aligns with the sectors held by the five armies of the BEF. It is fascinating to view the modern-day Somme region and the "Salient" through the eyes of a gifted author and veteran of that campaigna man who penned his work just as the large-scale commemorative and construction projects of the Imperial War Graves Commission were nearing completion, and as the landscape, villages, and towns had already regained a certain measure of normality. Almost everything Mottram describesonly a few years before the region would once again be devastated by a world warremains recognizable today. What he brings to this deeply personal guidebook is the trained eye of a man who lived amidst the local population during the war years, yet remained an integral part of that colossal undertaking represented by the BEF. As a literary figure, he imbues the book with astute observations; in doing so, he consistently frames his descriptions within the context of the fighting soldiers he knew personally, while also drawing extensively upon the wealth of materialmemoirs and historical accountsthat had appeared in the years immediately following the war. This work is a true literary gem regarding the First World War.