David Wooster King "L.M. 8046": An Intimate Story of the Foreign Legion

Annotation

Still a student at Harvard when World War I broke out, American David Wooster King joined the 135th Regiment of the French Foreign Legion in November 1914 and fought in the 1915 Champagne offensive and at Verdun and the Somme in 1916. He transferred to the American Army near the end of the war and served in the counterespionage section at Chaumont."This book of David King's is not a sermon. It does not preach and it carries no moral. It says in fact: 'Here, my good friends who made me into a beautiful hero, is what happened to me while I was gaining that title. Take it or leave it and be damned to you or have a drink with me or do whatever you please, but for Heaven's sake don't kiss me for I am splashed with the blood of my dead comrades and I am dirty with the grime of a million miles of road.'"-Hendrik Van LoonA colourful and engrossing account, especially for 1915-1916.