"Hatred is a slow, calculating, cold-blooded business. There is no time for it in battle . . . I assure you that when I was behind the rifle, the principal feeling was one of keen satisfaction and excitement of the same kind that the hunter knows. That's the spirit. That's what makes good rifleman and good soldiers."

If you are looking for poetic prose, look elsewhere. McBride was not an introspective man, full of soulful wanderings about the horrors of war. This soldier was thrilled and eager to participate in war, and joined the Canadian force because his home country, America, was too slow to enter the fray for his tastes. He described the mud of the trenches and the sound a bullet makes striking a human head in hatchet-like, blunt sentences.

There is the satisfaction, though, that this lover of war told you the hard truth in every word he wrote. Another reviewer called this book "refreshing" and I will second that.

In one segment of the book, McBride describes his distaste for a current war movie of the time of the book's writing, the classic "All Quite On The Western Front." While McBride complemented the scenes of actual battle, the whole show was ruined for him by the depiction of men in battle. The constant emotions, and, as he wrote of them, "facial contortions" exhibited by the actors where in his view ridiculous. Men died quickly, fought hard, and killed one another without a lot of fuss, or "sob stuff," as he called it.

I believe H.W. McBride is telling me the truth.


Refreshing   August 21, 2001
 12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Without regard to popular opinion McBride spells out his opinions and experience in the 'War to end all wars'. Not only is his honest (as opposed to 'politically correct') account refreshing, but informative as well. Military buffs and armed services personnel will find a great deal of useful information regarding the employment of small arms. In spite of the amount of useful military knowledge, the book is also lively reading. I recommend it highly!