



Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed
Proofreading Team







 [Illustration: CORPORAL HOLMES IN THE UNIFORM OF THE 22ND LONDON
 BATTALION, QUEEN'S ROYAL WEST SURREY REGIMENT, H.M. IMPERIAL ARMY.
 _Frontispiece_.]


A YANKEE IN THE TRENCHES

By

R. DERBY HOLMES

CORPORAL OF THE 22D LONDON BATTALION OF THE
QUEEN'S ROYAL WEST SURREY REGIMENT


_ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_


BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1918



  Dedication

  TO MARION A. PUTTEE, SOUTHALL, MIDDLESEX,
  ENGLAND, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK AS A
  TOKEN OF APPRECIATION FOR ALL THE LOVING
  THOUGHTS AND DEEDS BESTOWED UPON ME
  WHEN I WAS A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND




FOREWORD


I have tried as an American in writing this book to give the public
a complete view of the trenches and life on the Western Front as it
appeared to me, and also my impression of conditions and men as I
found them. It has been a pleasure to write it, and now that I have
finished I am genuinely sorry that I cannot go further. On the
lecture tour I find that people ask me questions, and I have tried
in this book to give in detail many things about the quieter side
of war that to an audience would seem too tame. I feel that the
public want to know how the soldiers live when not in the trenches,
for all the time out there is not spent in killing and carnage. As
in the case of all men in the trenches, I heard things and stories
