FIRE-EATER. The Memoirs of a VC

Alfred Oliver Pollard (1893-1960) could be looked upon as a British equivalent of Ernst Junger (Storm of Steel) in that he enjoyed the war, in and out of the trenches; he regarded it as a great adventure. Even killing brought satisfaction. One of his letters to his mother ends: Best of spirits and having a good time. By the way, I have killed another Hun. Hurrah! Well, Cheerio! In another place he writes:My ambition was to be realised. I was to take part in a real charge. With luck I might bayonet a Hun. He writes in a ‘gung-ho’ colloquial style and his descriptions of the fighting are vivid with all the gory details. There is a touch of Sapper in his writing; at times It reads like an adventure story from ‘Boys Own Paper’ but the action is real enough. He was no shrinking violet when it came to describing his own part in the action, nor was he averse to quoting from the citations that accompanied his awards – apart from the VC (Gavrelle, 29th April 1917) he was also awarded the MC and bar and the DCM, putting him among the most highly decorated. He enlisted in the HAC in 1914 soon after war was declared and went with the 1st Battalion to France in September 1914; he was commissioned into the battalion in January 1916. Apart from a spell training Americans in 1918 he was with the battalion throughout the war. He was demobilised in February 1919. This is a most enjoyable book