Before My Helpless Sight

This book examines military victims of the First World War, looking at what could happen to a soldier from the moment he got on the train that brought him to the front, until the instant he was killed and buried. In five chapters - Battle, Body, Mind, Aid, Death - the varied experiences of the wounding and suffering of soldiers are explored, drawing on stories from both sides of the Western Front in the First World War. Drawing on British, French, German and Dutch sources it shows the consequences of modern warfare on the human individuals caught up in it, and the way it influences our thinking on 'humanitarian' activities.