I Remember the Last War

by Bob Hoffman

"I was phenomenally lucky, so I will tell our story, will try to tell you something of what happened over there. There have been war books written by other men who were better writers than I-more fitted to place what they saw upon the printed page. But I don't believe a book about America's participation in the war has been written by a man who spent days, weeks and months in intensive fighting at or in front of the front, as my comrades and I did. There is nothing beautiful or particularly glorious about this story. I have told it as well as I could, but have been able to give you only a faint idea of the conditions we encountered during the five worst days any unit of the American army experienced in France-the five days of our battle of Fismette. You could fully appreciate its horrors only if you were there. Never was a group of men harder pressed by superior forces of the enemy, or more ill equipped to fight off those attacks than were we. No artillery support during most of the fighting, no trench mortars, no hand or rifle grenades, just a moderate amount of pistol, rifle and machine gun ammunition. No food, proper medical attention, or the opportunity to bury the dead. Our men in that battle, the handful who held the front of the front lines, covered themselves with undying glory. The telling of this story will give a better idea of what we did in France than have other war books I have seen. It tells the unvarnished truth about how we lived, slept, hiked, fought and died over there. There is another generation of men since those distant days of 1918. If this book does its part in showing them the folly, the uselessness, the tragedy of war, I'll feel well repaid for the time I spent in writing it." -Bob Hoffman This is a 6" by 9" original version, restored and re-formatted edition of Bob Hoffman's 1940 classic. The text remains exactly as written. Visit our website and see our many books at PhysicalCultureBooks.com

Genres: War, History, Military Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2011

Reviews

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite memoirs from World War I. Brutally honest about the pointlessness of war. Written just prior to the US entering an even worse war in 1941.

[Ayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super dry, painfully self-righteous, and exceedingly slow-paced. I wanted to love it! To give it a 5! But only a few passages in the book are remarkable in any way, shape or form. There’s a lot of text in this book and most of it is easily skipped over. The story behind the storytelling is quite compelling, however. Especially in these current times, for someone from WWI to reflect upon his time in the war in the wake of WWII is rather eye opening. If you can get past the writing, the insight is worth reading for.

[Waide Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent first hand account of a U.S. GI during WWI. The author’s ability to recount the events he experienced puts the reader right in the action. While written many decades ago, content still carries weight all these years later.

[Jeffrey Horton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this a couple years ago, so this review is not very fresh. I remember enjoying this novel for a couple reasons. The first person perspective of such an incredible situation was interesting. The antiwar stance was powerful. How can a story of being on the front lines of such a horrible, uncontrollable situation be anything but impactful. I really felt for the narrator and his plight, as well as the plight of his friends that weren't so lucky.
That being said, I didn't find this book completely transformative. It was a great (and true) story of someone's life and them crawling their way out of a desperate situation, as well as a lesson for us to avoid getting into that situation again. For that reason I did like it. But it didn't have as much staying impact as other things I've read. It's great for what it is though.