The Peak of the Load [microform]: the Waiting Months on the Hilltop From the Entrance of the Stars and Stripes to the Second Victory on the Marne

by Mildred Aldrich

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308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1918

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This set of letters follows on from the author's previous set (June 1914 - April 1917) in her book "A Hilltop on the Marne". "The Peak of the Load" covers the period April 1917 through to the beginning of the retreat of the German forces in the summer of 1918, from near her adopted French home town of Huiry, about 40 kilometres east of Paris. Once again I marvelled at her writing skills, her descriptions, and also the pluckiness of her attitude in the face of the German assault. She still managed to get to Paris on occasion and this despite all the troop and supply movements of Allied forces moving up to the front. I was surprised to learn that the Germans were firing a huge cannon called Grosse Bertha at Paris from a very long distance and the shells arrived throughout this period causing some damage in the city. The Parisians basically ignored the onslaught, but were more concerned about the aerial bombing that was also occurring. Mildred continued to visit Paris despite the shelling and bombing. Her home in Huiry had shells fired near her and at one stage the small settlement come very close to accepting the fact that they would have to evacuate. A very brave and able woman who I am sure would have been a pleasure to meet.

The e-book (free) can be found here

https://archive.org/details/peakofloa...

and is available to download in a range of e-Reader formats. Note: because the book was published many years ago, the optical readers used to digitize the publication have sometimes screwed up some words and numbers which can be entertaining or frustrating and as an example the date 1918 at the beginning of one of her letters sometimes comes out as igi8