Poilu Quotes

“By whose pen will the next generation, struck with stupor, disconcerted by this universal sanguinary madness, learn about these acts of fraternity, which were like a protest, a revolt against the mortal fate which set, face to face, men who had no reason to hate each other?”
― Louis Barthas, Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918

“Our section chief found himself there in conversation with a “Fritz” who spoke fairly good French. He was saying that they were mostly Poles in his regiment. They wouldn’t surrender, because the Germans would take it out on their families and their property. But this Pole suddenly indicated that someone was coming along the boyau, and he dropped down, calling out Vive la Pologne! Vive la France!”
― Louis Barthas, Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918

“by prickly barbed wire, hands would have reached out everywhere, proof among a thousand that this horrible war had been unleashed counter to the consent of the peoples.”
― Louis Barthas, Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918

“On a day when victory is won, a soldier doesn’t ask for bread, it’s true, but glory on the battlefield has never filled anyone’s belly.”
― Louis Barthas, Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918

“But perhaps I was destined for a more glorious end, one worthy of envy, as Victor Hugo said2—like, for example, being pounded, shredded, asphyxiated, blown to bits in a cloud of smoke.”
― Louis Barthas, Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918