How I Filmed the War: A Record of the Extraordinary Experiences of the Man Who Filmed the Great Somme Battles, Etc.

The first great war filmed for posterity. Geoffrey H. Malins was there, hauling his camera through the mud of the Somme, capturing images that would bring the reality of trench warfare to audiences who had never heard the whistle of shells or seen men go over the top. This is his account from 1919, written while the memory was still raw. Malins takes you into the trenches, under bombardment, through the chaos of trying to document history as it happened around him. He was not a soldier with a rifle but a man with a camera, and the dangers he faced were no less real. The book chronicles his transformation from photographer to official war cinematographer, and the peculiar burden of watching horror unfold through a lens. This is early war memoir at its most immediate: no retrospective peace, no decades of reflection. Just a man who filmed the Somme telling you what it was like to be there.