Impressions and Experiences of a French Trooper, 1914-1915

This is the war as seen from the saddle, not the trench. Christian Mallet, a dragoon in the 22nd Regiment of the French army, recorded his experiences from the summer of 1914 mobilization through the first brutal months of 1915 - the last months when cavalry still mattered, when the old Europe still seemed remotely intact. His account moves through the streets of Rheims on the eve of battle, through the forests of Belgium, through the small villages that found themselves suddenly on the front lines. Mallet writes with a painter's eye for light and landscape and a poet's feel for elegy. He notices the cathedral towers "as if in the act of blessing and guarding" the city, the swallows cutting through summer air, the strange peace before the guns. This is not a military history but a witness: a man watching civilization tilt toward catastrophe and recording what he saw before it consumed him. Essential for anyone who wants to understand how the Great War felt to those inside it, before the trenches became graves and before the killing became routine.