The Boy Allies at Liège; Or, Through Lines of Steel
1915
Two American boys in Berlin when the world explodes. Hal Paine and Chester Crawford find themselves trapped behind German lines in August 1914, caught in the opening days of a war that will consume a generation. What begins as a desperate plan to reach safety becomes something sharper: a fight for survival against soldiers, thuggish civilians, and the grinding machinery of invasion. Published in 1915 while the war still raged, this adventure captures the chaos and urgency of those first months when no one knew how bad it would get. The boys are brave, quick with their fists, and determined to reach the Allied lines - but beneath the adventure lies a darker truth: war is not glory, and escape is never certain. For readers who want to feel what it was like to be young and trapped in history's first catastrophe.
