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Les Grands Jours |
| 2026-01-31 |
Les Grands Jours
That's the famous Trommelfeuer, the drum of fire that was announced. The Germans, with their words in bundles, are equal to what they inflict.
(...)
Nothing to do for now but to wait, to take the blows, to let them pile in with no prospect of striking back anytime soon. The order is not to move and to hold the ground at all costs. And there's every chance that the instructions will not change. Getting out alive no longer means anything: Simon sees the men aound him taming that idea as best as they can.
Still no news from the front lines. In what state will the infantry assault, it won't be long before it arrives, find them? The dugouts, there as elsewhere, are not meant to withstand such a lengthy bombing. Company commanders like Vigneron, Robin, and Seguin are remarkable men, Simon knows it, but how many of them will still be alive?
It is a little after four in the afternoon when the bombardment seems to slacken, and then it dies down. A lookout shouts at the top of his lungs: "Les Boches !" Simon's platoons quickly move into their positions. With the lenghtening of the trajectories, one can hear a little better. Corporal Vuillamy calls out: "At last, the real battle! Face to face, man to man!" Simon doubts it. What is coming is rather a murderous game of hide-and-seek, a rats' war in which every hole, every ridge, and every tree stump will be fought for.
I was scanning my shelves for first hand accounts of the first world war. I was looking specifically for La Main Coupée de Blaise Cendrars, or for Les Croix de Bois de Roland Dorgelès. But I could only find Les Grands Jours de Pierre Mari. My copies of Cendrars might still be in my parents' house, while I know The Wooden Crosses is on my shelves, probably behind a first wall of books.
Les Grands Jours relates The Battle of Bois des Caures where the troops of Colonel Driant held the Germans for two days. It is a beautiful short book, where real characters cross fictional characters in the trenches.
It is my second reading of Les Grands Jours. I have to admit I had forgotten most of it, but since I read it on a red-eye flight, it is to be expected. I am pleased by this second travel there. The Driant figure has its own attraction, he was a writer too, under the nom de plume "Danrit", I ordered one of his book, it should reach me soon, I am sure it will be good.
The cover of Les Grands Jours features german troops in Stahlhelm. Wikipedia tells me that the first version, M16, of this helmet was distributed to some of the units fighting in Verdun. The book says nothing about it. As a miniature gamer, I am interested in the transition from Pickelhaube to Stahlhelm.
