Retreat from Death: A Soldier on the Somme
George Herbert Hill, Richard Holmes
''I was alone in a world gone mad. Death was all around...Useless, filthy death.'' So wrote George Herbert Hill on the Battle of St. Quentin, which began on March 21, 1918 and consisted of trench mortars, mustard gas, chlorine gas, tear gas and a heavy artillery bombardment--said to be one of the most fierce and devastating of the Great War. Over the course of six days, thousands of British troops lost their lives and yet this would prove to be the turning point of the war--the end was in sight. Hill was just sixteen when he enlisted into the army. After only a few weeks in France, he was in the midst of St. Quentin and the full horrors of trench warfare. Incredibly, he survived--one of the few members of his battalion to do so. After several months at the front, he was gassed and spent the last days of the war in a field hospital. Hill turned nineteen on the day of the armistice. Retreat from Death is the harrowing story based on his experiences.
