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Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944

"Paths of Glory Impressions of War Written at and Near the Front"


Then--well, then, it is worse for those who serve in the front lines."
"But in the name of God, man," I said, "why don't they call a truce--
both sides--and put that horror underground?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"War is different now," he said. "Truces are out of fashion."
I stood there and I smelled that smell. And I thought of all those
flies, and those blood-stiffened stretchers, and those little inch-long
figures which I myself, looking through that telescope, had seen lying
on the green hill, and those automobiles loaded with mangled men, and
War de Luxe betrayed itself to me. Beneath its bogus glamour I saw war
for what it is--the next morning of drunken glory.


Chapter 12
The Rut of Big Guns in France

Let me say at the outset of this chapter that I do not set up as one
professing to have any knowledge whatsoever of so-called military
science. The more I have seen of the carrying-on of the actual business
of war, the less able do I seem to be to understand the meanings of the
business.


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