Hidden stories of the First World War - Jackie Storer

"Lieutenant William Andrews and his Sappers had been working through the night building a machine gun emplacement in the ruins of the newly retaken French village of Contalmaison when a blast blew him off his feet. The 23-year-old Irishman's helmet had taken the full force of a piece of flying shrapnel which smashed a four inch gash from rim to crown, knocking him unconscious. As William lay on the ground, still dazed but unmarked and strapped to a stretcher, he heard a young soldier suggest they throw away the battered headgear. Outraged, William, a lieutenant in the 128th Field Company of the Royal Engineers, called out: 'Give it here to me-it saved my life-I want to preserve it for my grandchildren.'"

Lieutenant Andrews's story is just one of the thirty-two true-life accounts found in Jackie Storer's Hidden Stories of the First World War. Storer traveled across Europe, interviewing hundreds along the way and collecting old memorabilia and photographs, to immortalize these forgotten true tales of love, death, and adventure from the battlefields to the home fronts of World War I. From the gifted chemist who faked his own suicide to go on the run with his bigamous bride, to the boy who survived the sinking of Kitchener's ship only to drown months later, to the woman who helped a priest swim to freedom, these accounts-written in the form of feature articles-tell the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people who were caught up in the Great War.

Copiously illustrated with photos, maps, and documents-among them a recently discovered postcard from a wounded Adolf Hitler-this collection, published to coincide with the centenary of World War I, offers a touching personal dimension to the four-year conflict.