Customer Reviews

The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We suffer from a lack of good World War I books. The majority of books, like the war, have thousands of men going "over the top" into massed machine guns. This is not a criticism of the authors but a statement of fact. Years ago, when they were inexpensive, I bought several "how to" books written by British officers for American officers. Reading them, I came to understand that No Man's Land was a varied place with multiple tactical problems. Most of the war was much more than a massed attack destined to end badly.
The author's grandfather fought in the First Division in 1918 on the Western Front. What follows is not a history of the AEF or the First Division. This is a history of Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment and what combat in 1918 was like. Working with a combination of first person accounts, standard histories and newspapers the author constructs his story. We move from the front, to the rear, to home and back again quickly. Sometimes this can be jarring but it presents a more complete story, giving us a fuller understanding of why and how of things happening to D Company at the front.
The maps are good, most at one mile to the inch, and allow the reader to gain an indertanding of where the men are. In addition to the war, we get a look at the American midwest during the war and life almost 100 years ago.
The chapters "In the Interest of Humanity" and "To the End of Your Days" are worth the price of the book. This is powerful stuff dealing with loss and the impact of war on the following years. The men who fought are gone now. This book is an excellent tribute to them and the price they paid making "the world safe for democracy."

Synopsis:
The Remains of Company D, by James Nelson, is an account of Company D of the 28th United States Infantry Regiment and its ordeal on the Western Front in war torn France towards the end of World War 1. As the grandson of one of the soldiers of Company D, Nelson sought to find details of his grandfather's hidden life after his grandfather's death in 1993. What he found was the lives of dozens of men who lived and died in the trenches and life stories as profound as that of his grandfather.

Nelson writes chronologically, first detailing his relationship with his Grandfather, a World War 1 veteran, then moving on to the world of the early 20th century and the actions of Company D in the war. He details some of the contacts he made and the research he did as he discovered the lives of his grandfather's comrades at arms. The book uses written accounts from memoirs, letters and newspaper reports to tell the very personal stories from before and after the war of many of the men of Company D who fought and died in France.

Review
World War 1 books are relatively rare these days. Overshadowed by the war that the children of World War 1 veterans fought, it's a mostly forgotten war that many seem only to know of because of the mere fact that to have 2nd World War, there must have been a first one.

Nelson makes a profound statement in this book that really caught my attention, that it is through those that did NOT survive the war that the most information about it can be found. Those who died left behind grieving families who saved what mementos and treasures of their loved ones that they could. It's those things that make up a lot of the sources of this book and are referenced in its title. Those who survived often did not keep their history or talk about it.

I can completely understand this statement. As a grandson of a World War 2 vet who died when I was young, I know the mystery that comes with having a loved one who had a profound experience in war and yet never shared it. Thankfully, unlike Nelson, I have letters and diaries from that time which let me get to know him.

I've done some similar research of my own as well so I know full well the immense amount of work Nelson has put into this book. His research is outstanding. He has tied together countless newspaper articles, personal memoirs, recollections of relatives, letters, and divisional reports to give a sometimes day by day account of men who fought and died in France. He details their backgrounds in the United States and their fates, both before and after the war, and includes how those fates affected their families. An amazing level of research that undoubtedly took many years.

He tends to jump around a bit as he writes, introducing a soldier and giving their background before launching into their story. It can be disconcerting at times, but it works well overall. Nelson is a solid writer, and he achieves his goal, making the men of Company people into men again, not just statistics. His vivid and descriptive writing style results in a very poignant and often sad account. War is always tragic.

Nelson's search for his Grandfather's history has great benefits to those interested in history. He's taken a forgotten time and place and combined pieces from all over to it back to life, pulling the lives of the men who lived there all into one place where the rest of us can share them.

To an extent, The Remains of Company D does for the First World War what "Band of Brothers" did for the second. The focus and style is different, but the intent is the same, to show the lives of men who fought and died in war halfway across the world. In this, Remains does an admirable job. But where Band celebrated the fighting and indomitable spirit of the men it followed, Remains mourns the pointlessness and brutality of their deaths.

The one observation I do have about this book is that the depth of what is going on will be beyond most readers. World War 1 is truly a forgotten war. The average reader does not know much about it, much less why it was fought or individual fronts and battles. Nelson does speak about the war and its causes only in passing, certainly not enough to give the average reader a good picture of the background and what was going on. Nelson's detailed and well made maps help, but for anyone not familiar with the Great War, I strongly suggest, at the very least, reading the Wikipedia article about World War 1 before delving into this book. Doing so will greatly enhance the reader's understanding of the situation these men were in.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and a strongly suggest it to any reader who's interested in the social history of war, or war history in general. This is an impactful work that a lot of readers will enjoy and get a lot out of.

This book tells, as best as the author is able to determine, the story of Company D, 28th Infantry regiment, in World War I. The author, James Nelson, began to work on collecting material when he learned a little more about his grandfather's service in Company D and desired to know more about the history of it, as it is part of his grandfather's history.

Books of this sort are valuable. Those of us who have never experienced war or been affected by it (I fall in that category) need to know what others did, the sacrifices they made, and the experiences they had. War is truly a horrific thing, and those of us who have no knowledge of it (or think we do, based solely on movies we've seen) need to appreciate these people who go and fight when called upon to do so.

Generally, I enjoyed the book. It's fascinating to see how people from all backgrounds and walks of life answered their country's call and served. The book is formed from as much historical record the author could find (letters, military records, interviews, etc.), with the author's comments and speculation in some places. As to be expected, there is extensive quoting from these sources.

Personally, while I found the book to be interesting and worth the read, I didn't find it engaging. There are some books that you pick up, start reading, and just can't put down. This unfortunately isn't one of those. It comes close, but does fall short.

One of the reasons may be that although Company D fought in more than one engagement, the author is in my opinion excessively fixated on one event: the crossing of the Paris-Soissons road. It looms over everything. This fixation is understandable--the fighting was fierce, and this is where the author's grandfather was wounded--but it distracts from the telling of Company D's experiences. As evidenced by the book itself, there are many who fought and were wounded in many places and circumstances.

The other reason may be that at times the author's quoting of the soldier's writings felt overdone. Having multiple quotes about, say, the horrible ways in which doughboys were dying and being wounded during shelling gets repetitive, even if the quotes are from different sources and experiences.

All in all, I recommend giving this book a read. You'll have a greater appreciation for the sacrifices that were made during the Great War, and for all other soldiers in other wars who have had similar experiences.

I loved this book. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let me tell you why. I am a great fan of military history and have been reading books on battles, wars and combatants for more years than I care to remember. For a long time I stuck with the tried and true, Civil War and WWII. When I saw The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War, I was excited, I'm finally expanding my interests to other eras. I was not disappointed with this book. It tells the story of a company of US solders, from their recruitment to the lives they lived after the war. So many books don't give you the human element and Remains does this better than any other book I've read. Another aspect of the book that I found so interesting was the detail about the life of the doughboy at the front. I still can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to go "over the top" and run towards the enemy trenches. The sacrifices that were made are almost incomprehensible and we certainly owe more gratitude than we can express to our veterans of the Great War and all the other wars our country has been involved with from the founding of our country to today.

If you like military history, I can't recommend this book enough.

In a riveting narrative that puts diaries, letters and action reports to good use, James Nelson delivers a stunningly vivid history of the Great War. He is equally at ease and equally generous and sympathetic probing the hearts and minds of lowly soldiers in the trenches or examining the thoughts and motivations of leaders who directed the maelstrom. In the end, Nelson leaves us with a brilliant, panoramic portrait of an epic struggle that was at once noble and futile, world-shaking and pathetic.

Following a thread of information about his Grandfather's service in some of the great battles of World War 1, James Nelson explores the world that enveloped the reserved John Nelson. From that thread the author's exhaustive research brings forth the history of his unit, Company D of the 28th Infantry Regiment in battles from Cantigny to Soissons, and through to the Battle of the Argonne. The quotes and personal stories of the young men, through letters home and a myriad of other sources makes this a personal history of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and what it meant to be a doughboy.

James Nelson forgoes the geopolitical context and instead brings us Soren Sorenson and Marvin Stainton - and the bloody, often gruesome, details of how they survived to the end...and prevailed.

This is not a book for WWI buffs, the "Remains Of Company D" is a book that will MAKE people want to become WWI buffs.

This is a people's history of World War I, told by the grandson who dug through the family records and first documents to piece together the history of the infantry company of his grandfather.

The writing is dense and poetic, so it's not a light read, and the recounting of the details make the narrative seem a bit like swirling molasses. but it's worth it if you're interested in military history. I was especially interested since a lot of the build up to the company's deployment starts near Chicago in the now-decommissioned Fort Sheridan, and they end up in Cantigny, which is the namesake of McCormick's large estate in Naperville that has a museum devoted to the 1st Infantry Division.

I have a substantial library on The Great War. My favorite authors are primarily from Great Britain...Malcolm Brown, Peter Hart, Lyn Mcdonald, Max Arthur, Richard Van Emden, and many others. I will now add James Nelson, an American, to my list of favorites. This is a wondeful book describing the incredible contribution of Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, U.S. First Division during World War One. Although I'm a confirmed Anglophile I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Unlike some authors, Mr. Nelson does not belittle the U.K., France and other allied nations but simply tells a facinating true story of heroism, honor and sacrifice. This is a GREAT read!

Iam a 65 year old retired teacher of 30 years and have been married to my retired soldier/high school/ university sweetheart for almost 44 years. I am an avid reader and the majority of the books in our house are military non-fiction. THE REMAINS OF COMPANY D is thus far the best book that I have read about that horrible war that ushered in the 20th century and introduced so many horrible weapons against man. The author has a stake in the book as his grandfather should have been killed crossing a road to Paris but was, instead, alive at 101. James C. Nelson used his grandfather as a stepping off point to begin searching for other Americans who had given their lives with Company D. This book is one of those that I am reading slowly in order to absorb names, places, etc if that horrible time in our history. His descriptions are so very vivid, you can smell the death and see the bloated corpses. I highly recommend this book.

One of my best friends growing up was the grandson of a First Infantry Division rifleman who was badly wounded at Soissons. He rarely spoke of the war, and I vividly recall him breaking down and sobbing uncontollably as he tried to describe his experience in the battle sixty years after the summer of 1918.
After reading this book, I can understand why.
I think the author does an excellent job of presenting the First World War as seen through the sights of a rifle. The events recounted in the book are nearly a century in the past, but they are brought vividly to life by the many first person anecdotes presented in this fine book.
The book is also valuable because of the insight it provides into the experiences of the soldier's families during and after the war, emphasizing the high price paid by everyone concerned.
I enjoyed this book very much.