A Woman's Diary of the War

This book was originally published in 1923 posthumously. I read it as a part of my reading project for the anniversary of World War One. Macnaughton was a Scottish writer who served first in the Boar War as a Red Cross Volunteer driving an ambulance and helping with the nursing. She was with a group of Red Cross Volunteers that went into World War I with some experience. Macnaughton went to Belgium in September 1914. She was in a variety of places in Belgium and then in France. She was bombed and shot at not only when she was driving an ambulance but also at aid stations and hospitals. She jumped in and got things done when she saw a need. For example, troops passing through the lines on the way to and from the front were often cold and hungry so she set up soup/coffee stations for them with the help of Belgium nuns. Macnaughton’s descriptions of what she saw, did and felt are dramatic. The prose she uses is beautiful. Her description of the wounded and dead she transported in her ambulance from the first battle of Ypres made me feel as if I was right there with her. She described the ever present “mud” sometimes with irritation and other times with humor. She wrote with glowing praise about the Belgium people and all the civilians had to endure during the invasion by Germany. This is one of the best discussions about the Belgium people during WWI I have read. One time when she was feeling frustrated in her ability to describe what she was seeing she said “I think that only the pen of a Zola could fitly describe the scene.” She was transferred to the Russian front and then to Armenia, where she wrote about the refugee problem due to the Armenian genocide. She dead in 1916 from an illness acquired in the War. Belgium awarded her the Order of Leopold posthumously for her service in Belgium. I read this as an E-book on my Kindle app for my iPad. The book was a short 93 pages long. It was some of the best 93 pages I have read about WWI. Her viewpoint was that of a medical worker and woman.

We often think of war from the perspective of men at battle. In this insightful book, Sarah Broom Macnaughton shows the horrors of war with wisdom and thoughtfulness. She broadens our sense of war to include the impact on everyone within a war zone. While facing so much tragedy, Macnaughton manages to hang onto gratitude for the small contributions by those left in the villages. She appreciates all attempts to bring any amount of comfort to the sick and wounded. She understands why men fight, but also understands the price of life is too great for any reasonable settlement of dispute. Macnaughton writes with logical considerations and heartfelt sentiment.

An interesting and well written account of what the author experienced during her short time as a nurse in WW1. It's a quick read but perhaps too quick.

This is about the most interesting view of Ww1. She truly puts us there with the wounded-soldiers and civilians. It's all about the war. Read this.

It was kind of hard to follow, the way they wrote back then. And it would have been nice to have the foreign words out in to English.

Excellent recounting if her Nursing.

This diary made World War I much more "real" to me. Previously I just had not felt the same connection to the people who lived through WWI as I had for WWII (perhaps because my own grandparents lived during WWII). I received a free advance review copy of this book from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I v w isited some of the places mentioned in this book and it really came alive to think of real people being the trenches I visited

Muy buena relacion calidad/precio

I found the book hard going.

Great read could put it down

A journal of bearing the unbearable, and somehow managing to cope regardless, a voice from the world that died in the twenties, the world that the poets killed with their ridiculous pity, when the strength and courage shown here held up half the sky.