Steele's Battalion
The Great War Diaries
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JDB Communications, LLC, is proud to announce the publication of Steele’s Battalion: The Great War Diaries by John D. Beatty, the author of Crop Duster: A Novel of World War Two.
A scholar finds diaries in an old steamer trunk. The diaries tell the story of a young man, Ned Steele, who embarks on a journey from Detroit to Germany.
Ned joins the Army in 1914, earns a commission in 1917, leads a machine gun company on a Flanders hill, and then a machine gun battalion in the AEF in France. In between, Ned finds romance, terror, exhaustion, friendship, death, and the misery of World War One combat….
“Gas,” Steele shouted, grabbing for his smoke hood as he pitched his steel helmet off. “Keep firing,” he shouted again, muffled by his smoke hood.
The artillery became heavier…thunderous, deafening high explosive and screaming shrapnel…mortar bombs fell all around Steele’s PC, joining the artillery by reaching into the very depths of the trenches, spewing their deadly cargoes within those confined spaces…
But Steele’s fire didn’t slacken…
“3rd Platoon…”
“Yo…”
“Sweep down one hundred…bump left and right…”
The artillery thundered…Steele’s guns chattered…machine-gun bullets bzzz-bzzz-bzzz like a million hornets before they thut-thut-thut into the earth…and men…
“Sir, 1st Platoon…”
“Steele…”
“1st Platoon…place,” he heard…thut-thut-thut-thut-thut-thut…
“Hello? Hello?” He looked around the bunker. “Runner: get to 1st Platoon; tell me what they just said.”
A shell landed nearby…thut-thut-thut-thut-thut-thut…
“Check the wires,” Steele yelled. The boy switched wires on the telephone, cranked, switched again, then scrambled out of the trench …thut-thut-thut-thut-thut-thut…
“They’re in the outpost line on the right,” a panting runner shouted into Steele’s ear.
“Get to 4th Platoon…Tell them SOS Right Immediate.”
“Sir,” the boy said, and dashed away…thut-thut-thut-thut-thut-thut…
From Steele’s Battalion: The Great War Diaries