Happy Days

[MartinWills]

“Happy Days!”

A Humorous Narrative in Drawings of the Progress of American Arms 1917–1919

Osprey Publishing

Hardback with Dust Jacket

120 pages

ISBN: 9781849086295

November 2011

HB

Hardback; November 2011; 120 pages; ISBN: 9781849086295

Published Price £7.99

American WW1 army cartoons

This little hardback volume is a real change from the usual Osprey military volumes.

The American First Division in France from late 1917 onwards issued their own trench newsletter, The Observer, and one of the features of this was a series of descriptive cartoons by Captain Alban Butler who served as aide-de-camp to General Summerall, the artillery commander. The cartoons were a moral raising exercise following the capture of Cantigny and rapidly spread beyond the Artillery Brigade.

Ten years after the war in 1928 the American 1st Division Museum at Cantigny reproduced these as a small volume. Not only were they entertaining and descriptive, but they also formed an informal history of those times for those who served.

The Museum at Cantigny has worked with Osprey to republish the original collected volume. It is accompanied by a few interpretative notes which tell us a little more about the career of the author of the sketches and puts them in to context – as well as explaining that attitudes to black soldiers have changed since the original publication, adding that the volume has not been updated in this respect.

This little volume sits beside my bed and provides a little light entertainment each evening. Each cartoon (and there are over 100) is a descriptive sketch highlighting aspects of the Americans time in France and the detail in each is worthy of repeated exploration – every time I look I see more and more detail. The cartoons themselves are of professional standard and illustrate the day to day history of the Division in France – we learn a little with each cartoon, perhaps about the campaign,, the individuals, the enemy or just life in France . One in particular sticks in the mind – after the taking on Cantigny the Germans brought up heavy howitzers as retribution and with Teutonic precision fired every 10 minutes exactly. The Yanks consulted their watches and at the appropriate time withdrew to the Chateau cellars and are illustrated sitting there on benches watches to hand.

A short afterword tells us a little about what became of a few of the men. Butler became a oil man. The Divisional patch of one James Collins, who led an artillery battalion in the Great War and eventually retired as a Major General passed to his son, Mike Collins, who also retired as a Major General (USAFR) and took the patch on the longest journey he was to make in his life in July 1969. Whilst Neil Armstrong took “one giant step for mankind” Mike and the patch orbited the moon in the command module.

This little volume has been one of the highlights of my book buying in recent months. It was, quite simply, a book that I happened upon and one that has given me great delight each time I open it up and will continue to do so for a long time to come.

It is a little hardback volume with (pages / cartoons) and it came as a surprise to see that the published price was only £7.99. If you have a few pounds to spend take a chance on this entertaining little volume – a little lightweight treat that is sure to have you smiling at each turn of the page.