Book
An American on the Western Front tells the remarkable story of a young American serviceman in World War I, following his progress from the sunny optimism of springtime California in 1917 to the dank autumnal mists of northern France in 1918.
Combining this personal story with a narrative account of the United States’ involvement in the conflict, An American on the Western Front is woven around the letters of the U.S. pilot Arthur ‘Clifford’ Kimber, who carried the first official American flag to be presented on the front in France.
A vivid and compelling account of war, it follows the hopes and feelings of a young man as he grows up in this most unusual of theatres: tracing his story from volunteer ambulance-driver to his experiences as a pilot with both the U.S. and French Air Services and his death in action.
A stand-out…remarkable….An American on the Western Front is both historically valuable and deeply moving. Patrick Gregory and Elizabeth Nurser are to be commended for bringing this lost aviator back to life in an exceptionally well-researched and well-illustrated volume.
Revealing, absorbing and moving. This is the too often untold story of the First World War as seen through one man’s eyes and one man’s words’.
An American on the Western Front is more than the story of one soldier. [It] is a labor of love and a tribute to the USA’s efforts in World War One. It is both scholarly and passionate. The family story is a national as well as a personal one and deserves to be read by all who wish to know more about the USA’s involvement in the war.
Erratum p. 204
Please note typo last line, third paragraph from bottom, page 204. There is a missing zero in the text, so ‘… an appropriation bill for $64 million’ should read ‘… an appropriation bill for $640 million’.
