Casca #21: The Trench Soldier

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London 1914 sees Casca as a down-and-out living on the streets trying to survive. He has a stoke of luck when a rich man's wallet falls into his hands and he uses the money found to travel by train to Wales and he gets a job down the coal mines, moving into a cottage run by a widow called Gwynneth. In the mine Casca befriends two of his colleagues - Hugh Edwards and Dave Prince - and news of the escalating tensions in Europe soon compels the three to join up with the army in London and go fight in Flanders against the Germans. Casca is appalled at the training they go through; it seems the British soldiers are unprepared for actual fighting. In the front line living conditions are appalling and they are thrown into the thick of the fight against the Germans at a place called Mons. The fighting sways back and forth but they manage to hold their lines. Casca is impressed by a bagpipe-playing youngster called George Brotherstone and congratulates him on being promoted to sergeant. Over the next few days the superior numbers of the Germans forces them to retreat. Eventually they dig in and stop the enemy. Casca next volunteers for a job of spotting for the artillery in a hot air balloon which he goes up in together with an artillery captain. Shortly afterwards Casca, Hugh, Dave and three others take part in a patrol led by sergeant Brotherstone behind enemy lines at night. Casca has been promoted to corporal. They confirmed the enemy positions and also blew a bridge up. The following day he is involved in another battle against the numerically superior German army which goes on with countless casualties on each side. George is promoted to lieutenant, then captain after more casualties. The battle lasts for days and no ground is gained by either side. The next day Casca and his comrades are given passes to visit Paris and they spend the time getting drunk and end up fighting the French police, and are arrested. They are sent back to the front line, reprimanded, and George is demoted to lieutenant. The next day Casca is back up in the balloon with the captain, a man by the name of Bryce-Roberts. They see the British artillery mistakenly shell the German field hospital. The balloon is hit and they crash land in no-man's land and are pursued by vengeful German soldiers. They are both hit and in the struggle Casca loses consciousness. He awakes in hospital but the Germans in retaliation then shell it and Casca once more loses consciousness and is left for dead. He is taken away for burial but comes round in time to prevent him being put in the ground. Casca recovers quickly and learns Bryce-Roberts was killed. He then reports back to the flying station and goes up in an airplane with a Captain Wothering, to observe more enemy positions. They are shot at and the Captain is wounded. Before he passes out he instructs Casca on how to fly. Casca managed to land behind enemy lines, patches up the Captain, then takes off again. They pass over a German military camp, drop a few grenades and fly off. The plane though gives out and they crash land and are made prisoner. They escape and steal a car back to allied lines and Casca rejoins his comrades. This time they are posted to Verdun where the Germans are attacking. The battle is another meat grinder, thousands perishing for no gain in ground. Eventually the battle dies out and winter sets in. They are posted opposite Rhiems at Christmas and find themselves sharing drink and food with the Germans on Christmas Day. The next day the battle recommences and George is killed. The next few days sees more fighting and in one attack at night Hugh is machine-gunned and dies. The war shows no sign of stopping and by February 1915 only a few of the old draft that joined up with Casca and Dave are left. Dave is then killed in an attack on a fortress. Casca goes on in revenge, killing Germans until a flame-thrower douses him and Casca is left for dead and is carried back to be shipped to England, nobody sure whether he'll live or not. On the voyage back his ship is sunk. Surviving this ordeal he is picked up by a warship bound for Gallipoli in Turkey.

A disappointing story. I thought it would be better written but Sadler's historical knowledge was apparently not as good here as in other areas. The book starts up promisingly enough, describing the poor conditions in London but then errors creep in. The reference when arriving in the Welsh village to him being part of a Roman army back in the days of the Empire being one - Casca was almost certainly never in Britannia during the Roman era  and is mentioned only briefly in Dubrae (see book #3: The Warlord). Also the description of the battle around Verdun was wrong - Verdun as a battle as described in this novel never took place until 1916. There were also many errors relating to when the various combatant countries entered the war  - Romania never entered until 1916, for instance. If Sadler had written a story about World War I earlier in the series I'm sure it would have been better. Having said that there were a few items of interest, notably the one about how the nickname 'Tommy' came about when describing British soldiers of the World Wars. So we leave Casca recovering aboard the Royal Navy ship bound for Gallipoli, one of the more horrendous battles of 1915. He next surfaces as a German soldier in World War II in 1943.

To see where this story falls in Casca's life click HERE for a Timeline check

Click here to read about the 1914 campaigns of the Western Front.