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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.4144
EAN num: 9780801839474
ISBN number: 0801839475
Label: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 224
Printing Date: September 01, 1989
Publishing house: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Sale Popularity Level: 136700
Studio: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Millions of men lived in the trenches during World War I. More than six million died there. In Eye-Deep in Hell, the author explores this unique and terrifying world -- the rituals of battle, the habits of daily life, and the constant struggle of men to find meaning amid excruciating boredom and the specter of impending death.
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Rated by buyers -
ohn Ellis explains the daily routines of the fighting men of World War I in Eye Deep in Hell. Ellis graphically describes the privations, the horrid living conditions, the food, the organization of the trenches, and the minute of daily life that made the First World War so terrible. Eye Deep in Hell gives the complete inside story of the hard life of the World War I soldier. It deals with the way in which trench warfare was conducted on the "Western Front" during World War I. John Ellis not only talks about the tactics used in this type of warfare, but he also goes into the ins and outs of what life in the trenches was like for the men who were on these front lines. It is separated into four main parts descriptively entitled "In the Lines", "Over the Top", "A Lighter Side", and "Attitude."
The very first part of the book describes the type of trenches built along the front. The trench line was where the soldiers charged the enemy when an offensive took place, and fired from when the enemy attacked. Other trenches used to move supplies of ammunition, food, mail, and clothing to the front. Ellis's second section deals with combat conditions. The men knew that going over the top meant death, but for many of the men it was more embarrassing to expose himself as a coward to his fellow soldiers. The psychological pressures were mind-boggling, leading to cases of "shell shock," where men lost their sanity and most likely never recovered from the pressures of war. A big part of the third section deals with food supplies. Predictably, the food on the front was poor. Alcohol was commonly given the soldiers before they went over the top to their deaths. The final segment of Ellis's book concerns the attitude of the troops. Ellis examines the mentality of the military elite towards the war. Incredibly, most generals and field marshals believed morale meant more on the battlefield than modern weaponry. The men who actually fought despised the high commanders, but respected line officers greatly. They recognized that these officers shared the same wretched conditions as the common soldier.
Rated by buyers 
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Eye Deep in Hell by John Ellis was a good social history of trench life on the Western Front in World War I. The author's description of social history during the war reminded me of Geoffrey Parker's The Spanish Road. It seemed like a rather dismal existence, hence the title. Ellis divided his book into four parts and subdivided into chapters, each covering a different aspect of trench life.
Part I, "In the Line" was about daily life in the trenches. Ellis wrote about the design of trenches and the concept of defense in depth, which was a basic military history. According to the author, then northern sector (where the British were stationed) must have been the worst region because of all the rains and mud; afterall, one must consider how many soldiers drowned at Paschendale. Other factors, including a poor diet, rats, disease, lack of sanitation, which helped bring about the disease, and trench foot, all contributed to making the soldiers miserable. The German soldiers had it worst in terms of diet because the British blockade virtually halted their ability to import food from overseas.
The part on combat was a pretty basic description of military history during the war. All of the weapons from artillery to poison gas, to machine guns were mentioned. Unfortunately, the generals had little understanding of how to use these advanced weapons, and that resulted in the needless slaughter of countless soldiers. I was most interested in the military actions that were not conventional battles, such as patrols and raids because I knew nothing about them before reading Eye Deep in Hell. I was also surprised to read that there were times when soldiers would make it a point to spare the enemy, such as the incident where a Canadian soldier walked too close to a German trench in foggy weather, and the Germans told him to go back to his own trench or he would get shot. I was surprised that the soldiers were not necessarily scared when they entered combat (where there was a good chance that they would be killed). The soldiers were in a daze when the went over the top.
"A Lighter Side" was about entertainment and recreation in the trenches. They had a variety of different activities, including sporting matches, plays, concerts. There were also the time-honored forms of recreation for soldiers of gambling and visiting prostitutes. As in all wars, letters from home were a great diversion for soldiers. I was surprised about how strictly the alcohol intake was regulated for soldiers, and how the officers actually managed to enforce it. Soldiers used to drink like fish in other wars. Naturally, it was a great blessing for soldiers to be able to go on leave. It was harder for English or American soldiers because their homes and families were far away. The amount of leaves granted increased towards the end of the war to improve morale.
I found the least section on Attitude to be the most interesting. While I knew that there was the "Christmas Truce" in 1914, I did not know that there were similar truces during the war. It is hard for me to understand how the soldiers did not necessarily hate each other despite the propaganda during the time (English soldiers were curious to see what the Huns were like, only to find them normal people). If I was in the army right now, I would have no desire to do anything to an Al Queda terrorist than to fill him with lead. While I knew of the French mutiny of 1917, I did not know that the British army was on the verge of a similar mutiny, and the two nations did what they could to improve their soldiers' lives in the final year of the war. Despite this mutinies and a few other forms of protest, most soldiers joined the army and did what they could "to do their duty," which seemed to be the book's overall theme.
I considered Eye Deep in Hell to be a good read. It was informative, it was easy-reading, and had descriptive pictures. There were two things that I would have liked to have been able to see. Although Ellis wrote about the Western Front, it would have helped if he made reference to other fronts; I would have been interested to read about the cold weather and starvation in the east or the sheer slaughter in Italy, as it is virtually impossible to wage a successful offensive in the Alps. While Ellis provided many quotes from soldiers to add the common man's perspective, I wish that he could have provided more quotes from soldiers who fought in the trenches and went on to other things after the war. While he did quote poet Siegfried Sassoon, it would have been interesting to hear what some others such as J.R.R. Tolkein, Adolf Hitler, or Harry S. Truman had to say.
Rated by buyers 
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Ellis doesn't produce anything new or different in terms of his evaluation of life in the trenches. The unique feature of the book is that it recounts history from the standpoint of the personal experience rather from the sequence of battles fought. The material is a review of much contained in the very first person accounts of Sassoon, Graves, Barbusse and Junger. Eye Deep is a relatively short work but presents little new in view of the classic works of World War I. It might be a good explanation of the personal tragedy of the soldiers involved for a reader not very knowledgeable of the conditions encountered in the trenches of World War I.
Rated by buyers -
World War I deserves to be understood; that is, what the soldiers in that war experienced deserves to be known. Now that probably all WWI veterans are passed, it is more imperative that we not forget this history. This book really sheds no light on the politics of the war, or the strategy, or really even the big picture history of the war. But, if the "how" (not the "why") of WWI and trench warfare is puzzling to you, this will clear it up. Easy reading, but quite informative.
Rated by buyers -
A pesar de no ser un lector angloparlante y dado que son pocos los libros sobre la 1ra Guerra Mundial editados en idioma español, tuve que poner el diccionario a mi lado y tratar de entender los numerosos giros idiomaticos que utiliza el texto, sobre todo cuando se trata de racontos de los propios protagonistas del combate.
El libro esta muy bien presentado, los capitulos tratados en detalle y con una secuencia de fotografia que ilustran el coraje y el sufrimiento de los hombres en las trincheras.
Me parecio sobre todo interesante la parte dedicada a la alimentacion de los hombres, las peripecias que tenian que hacer los equipos de busqueda de comida y la peligrosidad e importancia de su mision, que aqui no se ve soslayada.
Ojala este libro sea traducido en algun momento al español, porque considero que todo estudioso del tema se vera favorecido y tendra acceso a una obra de notable valor.
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