[Manuscript - War 14-18] Albert SOURELIAT. - Lot 5

[Manuscript - War 14-18] Albert SOURELIAT. The Great War 1914-1918. Souvenirs de Campagne ou faits vécus de la Guerre. Manuscript copy of the diary written by soldier Albert Soureliat from Le Thor (Vaucluse) in July 1920, covering the events he witnessed from August 4, 1914 to October 1918, during the First World War. The manuscript, in-4 format and bound in full amateur cloth, contains 271 pages, written in ink in a very diligent hand. It is a carbon copy made in 1920 by a member of the Th. Quierville family. As the author explains in his foreword, "This book, written from memory, is not a literary work, but simply a collection of facts experienced and suffered, underlined here and there by the unpatriotic thoughts that are their consequences. It's up to us, then, international proletarians, to understand why we fought." The author recounts his arrival in Avignon, in a gendarmerie regiment, on August 4; on the 10th, he passed through his hometown of Le Thor, and on the 12th "the real life of the Campagne began: marches, counter-marches, exercises of all kinds". He recounts in vivid detail the movements of the troops, their passage to Chateau-Neuf de Gadagne, then to Rupt-sur-Meuse in Lorraine, the whistle of bullets, the explosion of shells, the solidarity between soldiers... Then came his arm injury, hospital stay, convalescence and return to the front on August 11, 1915, "assigned as a bicycle liaison officer" at Esnes, whose role was to "go up to the trenches to give the daily report and carry letters to the Poilus in the machine-gun blockhouses" or "cart the materials needed to build the blockhouses". Later, he became a military musician, recalling evenings and concerts at the "Palace-poilu". The life of the soldiers is meticulously described, what they endured, the "Kraut attacks" at Coudekerque-Branche, then in the Somme ("the martyrdom of the Somme ... much more painful than at Verdun"), etc, etc, until October 1918. The manuscript is divided into 75 chapters, punctuated by a table of contents, followed by 26 small original photographs with captions, 2 old postcards, and 7 illustrated programs of concerts from the front (5 mimeographed from the Palace-Poilu, from November 1915 to January 1916 - one printed from the Théâtre de l'Yser, from May 1916 and another from September 1917). Expert: Cabinet Valleriaux contact@valleriaux.com Please ask for the condition reports before the sale: they are not included in the files.