A German Deserter's War Experience: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

A German Deserter's War Experience, credited to Anonymous, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of A German Deserter's War Experience by Anonymous. (Translated by Julius Koettgen.) Read in English by Lee Smalley The author of this 1917 narrative, who escaped from Germany and military service after 14 months of fighting in France, did not wish to have his name made public, fearing reprisals against his relatives. The vivid description of the life of a common German soldier during “The Great War” aroused much interest when it was published in the United States in serial form. Here was a warrior against his will, a hater of militarism for whom there was no romance in war, but only butchery and brutality, grime and vermin, inhuman toil and degradation. His story also contains the first German description of the retreat of the Teutonic armies after the battle of the Marne. – From the Translator’s Preface - Summary by Lee Smalley

Recording facts

• Recording title: A German Deserter's War Experience
• Author credits: Anonymous
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 25
• Listed recording duration: 5:20:23

Catalogue topics

• history
• World War I
• memoir
• german military

Opening tracks: first 24 of 25

1. 00 - Translator's Preface — 3:41
2. 01 - March into Belgium — 11:04
3. 02 - Fighting in Belgium — 24:35
4. 03 - Shooting Civilians in Belgium — 14:30
5. 04 - German Soldiers and Belgian Civilians — 9:12
6. 05 - The Horrors of Street Fighting — 11:26
7. 06 - Crossing the Meuse — 6:15
8. 07 - In Pursuit — 15:58
9. 08 - Nearly Buried Alive on the Battlefield — 11:53
10. 09 - Soldiers Shooting Their Own Officers — 13:23
11. 10 - Sacking Suippes — 15:49
12. 11 - Marching to the Battle of the Marne—Into the Trap — 11:10
13. 12 - At the Marne—In the Maw of Death — 16:49
14. 13 - The Rout of the Marne — 14:34
15. 14 - The Flight from the Marne — 20:03
16. 15 - At the End of the Flight — 15:38
17. 16 - The Beginning of Trench Warfare — 21:13
18. 17 - Friendly Relations with the Enemy — 9:26
19. 18 - Fighting in the Argonnes — 12:45
20. 19 - Christmas in the Trenches — 13:45
21. 20 - The Itch A Savior — 13:03
22. 21 - In the Hell of Vauquois — 10:14
23. 22 - Sent on Furlough — 8:13
24. 23 - The Flight to Holland — 8:39

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.