The American Legionnaires

Two Americans who fought for France in the Great War

The First World War began as German forces swept eastwards and westwards in an unprovoked assault on neighbouring states. The injustice and reported brutality of these offensives outraged people all over the world whether their own countries were initially drawn into the conflict or not. Many young Americans felt compelled to join the fight out of principle or for adventure, and so volunteered to join the French Foreign Legion. Some of them eventually became famous as aviators in the Lafayette Escadrille and other squadrons, but others fought their war in the mud of the trenches as infantry soldiers. This book concerns the experiences of two of these young men. David Wooster King's story takes the reader through the most brutal fighting on the Western Front, where the Legion was regularly first into the most lethal part of the fray. Astonishingly and against the odds, the author survived to write this compelling personal account of his experiences. Among King's comrades was the poet Alan Seeger, renowned for the war poem 'I Have a Rendezvous With Death', among others. The second part of this book consists of Seeger's letters describing his own war until the time of his death in action. This excellent book of the war two Americans knew, fighting for the French Foreign Legion, has been enhanced in this Leonaur edition, by the inclusion of images not present in the original publications.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.