ARTICLE: How to Tell a Story (1915)

So this started life as a translation of a single letter written in February, 1915. The author was Maurice Antoine Martin-Laval, of Marseille. 23 years old, he was the son of a ship owner and one of six children. On the date in question he was acting as a medic for the 58th Infantry Regiment. It’s an evocative letter, but herewith is an example of how we historians can’t take anything at face value and why we can’t leave anything alone. I wanted to go to beyond the picture painted by a man on the ground, and not only verify what he wrote, but also answer his questions as to why this raid took place, and with what aim. Today, you get the opportunity to walk through that journey to put Maurice’s letter in context. First off, here is what he had to say:

My dear Marie,

You would not believe the valour and heroism of our brave soldiers; When I say "valour and heroism," I don't mean to speak like the newspapers in a vague and general sense, taking these words almost as a systematic cliché when it comes to our troops. On the contrary, I want to give these words their full scope, and I want to be specific.

Yesterday at 2:00pm, three sections of my regiment were to attack a German trench, equipped with fantastic secondary defences: a width of about ten metres, crisscrossed in all directions like a spider's web with thick barbed wire connecting enormous stakes, one metre seventy-five high, made of railway beams.

At 2:00pm, therefore, an intense cannonade was to take place: an assault on the German trench by our artillery to drive out the Boches, simultaneously with an intense bombardment of these formidable barbed wire networks. At 2:30pm, rocket, artillery fire ceases, bayonet assault, victory: as you can see, it's very simple on paper, but alas, how different in reality…

(Gallica)

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