Ellen La Motte had experienced a successful career as a nurse in the United States before World War I. But, it was a career of politics and bureaucracy that left her empty; so she sought a way out. In 1915, she found her way to a French hospital on the Front in a small strip of Belgian that the French still held. Always a writer, she set down her observations of the "human wreckage" of war and these vignettes were publish as articles in the Atlantic Monthly and eventually collected into the book, The Backwash of War. Quickly it became quite popular in the US, but once the American boys were sent "over there," the American government decided it was too much and the book was banned in the US in 1918.
In her introduction to the 1934 re-release of her book, La Motte noted, "that we are now going through a period of peace, it seems an opportune moment for a new edition of the book....War has been described as 'months of boredom, punctuated by moments of intense fright.' During this time at the Front, the lines moved little, either forward or backward, but were deadlocked in one position...But where there is little or no action there is a stagnant place, and in that stagnant place is much ugliness." It is that "ugliness" that La Motte captures in her curt, cynical voice through her clinical observations.
La Motte's stories reminded me of the stories I read by nurses from Vietnam. The calm resignation to the destruction of war. One of my favorite selections is, "There is an attack going on. That does not mean that the Germans are advancing. It just means that the ambulances are busy, for these old troops, these old wrecks upon the beds, are holding up the Germans. Otherwise, we should be swept out of existence." These lines capture the so much of what La Motte has to say about war and the purpose of a human life caught up in war: a wounded soldier dams the flow, blocks progression of armies, forces that are mightier and seemingly more important than a life.
I like that La Motte doesn't spend time moralizing or telling me what to think. She observes and draws her conclusions but she doesn't preach, and for that reason I would highly recommend this little book for anyone seeking to understand at least one part of the impact of war.
