Backs to the Wall – A Larrikin on the Western Front (1st Edition)

Title: Backs to the Wall – A Larrikin on the Western Front

Author: Mitchell, George Deane

Condition: Very Good

Edition: 1st Edition

Publication Date: 1937

ISBN: N/A

Cover: Hard Cover with extremely scarce Dust Jacket – 281 pages

Comments: This a gripping, first hand account of a young soldier’s experiences in France and Belgium during the First World War.

An now extremely rare and desirable 1st edition book with a very good (and super rare) dust jacket. Minor foxing throughout the book else a very good copy.

‘In that hour was born in me a fear that lasted throughout the whole winter. It was the dread of dying in the mud, going down in that stinking morass and though dead being conscious throughout the ages. Waves of fear at times threatened to overwhelm me… a little weakness, a little slackening of control at times and I might have gone over the borderline.

In the light of the sun, on firm ground, I could laugh at fate. But where the churned mud half hid and half revealed bodies, where dead hands reached out of the morass, seeming to implore aid – there I had to hold tight.’

In this gripping account, George Deane Mitchell relives the horror and the humour of being an Australian soldier on the Western Front in World War I.

About G.D. Mitchell

George Deane MITCHELL was born in Caltowie, SA in 1894 and enlisted in the AIF in 1914 as a 20-year-old. He fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, winning the Military Cross. In World War II he fought in New Guinea. Backs to the Wall written in the 1930s, is based on his war-time diaries. He died in 1961.

He was a double gallantry recipient during World War One having been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the Military Medal for gallantry in combat.

Signed by the author on the front end paper and very rare to find signed copies.