Fix Bayonets!

This collection of WWI sketches of the Fifth Marine Regiment is “forthright, unsparing, deeply felt but unsentimental, and reads like a house afire” (The Wall Street Journal).   From a soldier who was there, here are first-hand accounts of combat and camaraderie during the Great War. In a series of stories and illustrations, Capt. John W. Thomason captures the bravery and gallantry of the leathernecks fighting the Germans in France—putting readers in the trenches, facing the staccato of rifle fire, feeling the pangs of starvation, and the demoralizing fatigue. This collection is a tribute to the men who lived and breathed the motto “Semper Fidelis”, or “Always Faithful”, those who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who made it out alive.   “Fix Bayonets! is in the company of Tolstoy and Crane and Bierce in the literature of war. Indeed, I should leave Crane out of it . . . The Red Badge of Courage cannot stand the fierce sun of Fix Bayonets!” —Laurence Stallings, American playwright and veteran   “Remains the single finest account of Americans in battle in World War I.” —The United States World War One Centennial Commission   “Thomason brings life and energy to his account—and the spirited drawings—of what he saw.” —The Wall Street Journal