Hell of a Time: An Australian Soldier's Diary of the Great War

Edited by Elvala Ayton

Philip Owen Ayton was working on the Sydney tramways when the call to join the fight against Germany came. Keen for action, he found himself in the First Field Company Engineers in the First Division of the Australian Imperial Forces.

Shipped to Egypt, Ayton soon after took part in the Gallipoli landing. ‘I would not have missed this for anything,’ he wrote to a friend. Badly injured, he was sent to England to convalesce and from there joined the campaign in France, where he saw out the war.

From the start, Ayton kept notes of his experiences, which he would write up in a diary. Plucky, charming and self-deprecating, this son of the new nation records the horrors of trench warfare and his off-duty adventures in Cairo, London and Paris.

This remarkable story is now published for the first time, a century after the war’s end. Accompanied by a postscript by one of Ayton’s sons and Ayton’s poem about the Gallipoli campaign, A Hell of a Time is a vital and compelling account of the Great War.

1129760990
Hell of a Time: An Australian Soldier's Diary of the Great War

Edited by Elvala Ayton

Philip Owen Ayton was working on the Sydney tramways when the call to join the fight against Germany came. Keen for action, he found himself in the First Field Company Engineers in the First Division of the Australian Imperial Forces.

Shipped to Egypt, Ayton soon after took part in the Gallipoli landing. ‘I would not have missed this for anything,’ he wrote to a friend. Badly injured, he was sent to England to convalesce and from there joined the campaign in France, where he saw out the war.

From the start, Ayton kept notes of his experiences, which he would write up in a diary. Plucky, charming and self-deprecating, this son of the new nation records the horrors of trench warfare and his off-duty adventures in Cairo, London and Paris.

This remarkable story is now published for the first time, a century after the war’s end. Accompanied by a postscript by one of Ayton’s sons and Ayton’s poem about the Gallipoli campaign, A Hell of a Time is a vital and compelling account of the Great War.

9.99 In Stock
Hell of a Time: An Australian Soldier's Diary of the Great War

Hell of a Time: An Australian Soldier's Diary of the Great War

Hell of a Time: An Australian Soldier's Diary of the Great War

Hell of a Time: An Australian Soldier's Diary of the Great War

eBook

$9.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Edited by Elvala Ayton

Philip Owen Ayton was working on the Sydney tramways when the call to join the fight against Germany came. Keen for action, he found himself in the First Field Company Engineers in the First Division of the Australian Imperial Forces.

Shipped to Egypt, Ayton soon after took part in the Gallipoli landing. ‘I would not have missed this for anything,’ he wrote to a friend. Badly injured, he was sent to England to convalesce and from there joined the campaign in France, where he saw out the war.

From the start, Ayton kept notes of his experiences, which he would write up in a diary. Plucky, charming and self-deprecating, this son of the new nation records the horrors of trench warfare and his off-duty adventures in Cairo, London and Paris.

This remarkable story is now published for the first time, a century after the war’s end. Accompanied by a postscript by one of Ayton’s sons and Ayton’s poem about the Gallipoli campaign, A Hell of a Time is a vital and compelling account of the Great War.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781925774238
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Publication date: 04/02/2019
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 416
File size: 9 MB

About the Author

Philip Owen Ayton was born near Melbourne in 1889. At the outbreak of the Great War, he enlisted in Sydney. He was twenty-five. After the war he married his sweetheart, Nellie Clarke, and they had two sons and two daughters. Ayton died in Melbourne in 1946, aged fifty-seven.
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews