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Richard Van Emden
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Teenage Tommy: Memoirs of a Cavalryman in the First World War Kindle Edition

by Richard Van Emden (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.8 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
Benjamin Clouting was just sixteen years old when he embarked with the British Expeditionary Force for France in August 1914. The youngest man in the 4th Dragoon Guards, he took part in the BEF's celebrated first action at Casteau on August 22nd, and, two days later, had his horse shot from under him during the famous cavalry charge of the 4th Dragoon Guards and the 9th Lancers at Audregnies. Ben served on the Western front during every major engagement of the war except Loos, was wounded twice, and in 1919 went with the Army of Occupation to Cologne. The son of a stable groom, Ben was brought up in the beautiful Sussex countryside near Lewes and from his earliest years was, as he often said himself, "crazy to be a soldier". He worked briefly as a stable boy before joining up in 1913; his training was barely completed when war broke out. The Regiment, knowing Ben to be under age, tried to stop him embarking for France, but he flatly refused to be left behind. During the next four years, he served under officers immortalized in Great War history, including Major Tom Bridges, Captain Hornby, and Lieutenant-Colonel Adrien Carton de Wiart VC.Teenage Tommy is a detailed account of a trooper's life at the front, vividly recalling, for example, the privations suffered during the retreat from Mons. and later, the desperate fighting to hold back the German onslaught at 2nd Ypres. But this is more than just a memoir about trench warfare. Ben's lively sense of humor and healthy disrespect for petty restrictions make this an entertaining as well as a moving story of life at the front.
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  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pen & Sword Military
  4. Publication date
    February 19, 2014
  5. File size
    29.2 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GS8A3WI
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen & Sword Military; Reprint edition (February 19, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 19, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 29.2 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

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Richard Van Emden

Richard Van Emden

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4.8 out of 5 stars
16 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Hana Sturmova
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great War from teenage cavalryman point of view
    Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2015
    Richard Van Emden made great work bringing the Ben Clouting's memories of WW1 to his readers, the book is very gripping as it is written from Ben Clouting's point of view, only with editor's notices. I recommend it to anyone interested in WW1 and life of cavalry.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • John Hopper
    4.0 out of 5 stars good read of an ordinary bloke in WWI
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This was First World War historian Richard van Emden's first book, originally published in 1990 and reissued in 2013 for the centenary. The author had interviewed and pieced together the war time experiences of Private Ben Clouting of the 4th Dragoon Guards, a survivor of the regiment that saw the first shots of the war fired by the British Expeditionary Force on 22 August 1914. Ben was a very ordinary soldier, who joined the army in peacetime in summer 1913, lying about his age, claiming to be 18 when he was in fact not even 16. He spent some of the war in the trenches and some of it behind the lines looking after officers' horses. But his experiences are those of a very ordinary man in what he does and what happens to him, reacting unemotionally and with British phlegm. Overall Ben could be said to have been lucky in being away from the front line much of the time, though he was wounded twice, slightly gassed and nearly died of pleurisy. His account is remarkable for being unremarkable. Van Emden's editorial interpolations at times I thought were too long and unnecessarily dry and sometimes detracted from Ben's account, though on other occasions they helped with contextualising Ben's subjective experiences. Worth a read.
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