Generals Die in Bed

This searing novel, published in 1930, is set among Canadian forces on the Western Front. It is dedicated to “bewildered youths — British, Australian, Canadian and German — who [on 8 August 1918] were killed in [a] wood a few miles beyond Amiens”. The narrator is a young soldier and he describes the frontline experience of his unit, beginning in September 1917. By the end of the novel (the Battle of Amiens) only one of his immediate comrades has survived along with him.

The author, Charles Yale Harrison (born 16 June 1898), was born in Philadelphia but grew up in Montreal, Quebec. Keen to write, he began working for the Montreal Star at the age of 16. He enlisted in the 244th Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Over-seas Expeditionary Force in January 1917 and served with the Royal Montreal Regiment on the Western Front. He was wounded in action on the first day of the Battle of Amiens. Working as a journalist on the Bronx Home News in New York, his first novel (this one) was initially published in serialised portions in various American and German periodicals. It subsequently sold well in book form following on the success of All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms. He went on to write four more novels as well as several works of non-fiction.

In a central event of the novel, the narrator has volunteered for a raid on an opposition trench. During this action, he kills a German soldier with his bayonet. Later, when on leave in London, he tells a woman about this:
“I am a criminal. Did I ever tell you that I committed murder?
It was some time ago. I came into a place where any enemy of mine was and I stabbed him and ran off.”
The word murder is again used toward the end of the novel. A brigadier-general has addressed the troops about the sinking of the Llandovery Castle, a hospital ship for Canadian soldiers. He urges them to take revenge in the forthcoming battle. The battle produces devastating casualties on both sides. When the narrator is being evacuated, an orderly tells him at Boulogne about the Llandovery Castle:
“That was bloody murder, brother. Our officers ought to be shot for that. She was carryin' supplies and war material.” (in other words, they had deliberately turned a hospital ship into a probable target for a strategic attack).