"The screeming of the shells was so loud it all most would run any one crazy." (Transcription of edited diary, page 12)

Hillie John Franz

Hillie John Franz in WWI Army uniform [detail] War: World War, 1914-1918 Branch: Army Unit: Company L, 34th Infantry Regiment, 7th Division Service Location: Camp Travis, San Antonio and Camp McArthur, Waco, Texas; Camp Merritt, New Jersey; France Rank: Private First Class Place of Birth: Bernardo, TX

A Texas farm lad of German descent, Hillie Franz fought the Germans in World War I. While serving in France, he found a nearly unused German ledger book and, in spite of his lack of formal education (Franz's spelling was often phonetic at best), he decided to record his experiences in the book. What Franz's account lacks in literacy it more than makes up for in capturing the chaos of the infantryman's life in wartime.