Journal de guerre d’Éloi Arrouy 1914-1918 - Miquèl Ruquet

Journal de guerre d’Éloi Arrouy 1914-1918 - Miquèl Ruquet

Éloi Arrouy was born in 1895 in the canton of Trie-sur-Baïse (Hautes-Pyrénées).
Mobilized in 1915 in the infantry, he decided to “make a daily note of the main events” in notebooks that he carefully hid and left with his parents on leave. After the war, he wrote them down without copying everything, and it was not until the 1960s that he wrote this latest version.
These “reflections of a poilu, a 1st class soldier” give many details of daily life at the front. His regiment took part in some of the most famous battles of all time: Champagne, Verdun, Chemin des Dames, Flanders, the Somme, the Marne...
Éloi Arrouy, who became a liaison officer, was subjected to orders and counter-orders without always understanding them; but he knew how to analyze the situation, and cast a critical and distanced eye on what he was made to do. A citizen-soldier, he wants to understand what is being asked of him, distrusts his hierarchy and the gendarmes, and above all seeks to survive. He has succeeded in doing so, by dint of intelligence, sometimes cunning, and system D.
But the idea of imminent death, the revolt against the absurdity and horrors of war, which became even worse towards the end, with the brutalization of the troops, the looting and the drunkenness of the soldiers of all armies, always pursued him.

Miquèl Ruquet has interspersed Éloi Arrouy's account with the official diary of his regiment (401st Infantry), while historical updates set the general context of the war, and original maps and photographs help us to better conceptualize the events.

Editions Trabucaire.

The author:

Miquèl Ruquet, history and geography teacher at the Collège des Albères in Argelès-sur-Mer, is completing a doctorate in history at the Université de Perpignan Via Domitia in 2009 on insubordination and desertion during the 14-18 war on the Pyrenean border. He has published numerous articles in French and Catalan journals: Domitia, Muntanya, Midi Rouge, Vallespir, Aïnes Noves, Ceretania, Papers de Recerca Històrica d'Andorra.