It is truly fortunate that Donald Frasers daughter brought in this diary to be published. Mr. Fraser journal is the definitive look at the Canadian soldiers plight in the first world war. Fraser was a college graduate though continuously turned down commision, preffering to remain a common ranker throughout his journey. He has a keen eye for detail compounded with his lively sense of humor which is proliferated throughout his story. The book is really broken down into four sections. The first was his initial stint in the treches as a rifleman in the 31st Calgary (Alberta) Battalion CEF. The second deals with his time spent in the quartermaster stores, thirdly his move back as a rifleman during the bloody battle of the Somme. Then it concludes his last year in the war in the 6th Brigade Machine Gun section.

Mr. Fraser talks quite candidly about the scenes he witnessed, as well as his dislike for those in charge. He often witnessed officers leaving the serious work to the men and hiding well behind the lines. His reasons for never accepting promotion are largely based on the fact of the high casualty rate in that department.

The most stirring part of his narrative is the description of September 15, 1916 when he and his company went "over the top"
His battalion suffered over 240 casualties in just a couple of hours. When the fighting was over his battalion would lose just over 660 men.

Passchendaele would see the end of Fraser's military career. On the way up to the line he was shelled. The in front of him and behind him both being killed. He wrote major additions to his journal in the hospital in 1918 and finished it in the 1940's.
He would continue to suffer both mentally and physically from the war the rest of his life. He showed his diary to only close friends and fellow veterans until his death in 1946 at 64 years old. this was first published in 1985.

The journal is exemplary in every aspect. Mr. Fraser speaks for an entire generation of Canadians who would walk the battlefields in the mud and death of World War 1. The editor R.H. Roy does a good job providing biographical details on Frasers life, however his additions to the diary itself are sometimes vague and out of place. He takes to much credit upon himself for the work. Noted by the fact that Donald Frasers name does not appear on the work. Rather Roy's. However it is an excellant account of trench warfare from a continually fading war.