Harrison’s story, told through the first person, is a stark reminder of the horror and brutality of war. His ‘no-holds barred’ style of writing drags the reader straight onto the Western Front from the outset. The persistent use of the present tense forces the reader to share every raid, rat encounter, lice infestation, and lack of rations, with the soldiers themselves. As readers, we meet young men, many of them still teenagers, who are far better acquainted with farming, shop work or car repairs, than trench warfare and death. These are soldiers forced into situations beyond their control. Soldiers who have no idea whether they will be alive tomorrow.

The effective use of language, drawn from the senses, is dramatic in creating a vivid picture of trench survival and actual combat, but also serves as a poignant reminder that the events related have actually happened. Harrison himself, a machine gunner in the Royal Montreal Regiment, was wounded in Amiens in 1918 and returned home to Montreal where he later wrote about his experiences in France and Belgium.

The depiction of warfare is graphic at times, particularly the incident where the young soldier, (whose name we are not even given), is forced to kill a young German soldier during hand-to-hand combat. A powerful sense of pathos is evoked by this horrific act since one of the two prisoners of war who is captured by our soldier shortly afterwards, is the young German’s brother who thanks him for sparing his own life. Memorably this young man’s death hits the main character hard with the German brother’s appearance giving the dead man an identity, he would otherwise not have been forced to deal with.

This text is appropriate to be used sensitively with pupils at either Key Stage 3 or 4. Generals Die in Bed would be a superb resource to compliment the war poetry of Owen or Sassoon, particularly in terms of exploring sensual language and developing a sense of reader empathy, but equally as a valuable addition to GCSE History resources for the First World War.