Nine million, five hundred and eighty-six thousand horses were killed on the battlefields of World War One. Huge additional numbers were maimed and wounded.

This is the account of a survivor from the German side by a horse who lived to tell the tale.

Originally published in 1929 in Germany, it was one of the many books banned by the Nazis, and all copies which could be found at the time were burnt in bonfires by the Gestapo. Out of print since its original publication, this short novel narrated by the mare, Liese, is here translated into English for the first time.

ERNST JOHANNSEN (1898–1977) fought in the German Army in the trenches and wrote two best-selling novels about his experiences. One of them was filmed as Westfront 1918 by the famous film director G. W. Pabst in 1930, and is considered one of the classics of pre-Nazi German cinema. Here Johannsen introduces his old friend from the trenches, the retired war horse Liese, who tells her story and that of her equine friends who gave their lives in the cause of a human war which they did not understand.