BROTHERS AT WAR Two American Brothers in World War I As Volunteers in the French Army
Letters by Alan Hammond (Alan) Nichols; Narrative by John Ralph (Jack) Jack Nichols; Edited by Alan Nichols (nephew)
978-1-58790-600-8 / 438 pages / 6” x 9” / illustrated / $40
World War One
ABOUT THE BOOK & AUTHORS
At the beginning of the First World War there was much sympathy in America for the French, British and Russians against the Germans, Austrians and Turks. But the United States Neutralization Act made it a felony for citizens to support either the Allies or the Huns except for humanitarian assistance to either side. To avoid the proscriptions of the Neutralization Act many wealthy, prominent Americans bought ambulances for the French Army and recruited college students from the nation’s top colleges and prep schools to man them.
Jack and Alan Nichols lived at home with their parents Walter Hammond Nichols and Eleanor C. Nichols in the small town of Palo Alto, California, and were students at Stanford just across the then street. Both were avid pro “Allies”.
Alan, a Junior at Stanford, was older and left for France first while Jack, a Freshman, followed some months later. For two small town young teenage boys who had never left Palo Alto, crossing the country for a ship to France was in itself an extraordinary adventure.
They both joined the French Army Ambulance Corps at first. Once they were in France with the French Army the American Neutralization Act no longer applied nor its prohibition of participation on either side of the conflict. Alan later transferred to the French Army Air Corps and, after the U.S. joined the fight on the Allies side, Jack to the American Tank Corps. Both brothers functioned as “junior journalists.”
Alan wrote long letters from France to his father about his experiences which were then published by the Palo Alto Times from its “foreign corespondent.” They were then collected, edited and appeared as Letters Home: From the Lafayette Flying Corps. Jack wrote his own book Two Years: World War I Experiences in France. This book is now combined with a selection of Alan’s letters and the collaborative effort titled Brothers At War. It is the story of their war lives serving, each in his own different way, the French army, but with shockingly different endings.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
ALAN NICHOLS, is a past president of the New York-based Explorers Club, A trial lawyer, politician, and educator as well as an explorer, Nichols has led four Mongolian Expeditions and nine Explorers Club Flag Expeditions. He is the first person to bicycle the entire 10,300 mile silk web (aka erroneously “Silk Road”) from Turkey to China, and also the first Westerner to circumambulate Mount Kailash after it was opened by the Chinese. His numerous publications include To Climb a Sacred Mountain: One Man’s Search for God Atop the Holy Mountains of the World; Journey: A Bicycle Odyssey through Central Asia; The Hunted & The Hunter: The Search for the Secret Tomb of Chinggis Qa’an; and The Historical & Technical Sciences for Finding the Secret Tomb of Emperor Chinggis Qa’an Founder of the Mongol Empire [including] A Geophysical Analysis of Mountain X.