C'est la Guerre: The Memoir of Capt. James McBrayer Sellers, USMC is an account, taken from a series of oral history interviews recorded during the late 1980s by the son of James McBraver Sellers with Sellers himself, who, though then in his early 90s, maintained a clear recollection of his service in France during World War I as an officer in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The interviews were subsequently transcribed. Later, after Sellers' death in 1990 at the age of 95, his family uncovered a hitherto hidden cache of wartime letters Sellers had written, which his grandson then combined with the memoir itself. Sellers' grandson later had the finished work subject to extensive editing by 2 reputable historians before having it published.

I found the memoir to be a highly readable and rich account of the wartime (and early post-World War I era) experiences of a very remarkable man. Sellers was a graduate from the University of Chicago (where the earned the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa academic distinction) who enlisted in the USMC in June 1917 and promptly earned an officer's commission. The memoir details Sellers' training at Quantico, his arrival in France with his unit in February 1918 (where the Marines would undergo extensive combat training), and his first scrap with the Germans in the key Battle of Belleau Wood in June 1918, in which he was wounded and would not return to action until late September. Sellers would then go on to see action in the Battles for Blanc Mont Ridge and the Meuse-Argonne as a company commander. He would be cited for bravery on a number of occasions and after the Armistice, Sellers' unit was sent to Germany on occupation duty for several months before returning to the U.S. in August 1919.

C'est la Guerre also has photos of Sellers from the period of his wartime service, as well as photos of Sellers with 2 of his older brothers (both of whom served in France with the U.S. Army) and family in addition to photos of several Marines (officers and enlisted men) with whom Sellers served during the war. All in all, these photos nicely complement the memoir.

I also found that the memoir provided an interesting contrast with the wartime memoir The World War I Memoirs of Don V. Paradis, Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, which I had read in 2013. The former memoir captures the experiences of a Marine officer from Missouri (Sellers) while the latter memoir encapsulated the experience of war on the Western Front as endured by a Marine enlisted man from Detroit (Paradis).