Originally published in 1975, CHILD YANK OVER THE RAINBOW DIVISION - 1918 is a compilation of World War I eyewitness accounts from a U.S. fighter pilot (Lt. Joseph E. Boudwin - nicknamed 'Child Yank' by his British squadron mates during his frontline service with No. 84 Squadron because of his youthful appearance) and 3 veterans of the U.S. 42nd 'Rainbow' Division and their experiences with the Division stemming from its arrival in France late in 1917 to its deployment on the Western Front from July 1918 to the Armistice in November of that year.

Boudwin was one of those American combat aviators who received his initial flight training in the U.S., followed up by advanced flight training in the UK with the Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force [RAF] after the RAF came into being on April 1, 1918 as a result of the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service). Being an aviation enthusiast, I especially enjoyed reading about Boudwin's experiences both in the UK and later in France with, first, No. 84 Squadron, flying S.E.5A fighters, and later, under U.S. command, with the 25th Aero Squadron, which arrived at the Front too late to see much action.

The 3 accounts from the 42nd Division give the reader a tangible feel of the raw intensity, brutality, and sometimes uneasy quietness and monotony that often characterized frontline combat during the summer and fall of 1918, when the U.S. Army became a major factor playing a key role in the eventual defeat of Germany. This book is a keeper, one to be read again and again at leisure.