Le journal de guerre de Joseph Jamet(2) : Father\u27s War diary(2)

On the 3rd of September 1939, France and United Kingdom declared war on Germany. 2 days before, mobilization of troops was called up. At that time, my father Joseph Jamet was 24 years old. He was employed in the customs department of Epinal, town located in south part of Lorraine in the Vosges. As he was reservist, he joined the army immediately and was sent on the 1st of September to German boarder, facing Saarbrucken. He stayed there in little villages and served as accountant and quartermaster. During these troubled times, he kept a private diary from 1st of September to 16th of October 1939. After his death in April 1996, I found the diary quite by chance in the bottom part of a cupboard. Nobody knew about it. When I read it, I was really astonished by the value of his testimony, descriptions of everyday life in war period and his feelings in response to other people grief and sorrow. I was surprised as well by the litterary and stylistic value of the diary. It called to my mind altogether Maurice Barres\u27s pathetic and patriotic strains, Charles Peguy\u27s poetic tune and Jean Paul Sartre\u27s meticulous description of facts and people, as it appears in Les Chemins de la Liberte or Carnets de la drole de guerre. So I looked very much forward typing it and publishing it. The diary was edited in 2 deliveries. Part 1, edited in Acta Humanistica et Scientifica Universitatis Sangio Kyotiensis, Humanities Series No 30, March 2003, covered the first week my Father was on duty on front lines from September the 1st to September the 6th. Part 2 covers the period from September the 7th to October the 16th. Father\u27s diary ends on October 16th, as ends the notebook on which he wrote it. Had this story a continuation? Nobody knows, as only one notebook was discovered in the cupboard and Father never spoke about this diary