author
James Belton
b. 1875
A World War I veteran writing in the thick of the conflict, he brought readers a vivid frontline account of training, trench life, and the assault on Vimy Ridge. His surviving work has the immediacy of lived experience rather than polished memoir.
1 Audiobook
Hunting the Hun
by James Belton, E. G. Odell
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author could be confirmed from reliable online sources. What can be verified is that James Belton was credited as a co-author of Hunting the Hun, published in 1918 with Lieutenant E. G. Odell. Library and public-domain catalog records identify the book as a World War I personal narrative and describe Belton as a captain who had served with British and Canadian forces.
That background helps explain the book's tone: direct, practical, and close to the daily reality of soldiers at the front. The account is especially associated with the Canadian war effort and the fighting around Vimy Ridge, giving modern readers a firsthand window into how that campaign was remembered while the war was still being fought.
Because dependable biographical details beyond the book itself are scarce, it is safest to remember him chiefly through this surviving wartime narrative. For listeners interested in memoirs from the First World War, Belton's work stands out for its immediacy and its sense of a soldier speaking from experience.