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But not all. In her new book, "An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth-Century Warfare," British historian Joanna Bourke brings us accounts of killing in battle that are frank, forthright and, yes, even eloquent. Drawn largely from the letters and diaries of rank-and-file soldiers -- the scrubs, the grunts, the guys on the ground -- the book offers a revealing glimpse into military history. Although the impressions and attitudes of the elite are well-documented in every era, Bourke has noted that working-class people usually only write letters during war. These dispatches provide rare insight into the experiences of men who may have scrawled in the foxhole or the barracks thoughts that they would not, or could not, convey once they got home. And no wonder -- since many such thoughts articulated the pleasure, the near-orgasmic ecstasy, that some of these men discovered in killing.

An Intimate History of Killing: Face-to-Face Killing in Twentieth-Century Warfare By Joanna Bourke Basic Books, 400 pages Nonfiction Buy this book at B&N.com

"Gorgeously satisfying," "joy unspeakable," rhapsodized two of Bourke's correspondents. Some descriptions of this perverse thrill are flip and full of bravado -- "For excitement, man-hunting has all other kinds of hunting beat [by] a mile," declared Sgt. J.A. Caw -- while others display a chilling serenity.

"I secured a direct hit on an enemy encampment, saw bodies or parts of bodies go up in the air, and heard the desperate yelling of the wounded or the runaways," reported British soldier Henry de Man about a World War I raid. "I had to confess to myself that it was one of the happiest moments of my life."

If many of these letters and journals reveal a gloating indifference to human life, they're also full of the trembling vulnerability bestowed by guilt. "To tell you the truth I had a tear myself, I thought to myself perhaps he has a Mother or Dad also a sweetheart," wrote Pvt. Daniel John Sweeney to his fiancée after shooting a German soldier. "I was really sorry I did it but God knows I could not help myself."

After a fighter from Northern Ireland bayoneted a German without a twinge of conscience, commenting that his opponent "squealed like stuck pig," he was later struck by the magnitude of his action. "It was not until I was on my way back," he wrote, "that I started to shake and I shook like a leaf on a tree for the rest of the night."

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