Publisher's Synopsis
Long out of print, this new edition memoir by an intelligent and articulate other rank", provides fascinating insights into the Great War infantryman's experience. In autumn 1915, twenty-year-old Gerald Dennis enlisted in Kitchener s Army. Assigned to the 21st (Service) Battalion of the King s Royal Rifle Corps, affectionately known as the Yeoman Rifles , he experienced fierce fighting on the Somme 1916, during Messines Ridge and Third Ypres in 1917 before deployment to Italy in the immediate aftermath of the Caporetto disaster. Re-assigned to a battalion of the Cameron Highlanders in summer 1918, Dennis took part in the advance to victory before demobilisation in 1919. A vivid and engaging record of wartime service and comradeship, his recollections are not those of the archetype disenchanted ex-soldier: Whatever impressions the readers of this book draw, I would like to emphasise that I bear no resentment or bitterness. As far as I could, I have drawn a true and honest picture of my army life ... I realise that I did only the merest little bit for my King and Country, not that we gave either special thought. We had volunteered for them.
