Publisher's Synopsis
This is their untold story - the heroics of boys aged as young as thirteen who enlisted for full combat training. It is the story of Dick Trafford who was gassed and wounded three times and went over the top with one ear drum burst by the noise of battle before he was just sixteen, and Frank Lindley who, fearful that he would see no action, joined the infantry and went over the top on July 1st 1916 when some 60,000 men were killed or wounded.
At the time their stories were buried in censorship and government control. Now, the last survivors, all well over 100-years-old, have their chance to hand down their miraculous stories of sacrifice and survival. Drawing on these unique testimonies, as well as diaries and letters, Richard van Emden makes this truly insightful investigation into the perenially affecting topic of children and war.
