"oP dlemetly Captain, iecesiraies Rewiment). Ernest Benn, Ltd, London. should be explained that thig) Book was actually written in the Spring of 1919. The manuscript Was put at the bottom of a box and there it reposed. The author, British offer with obviously exceptional. ability for putting on Paper the results of his observations, was too modest to attempt to gend it to a publisher, or perhaps the felt that the subject matter was too intimate and too personal to justify introduction to a wider circle, Then, as the reactions after the war rose and fell, twisted and turned, and the so-called "war-book" cult found expression in nastiest and most lurid form, the idea occu to him that this forgotten manuscript might lead to appreciation of the accuracy or inaccuracy of the diatribes of the Wwar-mongers. There was only one Alteration made in the manuscript for its present publication, except for an obvious postscript, and the small parenthetical reference to End"
For the rest it tly as it was written in In other wor it is a ie impression as clear as could be well expected. The result is illuminating. The author in his preface, explaining thi @ffect which the wat-book cult ha: had on him, says!— aneralt de tod nae "This lod of vornography gain of each few yards of water-toneed Eraters was worth any sucritee which Thad to. explore. pretty. thor: Siy.'Yeravond" lite. onthe. baitetelis, bl. Bed' made me parcel at the od despatches winleh confidently that the enemy. Somme ly. geepticlam nemalned merely aenostio® until I read in Me. Winston Churchill's books the confirmation of my doubts, The "war of attrition" theory was a ghastly error, which in 1918" very" nearly. resulted "in. our destruction.
The book is well furnished with maps of the battle zones, Not the Toast interesting of them is the one which is used as a frontispiece to the book showing the last phase, that is the situation on September 25, 1918. It gives the total number of captures by the Allied Armies between July 18 and November 11 of that year; and, as the author points out, the map provides the most convincing epitaph of the British Army in its depiction of the concentration of German divisions in front of the British attacking
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.