In The Footsteps of Private Lynch - Tapa dura

Reseña del editor

With a mighty roar the shell explodes spouting flame and phosphorous fumes everywhere. Mud is showered over everyone as pieces of shell fly over prone bodies. A man five feet ahead of me is sobbing - queer, panting gasping sobs. He bends his head towards his stomach just twice and is still. We've had our baptism of fire, seen our first man killed...

When Will Davies discovered the manuscript for Somme Mud he knew he had found a lost treasure. Private Lynch's powerful, personal story of his time in the trenches of the Somme has become a classic. In this new book, Will Davies meticulously follows in the footsteps of Lynch and his battalion, the 45th - from their long route marches to lice ridden billets, into the frontline and seeing action at such infamous battles as Messines, Dernancourt, Stormy Trench and Villers Bretonneux, and on the last great push to final victory after August 1918.

Incorporating an innovative 'then and now' approach in words and pictures, the author assesses the impact Lynch and those like him had both on the battlefield and in the greater context of the war on the Western Front. Written in a lively and accessible style, it sheds light on the campaigns and offensives, the weapons and the equipment, the food, the living conditions and the neglected minutiae of war and in so doing brings to life the young men who sacrificed their youth over 90 years ago.

Nota de la solapa

"With a mighty roar the shell explodes, spouting flame and phosphorous fumes everywhere. Mud is showered over everyone as pieces of shell fly over prone bodies. A man five feet ahead of me is sobbing - queer, panting, gasping sobs. He bends his head towards his stomach just twice and is still. We've had our baptism of fire, seen our first man killed . . . "

When Will Davies discovered the manuscript for Somme Mud he knew he'd stumbled upon a lost treasure. Private Edward Lynch's powerful account of his experience of the war in the trenches has since become a classic.

In response to readers' enquiries and to satisfy his own curiosity, Will Davies delved further into the background to Private Lynch's personal story. The result is a fascinating contextual history of the war in France as experienced by an eighteen-year-old soldier and his comrades. In retracing the progress of Lynch and the 45th Battalion, the AIF - from the long route marches to flea-ridden billets, into the front line against the enemy at such infamous as Messines and Dernancourt, Stormy Trench and Villers-Bretonneux, and on to the great push to the final victory after August 1918 - he shines unique light on life and death in the trenches, the ebb and flow of war, and what was happening in the wider world.

Revisiting these battlefields today, it is hard to imagine that they were once scenes of utter devastation and bloodshed. But in doing so and attempting to understand their significance, this book pays tribute to the young men who over ninety years ago sacrificed so much.