The Sharp End of War

Words from the firing line

Sir Walter Wood was well known for his anthologies of descriptions and personal accounts of military experiences and other deeds that forged the British Empire. The outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914 provided him with an enormous resource of material which he gleaned from interviews with British soldiers and sailors returning from the battlefield. During the first two years of the conflict Wood collected, and published in two volumes, forty two gripping accounts, from both officers and men-including cavalrymen, infantrymen, engineers, dispatch riders, artillerymen and a host of others who were engaged in the fighting. 'In the Line of Battle,' he concentrated on the opening campaigns of the war, including the retreat from Mons, the battles of the Marne and Aisne to the First Battle of Ypres, and included first hand accounts of early naval engagements and the German naval raid on Hartlepool. 'Soldiers Stories of the War,' mainly covered the campaigns of 1915 on the Western Front, but also included the Dardanelles expedition. This unique, good value Leonaur edition, published to coincide with the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, brings together the full content of both books in one substantial edition. Absolutely nothing can compare with the words of those recounting their very recent experiences and in this edition, those voices reach across time to provide powerful, poignant and revealing insights into the First World War.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.