At Ypres with Best-Dunkley

The author assembles diary entries and letters recording daily life, training, and combat in the Ypres Salient during 1917, tracing a battalion's movements from rear areas back to the front, the atmosphere of waiting and preparation for a major assault, and the experience of the subsequent battle. Personal impressions emphasize officers and men, most notably the unpopular commander Best-Dunkley, his leadership and its effects on morale. The narrative combines frontline detail, relief and bilge-trench episodes, and reflections on loss and comradeship, concluding with a chapter on the battle itself and several appendices on related military topics.