Mud And Khaki

The period covered in this memoir is from 13 January to 23 October 1915 when the author was with the 1st Battalion the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) then part of 7th Brigade, 3rd Division. The whole nine months were spent in the Salient - Kemmel, Hooge, Sanctuary Wood, St Eloi- and if you want to get the feeling of what trench warfare was really like in that bloody (in more senses than one) Salient then you can do no better than read this book. Most vivid is Clapham s description of the attack on Bellewaerde Ridge, just north of Hooge, on 16 June. In fact the HAC history gives two accounts of this action, one is by the CO and the other, giving the rank and file view, is Clapham s story, extracted in full from his book. The action cost the battalion over 200 casualties, almost half the trench strength at the time. The narrative ends with the battalion being withdrawn from the line and transferred to GHQ Troops, and Clapham a corporal. A superb book.

Mud and Khaki by Vernon Bartlett is a brutally honest representation of war on the frontlines of Belgium and France. Excerpt: "Close behind the trenches on the Ypres salient stands part of "Chapel Farm"—the rest of it has long been trampled down into the mud by the many hundreds of men who have passed by there. Enough of the ruin still stands for you to trace out the original plan of the place—a house and two barns running round three sides of the farmyard that is fœtid and foul and horrible."

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Excerpt from Mud and Khaki: Sketches From Flanders and France No words, then, can give an exact picture of these things, but they may help to give colour to your impressions. Heaven forbid that, by telling the horrors of war, the writers of books should make pessimists of those at home! Heaven forbid that they should be little the dangers and hardships, and so take away some of the glory due to Tommy for all he has suffered for the Motherland! There is a happy mean - the men at the front have found it they know that death is near, but they can still laugh and sing. In these sketches and stories I have tried, with but little success, to keep that happy mean in View. If the pictures are very feeble in design when compared to the many other, and far better, works on the same subject, remember, reader, that the intention is good, and accept, this apology for wasting your time. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.