The opening battles of the Great War by an eyewitness of the ‘Royal Irish’

All first-hand accounts have merit for the military historian since they can provide insights into campaigns, battles and smaller engagements as well as the activities of regiments. Within a particularly well written account the reader may learn rewarding information about the author and his comrades and find a sense of time and place. This book, written by the son of renowned military artist Lady Elizabeth Butler, is particularly interesting on all these counts. An officer in the Royal Irish Regiment, Butler describes his time as an aide-de-camp to Major-General Sir Thompson Capper (who was killed at the Battle of Loos in late 1915) during the First Battle of Ypres in 1914 when the army fought itself to the brink of annihilation during efforts to stem the tide of the initial German offensive. After recovering from a wound received at First Ypres, Butler returned to the front, once again as a regimental officer, where he fought in the Second Battle of Ypres in the Spring of 1915. This battle became notable as the first occasion on which poison gas was employed as a battlefield weapon. Service in the trench warfare of Armentieres and on the Somme followed before the conclusion of the book where Butler and his men embarked for Salonika. This Leonaur edition of Butler’s essential work contains illustrations and maps which were not present in the original edition.

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