Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #359417 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-23
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From the Inside Flap
"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.

About the Author
Will Davies is a film-maker, writer and military historian. He lives in Sydney. Private Edward Lynch was born in 1898 and served in France with the First Australian Imperial Force from 1916-19. He died in 1980.

Customer Reviews

Capable support of a classic account
Read the complete subtitle carefully: this is an extended guide to the historical background of Somme Mud that can become a retelling of the story of a classic WW1 memoir. It follows on from the incomparable Somme Mud, Pte EPF Lynch's account of his service which is, as is stated early in this book, an ANZAC `All Quiet on the Western Front'.

This book isn't quite what I'd hoped for. I expected something like a travelogue of Australian WW1 locations and battle sites on the Western Front. Occasionally this book performs that function, but in essence it is a commentary on Somme Mud that supports and expands on the original text. There are some interesting parallel comparisons between Lynch's narrative, unit war diaries and Bean's official history, but I'd have loved to have seen some other accounts from soldiers in the same actions. Sometimes this book becomes a set of notes to Somme Mud, extended annotations that might have been better being integrated into former book's text.

I'm being too harsh. There is an excellent sequence of then and now photographs in the middle which hint what this book might have been. Will Davies' editing of Somme Mud was superlative, and his stock is riding high after introducing such a great book to the Great War canon. This book is sensitively and honestly written. Together, both books would make an excellent point of entry into reading about the Great War for GCSE or A level English or History. Trench life and how it impacted on an ordinary young soldier is clarified and made vivid. Start at the top if you are an inexperienced WW1 reader, make a discovery if you are a `veteran' reader. If this book adds just a little extra information and enjoyment to Lynch's classic account, it's done it's job.