HISTORY OF THE GUARDS DIVISION IN THE GREAT WAR (Pbk)

The Guards Division was formed in France in August 1915, and the first GOC was the Earl of Cavan, a Grenadier, who was later to command British troops in Italy and, in 1922, became Chief of the Imperial General Staff. A month after its formation the Division was in action at Loos, suffering just over 2,100 casualties. Thereafter it was seldom out of the fighting: Somme, Passchendaele, Cambrai, the German March 1918 Offensive, Hindenburg Line and the final advance to victory. It lived up to its name, earning the reputation of one of the finest fighting formations of the war, an elite. Fifteen Victoria Crosses were won, and in addition a further seven recipients were awarded theirs while serving with Guards battalions during the year before the Division was formed. In all it suffered 44,333 casualties, of whom 13,981 were dead. This is a clear, factual and detailed history, described by the author as "a strictly military record, based on the divisional, brigade and battalion War Diaries and supplemented, where necessary, by other official records, private diaries, personal narratives and various published works". First published in two volumes in 1924, this reprint combines both in one volume.