ROYAL FUSILIERS IN THE GREAT WAR (Hbk)

Official history of the Royal Fusiliers in the Great War. The RF were a large unit which served on the Western Front and at Gallipoli, Salonika and in East Africa. Here, in one volume, is their story. The Royal Fusiliers (7th Foot) was one of five infantry of the line regiments to have four regular battalions (all the others had two each) and two Special Reserve, numbered 1 to 6. In addition, the Royal Fusiliers had an Extra Reserve battalion, the 7th. By the end of the war the number of battalions had risen to 44, and in the first half of 1919 a further two battalions (45 and 46) were raised for service in North Russia. The regiment did not have its own Territorial battalions but the first four battalions of the London Regiment were affiliated and included as part of their full title. Leaving aside the London Regiment battalions this history quotes an estimated 195,000 as having served in the RF - more than the whole of the original British Expeditionary Force. They fought in every theatre of war except Mesopotamia and 15,600 died. Eighty Battle Honours and twelve Victoria Crosses were awarded. To cover so many battalions in detail in a single volume is hardly practical, but the author has managed a fair compromise. He has set out to deal with every significant engagement as correctly and completely as possible, while singling out incidents he judges worthy of note. There are separate chapters on Gallipoli, Salonika and East Africa; the rest of the book is concerned with the Western Front. His sources are the battalion diaries, personal diaries of officers, special accounts of particular actions contributed by soldiers actually involved, letters and conversations. The opening chapter is of particular interest because here the author explains in some detail how the regiment expanded and how each wartime battalion came to be formed. The appendix gives the Roll of Honour of officers (1,054 names); a table showing the numbers of Warrant Officers, NCOs and Men on the Roll of Honour, by battalions; a table summarising decorations awarded, including foreign awards; brief biographies or notes on a number of Royal Fusilier general ranking officers; and several accounts of soldiers who took part in the various operations. There is a good, 24-page index. Reprint of the 1922 original edition.