DEDICATED to Those who lived this book - The men of my brigade.
CHAPTER I - Formation of the Battalion (3 March 1916)
CHAPTER II - The March to Serapeum (27 March 1916)
CHAPTER III - Training for France (9 April 1916)
CHAPTER IV - In France (13 June 1916)
CHAPTER V - La Somme (14+ July 1916)
CHAPTER VI - Pozieres Ridge
CHAPTER VII - Pozieres Ridge - The Windmill (7 August 1916)
CHAPTER VIII - Pozieres Ridge - Mouquet Farm (23 August 1916)
CHAPTER IX - In Flanders
CHAPTER X - The Winter of 1916-1917 (27 October 1916)
CHAPTER XI - Bullecourt (24 February 1917)
CHAPTER XII - The Colonel
CHAPTER XIII - Brighter Days (12 April 1917)
CHAPTER XIV - Passchendaele Ridge (10 October 1917)
CHAPTER XV - The Battalion's Spell
CHAPTER XVI - Meteren to the Amiens Road
CHAPTER XVII - The Defence of Amiens
CHAPTER XVIII - Monument Wood (9 April 1918)
CHAPTER XIX - The Strain Lightens (6 ?? 1918)
CHAPTER XX - Towards the East (1 August 1918)
CHAPTER XXI - The Battalion's Last Engagement (8 August 1918)
CHAPTER XXII - The Days of the Armistice
A WORD to THE SURVIVORS OF THE 48TH.
This record is written of the battalion as a whole. I have not laid emphasis, though often warranted, on the part played by any individual, with one exception of which you would approve. Something of the spirit of the battalion I have endeavoured to give. Something of its tragedy, perhaps too much for the conventional patriot. Something of its humour, perhaps too little. For I have not exploited the alleged humour of warfare. Humour might have scope in the back areas. In the humour of the trenches one could mostly see but the hysteria of tragedy.
Of the unit's many changes and incidents I have aimed at an accurate chronicle, to enable you to live again in your own musing a past that no pen could recall. Whatever its value, I offer it in return for friendship unstinted from the morn of the battalion in the East till the close of its day in the West.
W. DEVINE. On the Meuse, 1919.