Life, death and growing up on the western front

Part I: Going to war. Quiet earnest faces: the national cause

Glad to go: patriotic idealism

Ready to go: training. Part II: At the front. Write as often as you can: letters and parcels

Sticking it out: fear and shell shock

A certain sense of safety with him: leadership

Such a helpless lot of babes: care for the men

Drops of his blood on my hand: horror and endurance

I merely did my duty: discipline and morale

Very gallant in every way: early losses

Blighty, oh blighty in about a week: leave

I am serene, unafraid: the Somme

Capable of finishing the job: battles of 1917-1918

The men cannot grasp it: armistice

We will remember them: remembrance and commemoration

All the best and choicest and unblemished: war heroes

Among the happiest years I have ever spent: survivors

Epilogue: the Great War in perspective.