The War the Infantry Knew, 1914-1919: A Chronicle of Service in France and Belgium,
by Captain J.C. Dunn. 1938; reprint, London: Jane’s, 1987.

It is not the generals who engage the enemy in combat, and in the case of the British Army in World War I on the western front, it appears it was a rare occasion for a general officer even to visit a front-line trench.  It is the battalion, company, and platoon commanders, and especially the noncommissioned officers and privates, who bear the brunt of battle.  They are the ones with the most interesting stories to tell.
This is a wonderful book.  It is a compilation of factual, personal accounts of commissioned and enlisted members of the 2d Battalion, The Royal Welch Fusiliers, a distinguished regiment that served on active service throughout the Great War.  Among its members were the noted authors Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon. 

Originally published in a limited addition in 1938 and anonymously edited by the highly decorated regimental medical officer, Captain J.C. Dunn, this is not just a tome of mundane facts and boring accounts.  The editor, after reading many unsatisfactory and embellished World War I memoirs, decided to present a wide perspective of the war as seen by the members of an infantry battalion, including “details of trench life, raids and battles, billeting, delousing, the local population, types of recruits, morale, rations, humour and entertainment.”
The life of an infantry battalion in war is a dynamic and multifaceted event, and this book chronicles a particular battalion’s everyday activities and the feelings of its members in a singularly effective manner.

Keith Simpson, a former faculty member at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, has written an enlightening and informative introduction to this edition.  In it he describes the life of Captain Dunn (“more cut out for a general than a doctor,” said one regimental soldier), the somewhat controversial evolution of the book, and the relationship of Sassoon, Graves, Dunn, and a host of other individuals to the regiment.  It also has more than two dozen pages of easy-to-understand sketch maps to help the reader better understand the battles mentioned in the text.   A complete index and glossary supplement the accounts, and a specially researched photograph section adds much to the book’s value.

After the original edition was published in 1938, one reviewer noted it was “one of the finest of all War books.”  That comment was an understatement.  This is a book that should be required reading for all infantrymen.

Book Review, The War the Infantry Knew, 1914-1919: A Chronicle of Service in France and Belgium, by Captain J.C. Dunn, Infantry 79 (January-February 1989): 52.