This book, all of which has been written at the Front within sound of
the German guns and for the most part within shell and rifle range, is
an attempt to tell something of the manner of struggle that has gone on
for months between the lines along the Western Front, and more
especially of what lies behind and goes to the making of those curt and
vague terms in the war communiqués. I think that our people at Home
will be glad to know more, and ought to know more, of what these bald
phrases may actually signify, when, in the other sense, we read
'between the lines.'
Of the people at Home--whom we at the Front have relied upon and looked
to more than they may know--many have helped us in heaping measure of
deed and thought and thoughtfulness, while others may perhaps have
failed somewhat in their full duty, because, as we have been told and
re-told to the point of weariness, they 'have not understood' and 'do
not realise' and 'were never told.'
If this book brings anything of interest and pleasure to the first, and
of understanding to the second, it will very fully have served its
double purpose.