Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Collins’ Geographical Establishment, Glasgow.
A
SOLDIER’S DIARY
PREFACE
Lord Robert Cecil has said that he isamazed at the false picture of war given bythe history books, and that he trusts thatthe historians of the future will give us abetter picture of what war really is thanhave historians of the past. I doubt ifthey will. They are concerned with thestatesmen who direct and the generals whocontrol, rather than with the soldier whofights, they have neither time nor space toconcern themselves with the things thatmattered to the men in the ranks. We canonly get the things that matter, the misery,suffering, and endurance, the filth, the horror,the desolation, which are a part and the8greater part even of the most triumphantprogress in modern war, from the men whohave experienced them.
The reason for the publication of thisdiary is given by the author in his entry forOctober 6. “The only way to stop waris to tell these facts in the school historybooks and cut out the rot about the gallantcharges, the victorious returns, and theblushing damsels who scatter roses under theconquering heroes’ feet. Every soldier knowsthat the re-writing of the history bookswould stop war more effectively than themost elaborately cove