Sometimes, through word of mouth and shared enthusiasm, a secret book becomes famous. The War the Infantry Knew is one of them. Published privately in a limited edition of five hundred copies in 1938, it gained a reputation as an outstanding account of an infantry battalion's experience on the Western Front' Daily Telegraph' I have been waiting for a long time for someone to republish this classic. It is one of the most interesting and revealing books of its type and is a genuinely truthful and fascinating picture of the war as it was for the infantry' John Keegan'A remarkably coherent narrative of the battalion's experiences in diary form . . . a moving historical record which deserves to be added to the select list of outstanding accounts of the First World War' Times Literary Supplement