1914 MONS TO LA BASSÉE 1 1915 LA BASSÉE TO LAVENTIE 53 1916 THE SALIENT TO THE SOMME 130 1917 THE SOMME TO GOUZEAUCOURT 194 1918 ARRAS TO THE ARMISTICE 252 LIST OF MAPS Itinerary of the First Battalion Irish Guards _Frontispiece_ The Retreat from Mons, 1914. Northern Section _Facing page_ 6 The Retreat from Mons, 1914. Southern Section ” 14 The Ypres Salient. First Battalion Actions ” 32 Actions and Billets. First Battalion ” 58 The Somme. First Battalion _Between pages_ 164, 165 The Final Advance, August-November 1918 _Facing page_ 288 INTRODUCTION These volumes try to give soberly and with what truth is possible, the experiences of both battalions of the Irish Guards from 1914 to 1918. The point of view is the battalions’, and the facts mainly follow the Regimental Diaries, supplemented by the few private letters and documents which such a war made possible, and by some tales that have gathered round men and their actions. As evidence is released, historians may be able to reconstruct what happened in or behind the battle-line; what motives and necessities swayed the actors; and who stood up or failed under his burden. But a battalion’s field is bounded by its own vision. Even within these limits, there is large room for error. Witnesses to phases of fights die and are dispersed; the ground over which they fought is battered out of recognition in a few hours; survivors confuse dates, places, and personalities, and in the trenches, the monotony of the waiting days and the repetition-work of repairs breed mistakes and false judgments. Men grow doubtful or oversure, and, in all good faith, give directly opposed versions. The clear sight of a comrade so mangled that he seems to have been long dead is burnt in on one brain to the exclusion of all else that happened that day. The shock of an exploded dump, shaking down a firmament upon the landscape, dislocates memory throughout half a battalion; and so on in all matters, till the end of laborious enquiry is too often the opening of fresh confusion. When to this are added the personal prejudices and misunderstandings of men under heavy strain, carrying clouded memories of orders half given or half heard, amid scenes that pass like nightmares, the only wonder to the compiler of these records has been that any sure fact whatever should be retrieved out of the whirlpool of war.