THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND DIVISION. Vol. II. By Everard
Wyrall. (Nelson. 21s. net.)
The second and concluding volume of Mr. Wyrall's excellent history begins with an account of the minor operations on the Ancre which preceded the German retreat to the Hinden- berg line in March, 1917. These operations were followed by the Battles of Arras, in which the Second Division suffered so severely that it was only able to put a single composite brigade, less than two thousand strong, into the line for the attack on Fresnoy. The drafts with which it was again made up to strength consisted largely of raw recruits with little more than three weeks of real training. It is a high testimony to the merit of the officers and N.C.O.s who licked this material into shape that in the following November the division achieved the feat which Lord Haig has singled out for special praise— the holding of the line at Bourlon Wood on November 30th against a German counter-attack in overwhelming force, when a break at that point would have meant a serious disaster for the Third Army. The amazing gallantry with which these citizen soldiers died at their posts rather than
give way—the names of the 17th Fusiliers and the 13th Essex may be specially mentioned—would not alone have availed to stop an equally courageous enemy had it not been for their excellent shooting. They had brought the gallantry with them as part of our common heritage, but they had been taught to shoot in the few weeks of so-called rest before the Cambrai battle.
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