THE V.C. AND D.S.O. Edited by the Into Sir O'Moore
Creagli and E. M. Humphries. 3 vols. (Standard Art Book Cu.
£4 4s.)
THESE three volumes are a record not only of splendid impetuous courage, of men who fought single-handed against a dozen of the enemy, of volunteers who went out against certain death without hesitation, but of men for whom there was no stimulus of movement and excitement to make the horror endurable—who held hopeless positions for hours, wounded and forsaken ; of men who could not rely on des- perate bravery but who had to think and use resource and imagination at a time when delay meant awful death. To every report of the occasion on which the V.C. or D.S.O. was won, the editors have added a short informal account of the man's education and life and, where possible, a photograph, and we see that these men were, after all,vcry like the 'bus- conductors and small business men and unremarkable young Public School boys that we see in the streets every day. In all of these there may be the highest courage, selflessness and resourcefulness. But we seem to have found little place for this heroism in every-day life ; we only ask that thy should face the horror and futility of war.
Previous page
