FOURTEEN WAR BOOKS.*

AMONGST a number of war books which, the pressure on our space compels us to notice more briefly than their merits deserve

the first place must he given to Major Ewing's concise but admirable history of the famous Ninth Division,' the Scottish division formed from the "first hundred thousand" of Kitchener's armies. This division went to France in May, 1915, and was engaged at Loos, at the Somme twice, four times at Arras, and' twice at Passchendaele ; it played a conspicuous part in breaking up the German offensive of 1918, fought in the brilliant advance which led to the Armistice, and formed part of the Army of Occupation on the Rhine, where it was converted into the Lowland Division in March, 1919. Throfighout its career it was distinguished by "that splendid and invincible cheerfulness which made the Ninth so terrible in battle." In its three year& of fighting the division was wiped out again and again ;* it lost ten thousand men on the Somme, eight thousand in the 1918 German offensive, over five thousand each at Loos and Arras and Passohendaele ; its total casualties in the war were 2,493 officers and 52,122 other ranks, or nearly three times its original strength ; but a few weeks of drafts and training after each of these heavy blows restored it to its pristine con- fidence and fitted it again to sway the ridge of battle. Major Ewing is an excellent historian of the triumphs which he shared, and some good coloured illustrations and clear operation maps add to the value of this worthy record of Scottish tenacity and valour. Along with it we may place Mr. Farrell's striking volume of war sketches,' sixty-three spirited drawings which illustrate the war record of the 51st (Highland) Division, credibly reported to stand at the head of the Berlin "black list" of divisions which the Germans preferred not to meet. Mr. Farrell was attached to the headquarters of the division as its official artist during the latter part of the war, and his book—to which Mr. Neil Munro contributes an enthusiastic introduction— gives a lively and truthful idea of the conditions of battle.

Another divisional history of great interest and merit is Mr. Gibbon's narrative of the work of the 42nd (East Lancashire)

Division.' This was the first Territorial Division to volunteer for foreign service, and the first to leave England during the Great War. It sailed for Egypt in September, 1914, and its first serious fighting was done in the Gallipoli Peninsula, where the division took a distinguished part in that ill-starred but magnificent adventure. Sir Ian Hamilton writes about one of these raw Territorial battalions, left in the lurch with one flank in the air: "By all the laws of war they ought to have tumbled back anyhow, but by the laws of the Manchesters they hung on and declared they could do so for ever." The 42nd proceeded to France in March, 1917, and there shared (as Lord Haig reminds us in his preface to this book) "in the glory of breaking the most desperate and most dangerous German offensive made since the early days of the war." When Major-General Solly- Flood took command of the 42nd he gave them a new divisional motto—" Go One Better " ; and splendidly did they live up to it in those confused and thrilling April days round Bucquoy and Gornmeeourt. Again the outstanding fact in this book is the unconquerable cheerfulness of the troops. "They were quite confident that they could 'lick Jerry' at any time or in any place, and however weak or exhausted the flesh might be, the spirit was always willing. The reply given by a brigade to H.Q. inquiry as to its state of exhaustion is typical : Can't march, but can fight.'" Lots of people are still asking who or what won the war ; but to anyone who had the privilege of being out there himself, there is only one possible answer— it was this spirit in our soldiers.

Captain Shipley Thomas, who served in France with distinction In the -First American Division, has written a conscientious and

• (1) The History o f the Oth (Sco(tish) Division . By john Ewing, M.C. London : John Murray. [36s. net.)—(2) The 51st (Highland) Division : War Sketches. By Fred. A. Farrell. Edinburgh : Jack. [158. net.)—(3) The 42nd (Bast Lancashire) Division. By Frederick P. Gibbon. London : Country L(fe. Ltd. I6e. 64. net.)—(4) The History of the A.H.F. By Shipley Thomas. London : Hodder and Stoughton. [20s. net.] (5) The Canadian Front in Prance and Flanders. Painted by Inglis Sheldon-Williams, described by B.. B. L. Sheldon- Williams, MM. London : A. and 0. Black. 125s. net.)—(6) Letters from the Front. VoL I. Toronto : Privately Printed forthe Canadian Bank of Commerce. —(7) Slaty Squadron, IL.A.P. By Group-Captain A. J. L. Scott. C.B., M.O.,

A.F.O. London : Heinemann. [15s. net.] (8) Hight Months with the Worries' s Royal Air Force. By Gertrude A. George. London : Heath. Cranton- 17s. 64.

net. 9) The First Buckinghamshire Battalion. By Captain P. L. Wright. D:S.O., MO. London : Hazen. Watson, and Viney. (64. net.)—(10) The Seventh Manchester.. July. 1916. to March. 1019. By Captain S. J. Wilson. M.O. London: Longmans. 6s. net.]—(11) The Orson Triangle. By W. G. Hall.

Letchworth: Garden City Press. [6s. 64. net.) (12) The Story of the 1st Battalion Cape Corps. By Captain Ivor D. Difford. Cape Town : Horton, Ltd. —(13) Behind Bache Bars. By Ernest Warburton. London : John Lane. [60. 64. net.]—(14) A Cameronian Officer. By J. B. Lawson, M.D. Glasgow: John Smith and Son. [Os. net.]

valuable history of the work done by the American Expeditionary Force.' The archives, records, and maps of the Army War College at Washington were placed at his disposal, and his work has been revised by the Historical Branch of the U.S. General Staff. The battles in which the American troops were engaged, from the brilliant capture of Cantigny on May 28th, 1918, through the spectacular walk-over at St. Mihiel and the stubborn fighting in the Argonne, to the final advance to Sedan at the Armistice, are fully described. In the whole campaign twenty- nine American divieions were engaged, and they suffered over a quarter of a million casualties ; 18 per cent. of this loss fell upon the 1st and 2nd Divisions. Captain Thomas gives a useful account of the adminietrative services of the American Army, and of the training which led to their successes in "that most glorious unrelenting offensive which never stopped until the Germans asked for peace."

Interesting glimpses of the work of the Canadian troops who fought so heroically in this war are to be found in Mr. Inglis Sheldon-Williams's attractive sketches of "The Canadian

Front," 8 culminating in the historically important picture of the formal occupation of Mons four days after the Armistice. An

entertaining commentary is provided by Mr. Ralf Sheldon- Williams, who was a sergeant in a Canadian machine-gun company and won the Military Medal for gallantry. Some very readable letters from the front' have been issued in a handsome volume by the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Over 1,700 of the employees of this institution joined the Army, and it was a happy thought of Mr. C. L. Foster to edit their letters home, which contain many incisive pictures of life under fire. One is pleased to read the unsolicited testimony of the young trooper who writes from Festubert in 1915: "Americans are, and always have been, rather too ready to look down upon the Britisher as a good-for-nothing lady-like cissy, but if you only saw him as I did you would take off your hat to him as the pluckiest and most manly fellow in the whole world."

Histories of units have often a human interest that is neces- sarily less apparent in those of larger formations. Captain

Scott's description of Squadron No. 60 of the R.F.C.7 is full

of such interest, describing as it does the extraordinarily intense life of the lads engaged in the new aerial warfare, where "each

man fought with his own hand, trusting wholly to his own skill,

and that not on his own element, but in outrage of nature, high in the air, surrounded only by winds and clouds," No. 60 was a fighting squadron, and Captain Scott's account of its work is at

once simple and thrilling. Miss George's little book of sketches with penond pencil of the duties of the " Wrafs " 8 has a quiet

value as a contribution to the vast history of the war. The next books on our list deal with three Territorial battalions— the let Buckinghamshire Battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry,' the 1-7th Manohesters in France °— their history in the East has already been published—and the 2-5th Sherwood Foresters," who assisted in suppressing the Irish rebellion in 1916 and went to France the next year with the 59th Division. They are all good pieces of honest work and will repay reading. Captain Difford's history of the 1st Battalion Cape Corps" describes the work of a coloured regiment in East Africa and Palestine. It is a detailed narrative with numerous illustrations and maps. Lastly we can only mention Mr. Warburton's straightforward narrative of his imprisonment in Germany," and Dr. Lawson's touching account u of the gallant son whom he lost in the war.