‘The enemy has got to be fought everywhere and hard...Everything is going very well indeed and no one minds the losses as long as we are moving.’

The never-before-published papers of General Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow provide a remarkable insight into the mindset of the Great War commanders. Despite being severely injured during the first Battle of the Marne – when his horse fell and rolled over him, cracking his pelvis – Snow served at some of the most important battles of the Western Front.

His memoirs include the battle of Loos, the second battle of Ypres, the battles of Arras and Cambrai, the retreat from Mons and was responsible for the diversionary attack on Gommecourt on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Somme.

This volume is comprised of vivid extracts from contemporary notes that only an eyewitness can offer coupled with frank postwar reflections that show the wisdom of hindsight and perspective, which brings an open awareness of military folly.

D’Oyly Snow died in London, aged 82, on 30 August 1940. This first edition of his letters and memoirs – published exactly 70 years after his death – has been introduced by his great grandson, the broadcaster and author Dan Snow.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword by Dan Snow
• Editorial Note and Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One: The 4th Division from Mobilisation to the End of the Retreat from Mons
  • I Mobilisation and Arrival in France
  • II The Battle of Le Cateau
  • III The Decision to Fight at Le Cateau
  • IV The Retreat from Le Cateau to the Marne
• Notes to Part One
• Part Two: The 27th Division at St Eloi and During Second Ypres 71
  • I The Formation of the 27th Division
  • II In the Line at St Eloi
  • III The Ypres Salient
  • IV Second Ypres
  • V ‘Review of the Operations’
• Notes to Part Two
• Appendices
  • 1 Order of Battle of BEF, August 1914
  • 2 Le Cateau Operation Orders
  • 3 The Retreat: Operation Order No 9
  • 4 Distances Marched by BEF, 20 August–5 September 1914 158
  • 5 Losses of the BEF, 23–27 August 1914
  • 6 Order of Battle, Hill 60 and Second Ypres, April–May 1915 161
  • 7 ‘Hull’s Attack’, 24–25 April 1915
  • 8 British/Canadian and German Losses at Second Ypres
  • 9 Statistics
• Chronology of the 4th Division, July–September 1914
• Chronology of the 27th Division, October 1914–May 1915
• Biographical Notes
• Glossary
• Select Bibliography and Note on Sources