Читать книгу The War History of the 1st/ 4th Battalion, 1914-1918 - Anonymous - Страница 3

Table of Contents

The purpose of this book is to supply to the people of Preston and district, for the first time, a complete and authentic record of the adventures of their original local Territorial Infantry Battalion during the Great War, such a record being a chapter of local history which must sooner or later be written; to put into the hands of the relatives and friends of those who have gloriously fallen the story of the unit with which they served faithful unto death, with its accompanying tribute from their surviving comrades; to supply to the latter ... maimed or whole a book which they may hand down to posterity to speak of their service; and last, but not least, to speak to those who shall succeed to our traditions, of Comradeship, Cheerfulness, Endurance, Devotion to Duty, and all the virtues which go to make up “the Spirit of the Regiment.”

The delay in publication has been unavoidable, and even now the book is not as complete as its compilers would wish; in particular, it is not possible to give the names of casualties as they occurred, except in the case of Officers; both Company and Battalion records have had to be destroyed again and again, and there is little material left to work on except the War Diary and individual diaries.

The book is a live product. Every line of it is either written by those who were actually with the Battalion during the period of which they write, or is condensed from the War Diary. It would have been far easier, and, from a literary point of view, more satisfactory, to have handed over the documents to a professional Historian to write up, but it was felt that the vivid descriptions of eyewitnesses, even though lacking in style, were preferable to any such compilation.