Over the Top

The author served in the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), a Territorial Army regiment, the oldest regiment in the British Army and one which, in spite of its title, was composed of infantry and artillery. Lambert enlisted in the HAC in 1917 at the age of 34 and in September that same year joined the 2nd Battalion (22nd Brigade, 7th Division) at Quelmes, in Belgium. Almost as soon as he arrived the battalion went forward into the salient where the Third Ypres offensive had been in progress for two months. His descriptions of the awful scenes in Polygon Wood, the fighting on Broodseinde Ridge, the carnage and the mud: "Help! For God's sake," came the shout, ending in a wail. It came from a man in the Durham Light Infantry, buried deep in the mud. He was already up to his chest and only his outstretched arms were saving him from a dreadful death. It took six men twenty minutes to pull him inch by inch from the treacherous mire. A month later the division was on its way to Italy where it remained for the rest of the war. The war in Italy was no picnic either as Lambert's story reveals, and there are not many published memoirs describing the fighting there. Unusually, in this book the author refers to himself throughout in the third person. This is a good read.