"One of the most difficult things which confronts an author attempting to write about the First World War is how to convey the reality of it all. So many of the men who were actually there and returned never spoke of what they had seen and experienced. Possibly they could not find the words to describe it all, even if they wanted to. IT was an experience that could only, in truth, be shared by those who were there. To read the matter-of-fact reports and diaries written at the time only serves to disguise the horror. This book, then is essentially a sanitised version of what happened. The words such as 'mud', 'cold', and 'wounded' fail to adequately translate into what it really meant. -- From the author's introduction.

Includes index.

Saturday, 1 July -- Sunday, 3 July -- Monday, 13 November -- Attack of 39 Division, 13 November -- Tuesday, 14 November -- Visiting the battlefields -- Attack of the 9 Royal Irish Fusiliers and 12 Royal Irish Rifles -- Attack of 3 September and 13 November -- The German front line -- The Green Line -- There is a green hill far away -- The cemeteries -- A short tour of the Somme -- And afterwards.