Two pals, joined the army to escape unemployment, never dreaming about the death that was waiting for them at every opportunity. This then was reality in the shape of war with the Germans, where man fought man with a desperation and intensity unknown in his upbringing. The vicious tale of hideous sudden death explodes like a bombshell on the eyes of the reader, transporting them to the actual site where the battle took place, filling them with horror and terror as the story unfolds. The battle of the Somme is faithfully reproduced with every line of the tale, with its introduction to the arial warfare and all its connotations.
Man was the dominant animal and it shows in the way he fought Englands wars, what with modern weapons and death dealing destruction at every yard of hard fought ground. On both sides the toll of death was on a scale unknown in the modern world
Even now pieces of men who fought for this slice of land is still unnaccounted for and buried where they died, still with their precious possessions beside them.