The book details the author's experiences at the Battle of Mons with the 4th Bn Middlesex Regiment. After being slightly wounded and separated from his unit he teams up with eight fellow stragglers from various units and, being of the most senior rank, he finds himself in command of the 'Phantom Brigade' as they call themselves, and with the Germans never far behind - and sometimes in front of them - they try and find their way back to the main body of the BEF. After recovering from wounds received at Mons, Vivian returned to France in March 1915, was wounded again in May 1915 and returned to England. A few months later he went back to France and was commissioned and then wounded again in June 1917. He then transferred to the RAF, in which he served until the end of the war. Review of the original edition from "The Great War Forum" When the war clouds gathered in early August 1914 Alfred Percival George Vivian was in his Twenty First year of life and a Lance Corporal in the Fourth Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment based at Devonport, he had already served seven years in the army having enlisted in May 1907 at the tender age of just Fourteen. He was in charge of a stretcher section of eight men but being a first class shot he was rueing his luck that he was not in a fighting unit now that the chance of action was near. Soon the Reservists were arriving and the battalion was up to strength and sailing for France, arriving in Boulogne they were greeted by jubilant crowds. After a short stay in the town of Taisinieres where Vivian managed to swop his non-combatant role for that of a fighting soldier (ironically the chap he exchanges duties with is killed in the battalion's first action). The book goes on to describe in exciting detail the author's experiences at the Battle of Mons, where after being slightly wounded and separated from his unit he teams up with eight fellow stragglers from various units and being of the most senior rank he finds himself in command of the 'Phantom Brigade' as they call themselves, and with the Germans never far behind and sometimes in front of them they try and find their way back to the main body of the B.E.F. The book only covers the opening month but it is a well written, absorbing and at times humorous account of an Old Contemptible's adventures during that turbulent August. Written in 1930 and long out of print but well worth looking out for, especially if you are interested in the B.E.F of 1914.