Description
Title: To The Last Ridge – The Author’s experience with the 57th Battalion AIF
Author: Downing, Walter
Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 1920
ISBN: N/A
Cover: Hard Cover without Dust Jacket – 192 pages
Comments: First World War memories of W.H. Downing and also covers some of the history of the 57th Battalion AIF.
An immaculate 1st edition copy! Now a rare and very desirable book. Tightly bound, minimal wear and only a couple of spots on the back.
Written just after the heat of battle and in the language of the time, this extraordinarily moving account expresses in a brutally honest and personal way the ordinary soldier’s experience of one of the most horrific series of battles ever fought.
Fleurbaix…Bapaume…Beaumetz…Lagnicourt…Bullecourt…The Menin Road…Villers-Bretonneux…Péronne and Mont St. Quentin – Downing describes the mud, the rats, the constant pounding of the guns, the deaths, the futility, but also the humour and heroism of one of the most compelling periods in world history. His writing is spare, beautiful in its clarity and heart-breakingly vivid. Quite simply the finest and most graphic description of these actions ever written.
Anyone with an interest in war and the ordinary person’s struggle to survive must read this book. Walter Downing was a Melbourne law student before fighting on the Western Front, where he won the Military Medal. His book was acclaimed, on its original publication in 1920 for its literary quality and its realism, which few soldiers have managed to achieve.
