Publisher's Synopsis
Thirty-one-year-old Admiralty clerk Albert John (Jack) Martin was called up into the army in 1916. It was forbidden to keep diaries during his service with the Royal Engineers (the Sappers). However, the secret diaries he wrote then, remained undiscovered until 1999. Jack Martin's compelling record presents the reality of war: from his arrival in France during the Battle of the Somme, through the onslaught at Ypres and the German offensive of 1918, to the Armistice, we see how the ordinary Tommy lived and fought. Martin describes the appalling conditions in which the men lived and died - and the support of friends and joy at the arrival of parcels from loved ones. An exceptional discovery, these diaries have been edited by First World War historian Richard van Emden.
