Into battle: a seventeen year old joins Kitchener's Army

[Chris_Baker]

Into battle: a seventeen year old joins Kitchener's Army

by E. W. Parker

republished by Pen & Sword Military, 2013

ISBN 978 1 78159 155 0

cover price - £12.99

Paperback, 90pp plus forward, preface, introduction and one page glossary of terms. No index.

reviewed by Chris Baker

First published by Longmans in 1964 and reprinted by Pen & Sword's predecessor Leo Cooper in 1994, this is Ernest Parker's brief account of his time in the ranks and as a commissioned officer. It was written shortly after his experience and then put away, being brought to light many years later and apparently without editing or any form of amendment. As such it is fresh, honest and a realistic view of the war and his own part in it. This edition benefits not only from Arthur Bryant's original preface but an introduction by John Terraine for the Leo Cooper version. Both praise Parker's work and Terraine goes as far to call it a minor classic.

Since the original publication of "Into battle" we have benefitted from the release of many more memoirs and diaries, some good, some not. The release into the public domain of soldiers' records and the operational war diaries of their units has also served to develop our understanding, and there is much academic work shedding light on the way things were. Does Parker's work hold up in the face of all of that? I believe it does, although at just 90 pages it does not go into much in any detail. For those who regularly read soldier's tales, much of it will be very familiar and even - through repetition - of themes verging on the cliche. A hard life of hunger and physical exhaustion; of good comradeship; of periods too horrific for us now to be able to imagine; of deep sadness at loss; of fun when the opportunity arose; of a conviction that what was being done was for the right reasons and done to the best of anyone's ability. In a sense, other than the fact that he later becomes commissioned as an officer, this is every man's tale. It is expressed clearly and well and makes for good if uncomfortable reading.

After initially training with the cavalry, Parker served in the ranks of the 10th Durham Light Infantry (most notably in their terrible time on the Somme in 1916, in the area of Delville Wood) and as an officer of the 2nd and then 13th Rifle Brigade. His story concludes shortly after he sustained a bullet wound to his wrist late in the war.

Worth reading.