REGIMENTAL RECORDS OF THE ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS – Vol III. 1914-1918. FRANCE AND FLANDERS

The last two volumes of this history cover the Great War, during which the original seven battalions (two Regular, one Special Reserve and four Territorial) expanded to forty of which twenty-two served overseas. Total casualties (dead) amounted to 9,800; 77 Battle Honours were awarded and eight VCs were won, one by an officer serving on the staff at the time (Lieut-Col Doughty-Wylie at Gallipoli). A further VC was awarded to the MO of the 1/6th Battalion in Palestine.Vol III is concerned only with the Western Front where fifteen battalions served and four of these also served in other theatres.This volume is arranged in seven parts, each part covering a specific period. The narrative is continuous beginning with a brief background on the immediate pre-war situation, the reorganisation of the War Office and the Army, leading on to mobilization, the creation of new battalions, a list of all the battalions that existed during the war, with postings and, very useful, the nominal roll of all the officers serving on 1st August 1914, extracted from the Army List – Regular, Reserve and Territorial. The next part takes the story to the end of First Ypres, involving the 1st and 2nd Battalions, followed by 1915, 1916-1917 (May), 1917, 1918 and the German offensive, and finally 1918 the Pursuit of the Enemy. In each part any battle in which a battalion of the Regiment took part is fully described with officer casualties named and other rank casualties given by total. The author makes good use of personal accounts, diaries and memoirs and so provides an extremely interesting record. There is a comprehensive index.