'We can get you buggers for a shilling a day, but the horses cost eighty quid each.' Knee-deep in mud and slush, covered in boils and lice, this was what his sergeant-major told one of the interviewees in this extraordinary and moving series of accounts of lives lived in the service of king, queen and country. We all know the history - that agreed-upon and celebrated official fiction. Here instead are the reports of those who were actually there at the sharp end. Here is the unvarnished reality. As author Peter Rhodes says, 'Journalism is the first draft of history, and usually has a shorter shelf-life than a loaf of bread.' These stories have appeared in newspaper articles, but they are collected and preserved here so that they can inform and expand our consciousness and understanding of the realities of war.