The Journey's End Battalion: 9th East Surreys in the Great War

[GB71]

I have been asked by my housemate to mention a book he and his father have written on the 9th Battalion East Surrey Regiment. Moderators, please let me know if I've broken any rules by posting this.

The Journey's End Battalion: 9th East Surreys in the Great War by Michael John Lucas (Pen & Sword)

I am pleased to be able to announce the publication (in late April 2012) of my father's history of the battalion with which the celebrated war playwright and novelist R.C. Sherriff (Journey's End) served as a junior officer. This book (which builds on and follows from a series of articles in Stand To) is the fruit of years of intensive research, with which I have done my best to assist by investigating German sources for the various units which opposed the battalion (sometimes more than once, on different battlefields) during its relatively short existence. Sherriff, his role in the unit, and the friends and experiences which influenced his writing are all discussed in detail as part of the larger story of the battalion and of the many officers and men who served with it - as seen by themselves, by their friends and by their enemies.

As part of the 72nd Brigade / 24th Division (for the duration), the 9th ESR saw their first action in the notoriously bloody and unsuccessful attack across the 'Field of Corpses' towards the German 2. Stellung between Hulluch and Bois Hugo on the 2nd day of the Battle of Loos (26/9/1915). The battalion then held the line at St. Eloi (9-12/1915), Hooge / Bellewaarde (1-3/1916) and Wulverghem (3-7/1916), before two tours at the front line of the ongoing Somme battle, at Guillemont (8/1916) and Delville Wood (9/1916). After this second major ordeal they were sent to Vimy Ridge (9-10.1916), Hulluch (10/1916-2/1917) and Liévin (3-4/1917), thus returning to the Lens coal-mining district for the second time. In the build-up to the British offensive in Flanders, they served again at Hooge (5/1917) and followed up in the second line east of Hill 60 in the Battle of Messines (6/1917); they remained in this area during the subsequent heavy fighting (7-8/1917) that became part of the 3rd Battle of Ypres. Coming from the battle at the end of August with another heavy 'butcher's bill' (which included the CO, Lt.-Col. de la Fontaine), the 9th ESR took over the then-quiet sector of Hargicourt (directly opposite the St. Quentin Canal tunnel at Bellicourt) on 28/9/1917. They moved to other sectors immediately to the North and South of Hargicourt during the winter and early spring, and were in brigade reserve at Vermand when the German offensive opened on 21/3/1918; the battalion was virtually wiped out in a series of rearguard actions which ended at Fonches-Fonchette. The rebuilt battalion was then put into line at Lens (for the third and final time: 5-9/1918). They were in Niergnies immediately after the second ever tank-versus-tank battle on 8.10.1918, then got cut off at Haussy on 16.10.1918 by a German counter-attack including part of the Radfahrer-Brigade, and suffered further heavy losses in their last significant action of the war.

When published at the end of April the book will retail in hardback at £19.99, and contain ca. 260 pages (incl. appendices etc.), around 20 photos (some previously unpublished) and 20+ maps and line illustrations. However we have been asked for email addresses of interested parties for a one-off mailshot containing an offer to pre-order a copy at a 20% discount. If interested, please PM me with your email address before the end of January 2012. Review copies are potentially available for relevant magazines and the like - again, please PM me any queries.

A future paperback edition is potentially conceivable if the hardback sells well enough!

There will be a formal launch in the Summer, probably at the Surrey History Centre (date tbc).