In the Footsteps of Private Lynch

by Will Davies

Retracing the experiences of a private in the Great War — the follow-up to the bestselling First World War memoir Somme Mud.

With a mighty roar the shell explodes, spouting flame and phosphorous fumes everywhere... A man five ahead of me is sobbing — queer, panting gasping sobs. He bends his head towards his stomach just twice and is still. We've had our baptism of fire, seen our first man killed...

When Will Davies discovered the manuscript for Somme Mud, he knew he had found a lost treasure. Private Lynch's powerful story of his time in the trenches of the Somme has become a classic. In this new book, Will Davies follows in the footsteps of Lynch and his battalion, from their long route marches to lice-ridden billets, into the frontline.

Using an innovative "then and now" approach in words and pictures, the book brings to life the young men who sacrificed their youth over 90 years ago.

Genres: World War I, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mark Morgan]

This is written by the author of Somme Mud, the person who put Edward Lynch's diaries into book form. There he follows Lynch's journey through the war . Another very good book.

[David Roberts]

The book I read to research this post was In The Footsteps Of Private Lynch by Will Davies which is a very good book which I bought from a car boot sale. This book was published in 2009 and came about because the auhor saw a manuscript written by Private Lynch who died in 1980, about his experiences in the trenches in World War 1. He was Australian and strangely they didn't have a memorial to the unknown soldier in Canberra until 1993. Australia was a relatively new country with a small population so there army only made up a small percentage of the Allied Forces. Private Lynch enlisted in the army and was sent to Northern France. In 1916-7 they had the worst winter in that area in living memory which froze the ground and made it rock. At least it minimized the trenches getting flooded but the soldiers were prone to hyperthermia. Soldiers slept in their boots because otherwise they would freeze and be impossible to put back on. The Germany put the Kaiser in charge of their armed forces which proved disastrous. When they came to their senses they concentrated more on defence than attack and defended in depth with lot of lines of defence one behind the other. When the Allieds attacked they fired shells about 30 metres ahead of there men to break up the defences and heavy cannons concentrated on attacking the German rear to help prevent reinforcements. As the men advanced the cannons attacking the frontline would be adjusted in increments of 100 metres. One of the biggest defeats of the war for Germany was Amiens where the Germans lost 200,000 men. Private Lynch also fought in the Somme where there were huge casualties for minimal gains. Probably the biggest factor in that war was when America came into it with its huge amounts of manpower and equipment. I did really enjoy this book and it is quite thought provoking and a very moving story.

[Owen]

Especially considering the amount of other material available, but for a number of other key reasons as well, this book is simply not worth the time. I find that a sad comment to make about an author who has proven (even in his introduction to this book) that he is a capable writer, but it is how I feel after making such difficult headway through the first 50 pages. In fact, after being reminded four or five times that the frontline troops often had mud up to their knees, I was thinking that I was having similar trouble wading through this muck.

The main problem is: the author does not really know where he is going. Far from being "in the footsteps" of Private Lynch, we are served a rehash of material from other sources which is quite unnecessary and, in terms of this book, often irrelevant. The book has been poorly edited, leading to much repetition and making the reader's task ever more difficult. Since we cannot really get close to the Private in question, the book has little or no colour. It is a lifeless thing, a patchwork made up from various sources including the book "Somme Mud" by Lynch himself, various historical documents and input from the author, all stitched together rather haphazardly. Much of the text seems to be mere padding, as various statistics are inserted here and there, often unrelated to the actual storyline. There's no atmosphere, no thread, no real story. Most unfortunate as I was looking forward to reading this. I suppose if you have read almost nothing about WWI trench warfare, you might find some interest, but there are much much better books on exactly the same subject.

[Liam]

This is a great companion book to Somme Mud. Will Davies does a great job in explaining or highlighting the small but interesting facts as well as the bigger political picture. I feel like I have a connection with Edward Lynch because of this book and a greater understanding of what life was like for the Diggers in WW1.
Thank you!

[David Kelly]

Heart Warming

Heart warming, soul searching, my own personal guilt of leaving mates behind, relevant, best read for a long while.
Would we do it all again