TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
The cover image was created by the transcriberand is placed in the public domain.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
The Grey Wave
THE GREY WAVE
By Major A. Hamilton Gibbs
With an introduction by Philip Gibbs
LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO
:: PATERNOSTER ROW 1920 ::
My dear Mrs. Poole
I dedicate this book to you becauseyour house has been a home to me forso many years, and because, havingopened my eyes to the fact that it wasmy job to join up in 1914, your kindnessand help were unceasing during thecourse of the war.
Yours affectionately,
ARTHUR HAMILTON GIBBS
Metz, January, 1919
CONTENTS
| PART I | ||
| PAGE | ||
| The Ranks | 1 | |
| PART II | ||
| Ubique | 73 | |
| PART III | ||
| The Western Front | 123 | |
| PART IV | ||
| The Armistice | 263 | |
There seems no reason to me why I should write apreface to my brother’s book except that I have been,as it were, a herald of war proclaiming the achievementsof knights and men-at-arms in this great conflict thathas passed, and so may take up my scroll again on hisbehalf, because here is a good soldier who has told, in agood book, his story of
“most disastrous chances of moving accidentsby flood and field; of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ theimminent-deadly breach.”
That he was a good soldier I can say not becausemy judgment is swayed by brotherly partiality, butbecause I saw him at his job, and heard the opinionsof his fellow officers, which were immensely in his favour.“Your brother is a born soldier,” said my own Chiefwho was himself a gallant officer and had a quick eyefor character. I think that was true. The boy whomonce I wheeled in a go-cart when he was a shock-headedPeter and I the elder brother with a sense of responsibilitytowards him, had grown up before the war into a strongman whose physical prowess as an amateur pugilis