Dick and shipmates were cast into an open lifeboat, sailing or drifting for 32 days, running out of food and with only enough water to stay alive. Striving to reach the west coast of Australia, they were hampered by wrong information, faulty flares and confusion. Under the hot Indian Ocean sun, he remained focused, often recalling his Los Angeles childhood before the war. After weeks afloat and putting 12 hundred miles behind them they could not be sure the rescue submarine was friend or foe.

Men from all around the far reaches of the British Empire flooded into the ranks of the British army for the titanic struggle against Germany and her allies during the First World War. Ghurkhas from Nepal, Men of the Punjab, Rajputs, Dogras and Pathans volunteered to fight in the Indian regiments destined for service across the wide oceans in Europe. The men found warm comradeship with the Tommies who fought beside them, cold climates in Flanders and Belgium, and hellishly hot fighting against the enemy. Major Maitland was an officer in the Indian Army attached to the supply corps bringing vital arms, ammunition and food to the front-line. The job was certainly not a sinecure as the supply depots were often not out of range of the enemy’s guns, particularly at Gallipoli. He tells his story with great detail, probably based on a diary or notes that he took at the time. His book is particularly interesting regarding the hellish conditions at Gallipoli - in fact, so interesting that the official Australian Government Anzac site quotes from his book. Essential reading.