With The Forgotten Front, George H. Cassar intends to demonstrate Italy's vital contribution to the Allied effort in the First World War. His account of the war in Italy covers the strategic considerations as well as the actual fighting.

Numbering over five million men, Britain's army in the First World War was the biggest in the country's history. Remarkably, nearly half those men who served in it were volunteers. 2,466,719 men enlisted between August 1914 and December 1915, many in response to the appeals of the Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. How did Britain succeed in creating a mass army, almost from scratch, in the middle of a major war ? What compelled so many men to volunteer ' and what happened to them once they had taken the King's shilling ? Peter Simkins describes how Kitchener's New Armies were raised and reviews the main political, economic and social effects of the recruiting campaign. He examines the experiences and impressions of the officers and men who made up the New Armies. As well as analysing their motives for enlisting, he explores how they were fed, housed, equipped and trained before they set off for active service abroad. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, ranging from government papers to the diaries and letters of individual soldiers, he questions long-held assumptions about the 'rush to the colours' and the nature of patriotism in 1914. The book will be of interest not only to those studying social, political and economic history, but also to general readers who wish to know more about the story of Britain's citizen soldiers in the Great War.

The author served as the division s GSO1 from March 1918 to its demise in March 1919. In his preface he states his aim to include as many names as possible, and in doing so he has added human interest to a graphic, detailed account of the part played by one of Kitchener s divisions on the Western Front and in Italy. The appendices are particularly useful, including the divisional order of battle, with any changes; successive reorganisations of the divisional artillery; succession of commanders and staff with dates of appointment; summary of honours and awards, British and Foreign (over3,200 including nine VCs); extracts from the Battles Nomenclature Committee Report identifying those battles in which the division took part. There is a comprehensive index and to conclude this admirable History there is a chronological record of the division s activities with dates and reference to the pages of the History where they are mentioned. The 23rd Division, one of Kitchener s Third New Army divisions, began forming in the middle of September 1914 in the Aldershot area. The divisional sign is a red cross patte on a white disc, all encircled by a red ring; the significance and origin is not known. The division landed in France in August 1915 and for the next two years it fought on the Western Front - in the Armentieres and Carency sectors, on the Somme where it captured Contalmaison, Munster Alley and Le Sars. It took part in the June 1917 Messines offensive and in Third Ypres, after which it moved to Italy in November 1917. In June 1918 it fought in the Battle of the Piave, sustaining losses of 556 and gaining two VCs. It took part in the final offensive, the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, ending its part in the war about ten miles east of that place after an advance of some thirty miles. This good division was unique in that it was the only one to retain the same GOC throughout the entire war, apart from the last three weeks. Total casualties amounted to 23,574, about ninety percent of them on the Western front.