Billy Congreve was an exceptional soldier and an exceptional man. By the time he was killed on the Somme in July 1916 at the age of 25, he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross, and the Légion d'Honneur, and for his many deeds of gallantry on the Somme, a posthumous Victoria Cross. Born into a military family (his father General Congreve had also won the VC) he became a regular soldier in the Rifle Brigade before the war, and in France became a staff officer, but one who chose to be in the front line as often as he could. This makes his remarkable diaries all the more valuable, since he writes from the thick of the fighting and yet retains an objectivity that enables him to observe all that is going on around him, both in the trenches and at headquarters. Terry Norman carefully edited the diary to set his story in the context of the war, and thus provide an exceptional picture of what an officer thought of the conduct of the war side by side with his personal grief at the loss of his friends and the wastage of human life.--From publisher description.