The Great Push: An Episode of the Great War

by Macgill, Patrick; Osborne, Brian D.

• ISBN13: 9781841580364
• ISBN10: 1841580368
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Inc

Summary

In 1915 "Patrick MacGill", the 'navvy poet', whose autobiographical novel (Children of the Dead End) about his life as a potato harvester and roadworker in Scotland, had been a publishing sensation the year before, enlisted as a private in the London Irish Rifles. He was sent to the front line in France, where, between raids in the ghastly conditions of the muddy trenches, he wrote The Great Push, a description of his experiences during the Battle of Loos in September 1915. It is a passionate and compelling book which describes the fear, resilience, humor, and fatalism of those who fought at the raw edge of one of the most terrifying wars ever to have been waged. Long out of print, the book is now available in paperback.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Foreword	xv
In the Advance Trenches	1	(6)
Out from Nouex-Les-Mines	7	(9)
Preparations for Loos	16	(6)
Before the Charge	22	(9)
Over the Top	31	(4)
Across the Open	35	(8)
Germans at Loos	43	(6)
How my Comrades Fared	49	(4)
At Loos	53	(11)
Night in Loos	64	(7)
Loos	71	(7)
Retreat	78	(9)
A Prisoner of War	87	(7)
The Chaplain	94	(5)
A Lover at Loos	99	(7)
The Ration Party	106	(5)
Michaelmas Eve	111	(7)
Back at Loos	118	(7)
Wounded	125	(5)
For Blighty	130