Action Front

Action Front is a 1916 book by Boyd Cable. The foreword says the writer makes no apology for having followed in this book the same plan as in Between the Lines, taking extracts from the official despatches as texts and endeavoring to show something of what these brief messages cover. The foreword says there were some who complained that the writer's last book was in parts too grim and too terrible, and no doubt the same complaint may lie against this one.

In one scene a man named Macalister is described as tall and broadly built, big almost to hugeness and strong as a Highland bull. A speaker says that what he is afraid of is himself, of his nerve cracking, of his doing something that will disgrace the Regiment. A character named Conroy murmurs Very good, sir, and, on returning to his company, makes arrangements for the working party, implying subtly to Sergeant Clancy that the trench was to be started as the result of the sergeant's arguments.