S.O.S. Stand to!

An eager recruit's first lessons in army life begin with a crowded Canadian recruiting station and an awkward encounter with a colonel. Reginald Grant recalls signing up alongside his friend Burt Young, leaving for Valcartier and joining the artillery of Canada's First Division. A dangerous accident on a rain-soaked gun limber introduces the narrow escapes that shape his account of three years of overseas service.

Grant connects his own duties with fighting at Ypres, the Somme and Vimy Ridge, stressing the work of the guns and the strain on the soldiers serving them. Alongside that military perspective are the jokes and rivalries of men living together under pressure. A prank played on Hambone Davis, involving his improvised shelter and a ham bone, shows the rough comedy of their companionship. Readers interested in the First World War will find a personal account that moves between battlefield danger and the small incidents of a soldier's day.