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Book description

Featuring the careers of forty-three men, this volume tells the story of the Battle of Cambrai, famous for being the first occasion when tanks were used en masse in battle. Its first day was so successful that church bells in Britain were run in anticipation of a great victory. A tank crewman numbers among the recipients of the VC. Containing biographies of a broad cross-section of men from Britain and the Dominions including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even the Ukraine. It includes a sapper, a former miner, who chose to stay with his seriously wounded colleague underground and die with him, rather than obey an order to leave him and save his own life. Further accounts concern a maverick lieutenant-colonel who was relieved of his command and a padre who worked tirelessely over a period of three nights bringing at least twenty-five men to safety from No Man's Land, who otherwise would have been left to die. This book pays tribute not only to their heroic deeds but also to the lives of the men before and after their service, as well as to their families. The VCs of the First World War series is a must-have for any collector, First World War enthusiast and genealogist. Gerald Gliddon is an historian and founder of the VCs of the First World War series. He has written widely on the First World War, including Somme 1916: A Battlefield Companion.