Publisher's Synopsis
Like many teenage boys, John Richard (Jack) Green joined the rush to war in August 1914. Unlike many others, he returned four-and-a-half years later. Jack's initial ambition to be a gunner was thwarted by his lack of height. Instead Jack drove a gun limber, supplying the front with ammunition, a fortunate choice for the son of a Hanson cab proprietor who had grown up with horses. Jack went on to see action in Ypres, Poperinghe, the Somme. He survived injury, underwent court-martial, and endured field punishment for making a horse bleed when retreating under fire. A hundred years on Jack's story provides a unique insight into an ordinary soldier's war, of his transformation from innocence through experience, from unquestioning patriot to staunch trade unionist, from boy to man.
