The Irish Guards in the Great War: The First Battalion

‘The Irish Guards In The Great War’ is a classic of military history – Rudyard Kipling’s memorable account of how one regiment fought from 1914-1918. In 1915, on the third day of the Battle of Loos, Kipling’s beloved son John was shot in the head and killed. In John’s memory Kipling accepted an invitation from the Irish Guards to write the official account of their experiences in the First World War. The result is a classic of military history — a book that is all the more powerful for the deliberate spareness of Kipling’s style and the tightness of the narrative focus.