With regard to the personal side of the story, it may be as well to point out that many of the officers and men concerned were mentioned in the official despatch; that fact lessens one of the difficulties attached to the author's task. A compromise between the purely impersonal attitude and the very natural desire to render full justice to each individual, regardless of the reader's patience, has been aimed at.

The author trusts that the reader will be tolerant of omission and repetition, and will forgive the rather obvious shortcomings of a literary nature which, alas, appear all too frequently in the book.

ALFRED F. B. CARPENTER
8th March, 1921

CONTENTS

PART I

[Introduction by Admiral Earl Beatty]

[Appreciation by Marshal Foch]

[Appreciation by Rear-Admiral Sims, U.S.N.]

[Appreciation by Count Visart]