Excerpt from The History of the Second Division, Vol. 1: 1914-1918 There must always be a peculiar interest attaching to the war histories of the Divisions that composed the original Expeditionary Force and, from August 1914 to November 1918, saw the full course and development of the struggle on the Western Front. Those Divisions were not merely the advance guard to the far mightier forces that followed them to France, they were also their example, and set the standards to which the younger Divisions of our Army afterwards lived up so worthily. Of these older Divisions, the Second Division formed, prior to the outbreak of the war, part of my own Aldershot Command, and afterwards fought under me in France in the First Army Corps. I am the more glad to write this Foreword to their Divisional History, for I am thereby given the opportunity to express something of my appreciation of the loyal and gallant service all ranks of the Division gave me in those early days, and of the pride I then - felt and still feel - to have commanded such fine troops. Until January 1915, in fact, the story of the Second Division is practically the history of my own command, and I can speak with the assurance of close personal knowledge regarding the very high standard of military efficiency set and maintained by all ranks, in spite of the greatest difficulties. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.