They Did Not Grow Old

In June 1918, 130 teenagers arrived in France as just another draft of replacements among the thousands sent to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. Within the next five months, one in four would be dead, over half of them wounded. This is the story of the lives and deaths of these ordinary young men in an unimaginable war. By focussing on this one party of Doomed Youth, author Tim Lynch is able to explore and explain several aspects of the Great War which have received scant attention. Firstly, the summer of 1918 itself. Why was it necessary for these boys to die so late in the conflict? The German Spring Offensive had failed – but so did the calls for an Armistice, and the second Battle of the Marne in July would take many more lives. The butchery would continue, pointlessly, to November. Secondly, there is very little written about conscription itself and the Home Front, about rationing and even organised opposition to the War.