In the following pages we are not treated to long dissertations on
military tactics, nor to clear proofs of how the writer could have
concluded the war in half the time it really did take, if only the High
Command had carried out suggestions made by one who knew all about it.
You will find nothing like that in this book. Colonel Collett evidently
asked himself: "What do the friends of the men of the Battalion want to
know?" They want to know what the men did and what the Battalion did.
What was the daily life of the man in the training camp; on the
transports; in the war areas, and in the trenches. Of those who fell,
they want to know, if possible, how and when they fell and where they
were buried. Of those who were wounded, they want to know what they were
doing when they "stopped a bullet," and how they were afterwards
treated in hospital or in "Blighty." The public want a brief outline of
the great doings of the Battalion, and all these things are plainly and
proudly told by the writer.

I have often been in camp with Colonel Collett and know how thoroughly
he did his work there. I am sure that all the men of the Battalion,
their friends, and the public generally, will thank him for the loving
care and labour he has devoted to a task which must have been to him a
glorious record, and yet, at times, one full of sadness as he recalled
to mind the "passing out" of friend after friend.

C. O. L., PERTH,
Chaplain-General A.I.F.,
C. of E.

PREFACE.

In the pages which follow an attempt has been made to give some account
of how a Western Australian battalion was raised, organised, trained,
and lived. How and where it travelled, some of the things it did and
saw, and the nature of its environment. That is a large area to cover,
and I am only too conscious that the result achieved is far from
perfect.

This volume is confined to the period which terminated with the arrival
of the 28th Battalion at Marseilles. That first phase of the unit's
history was not so unimportant as might be thought. Although the
following years were marked by a series of great events, in which the
Battalion took a glorious part, yet there was a sameness in the
surroundings and a monotony of routine which was conspicuously absent
amongst the changing scenes and varied incidents of the earlier months
of service.