Triumph on the Western Front: Diary of a Despatch Rider with the ANZACs 1915-1919.
Compiled by Philip Holdway-Davis from the diary of Oswald Harcourt Davis.
Davis’s diary is the only Great War diary written by a British Soldier attached to the ANZACS who has written about his experience in a role largely ignored by history: The Carrier Pigeon Service.
Triumph on the Western Front: Diary of a Despatch Rider with the ANZACs 1915-1919.
Compiled by Philip Holdway-Davis from the diary of Oswald Harcourt Davis.
Davis’s diary is the only Great War diary written by a British Soldier attached to the ANZACS who has written about his experience in a role largely ignored by history: The Carrier Pigeon Service.
When Davis joined the Royal Engineers Signal Squadron in 1916, arriving in Abbeville, Somme, France, he was surprised to be told that because of his motorcycling experience he would become an Anzac Corps pigeon despatch driver.
A motorbike enthusiastic, Davis had the advantage of well-practised talent for impromptu repair that often allowed him to get to places when others had turned back.
The job was essential and dangerous, dodging enemy fire, where he took pigeons housed in cages strapped to his back, up the Somme line to the ANZACS. The pigeons would then be sent back with vital information.
As Davis was an avid writer, a freelance journalist and a poet with twelve published books, his war diaries are beautifully written.
Triumph on the Western Front: Diary of a Despatch Rider with the ANZACs 1915-1919 takes the readers on a vivid journey from wartime Britain in July 1915 to Davis’s voluntary recruitment where he is sent to the Somme and Flanders for the duration of the war, finished with a post-war trip to occupied Germany before demobilisation in February 1919.
Auckland-based Philip Holdway-Davis is the great-nephew of Oswald Harcourt Davis. Philip edited the diary and compiled the battlefield guide (included in the book).
Philip said as he grew up, his parents told him stories about their hero relative, so Philip borrowed a copy of Davis’s diary and was enthralled and felt privileged to be a descendant of such a courageous and gifted man.
Now Available RRP$45.00
To celebrate the release of this book we have two copies to giveaway to lucky GrownUps members.
To enter simply answer the following question in the comments section below:
Whose diary is the book based upon?
The winner will be notified via email.
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