WELCOME TO FLANDERS FIELDS. THE FIRST CANADIAN BATTLE OF THE GREAT WAR: YPRES, 1915. by Dancocks, Daniel G - 1988

Toronto: Douglas Gibson/McClelland and Stewart, 1988. 292 pp, large 8vo (9 1/4" H). Map endpapers, b&w photographs. "The second battle of Ypres provided the First Canadian Division with its baptism of fire, and it could not have been worse. They were holding a salient, jutting out so that they were targets from three sides. The Germans, for the first time ever, used chlorine gas, which turned the Canadians' bayonets green and destroyed their lungs. Then they discovered that in combat conditions their Ross rifles jammed, as the waves of Germans hit their trenches. At the end John McCrae looked across the battleground where so many hundreds of his countrymen had fallen, and wrote 'In Flanders Fields'. Back in Canada, the war began in earnest the day the casualty lists were posted. " Small notation, place, date and initials in ink on half-title page; light wrinkling at bottom of spine; small bump at bottom corner of boards; slight waviness to edges of text block. Dust jacket has light wrinkling - mainly at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds, minor rubbing, faint line indentation on front panel.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good-/Very Good.