Ronald Gurner

From a World War I veteran: A novel of the years-long, brutal battle at Ypres, Belgium, and what it did to the city and the men who fought there.

In 1915, a platoon of inexperienced British soldiers arrives in Flanders, excited and anxious for what is to come. But they soon find themselves at Ypres, where the battle-weary Allied troops have dug in and slaughter surrounds them. Soldiers, from privates to senior officers of the wider battalion, frozen by terror and overwhelmed by the relentless stress as the battle drags on, want nothing more than to hide.

Young, dedicated officer Freddy Mann is in the thick of it with his men—burying the dead, experiencing the terror of bombardment, and being picked off by snipers. On a journey from idealistic officer barely out of school to battle-hardened cynic barely hanging on as those around him are cut down, Mann suffers a crisis of faith as he loses his belief in the war and everything he once stood for.

Written by a WWI veteran, Pass Guard at Ypres brings to life the harrowing realities of the Great War, portraying years of lengthy fighting in—and the pivotal strategic role of—the ancient and once-peaceful town on the bank of the Ieperlee River.