The Invisible Foe: The 62nd Division in the Second Battle of the Marne 1918
In 1918, troops of the 62nd (West Riding) Division found themselves in a battle through woods described by General Braithwaite as being as thick as the Burmese jungle. Cut off from one another, soldiers of both sides fought small, vicious actions in which the enemy might appear from anywhere ‘fighting an invisible foe’ as one survivor described it.
Far from the mud and trenches of popular imagination, young men fresh from training demonstrated skills and drills that even two years earlier would have been considered beyond the reach of most infantrymen. In doing so, their success marked the beginning of the end.
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