F H Cooper
Serving with the Guns in two theatres of the Great War Both personal accounts in this two book Leonaur edition of the East African Campaign and Sinai Palestine Campaign of the First World War were written by the same author, who was an artillery signaller in the South African Army. The setting in the first account is the 1914-16 advance through the Pangani Valley and Central Railway region against German colonial forces. Cooper describes the difficulties of operations against a competent and elusive enemy through thick bush. His force perpetually suffered from lack of transport and essential supplies and he and his comrades were further incapacitated by diseases including malaria and dysentery. Having survived the rigours of war in East Africa ,Cooper was dispatched to the Middle East where he served during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of 1916-18, as part of Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force charged with expelling Ottoman Turkish forces from the Holy Land. Once again the environment of the battlefield could be as harrowing as the campaign itself, as the demands of operating in desert conditions with its extremes of heat and poor weather, creating cloying mud took their toll. The reader will also accompany Cooper onto the field of battle, under bombardment, as he struggled to keep essential lines of communication open between observers and their gunners. This book unusually offers an insight into two ’side-shoe’ theatres of the war from the perspective a single reporter and so recommended to every student of the period.Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.
