THE BANTAMS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF WORLD WAR I.

Howard Baker, London, (1981), Ist edition. 287 pp, 8vo, hard cover in dust jacket. B&w photos. "At the outset of the 1914-18 War, no recruiting officer would look at any young man who was in less than the prime and peak of physical condition...Any volunteer who was less than the regulation five feet three inches in height got very short shrift...But the war was not very old before the official reaction to undersized volunteers had to change dramatically. Britain's Regular Army, the Expeditionary Force, was virtually wiped out in the first months of fighting...This book relates the history of the Bantam Battalions from beginning to bloody end - one might almost say 'out of nowhere, back into obscurity', for it is suprising how many official histories of the Great War have ignored the very real part these little men played..." Previous owner's embossed blindstamp on dedication page, p.63 and free rear endpaper, very small faint mark on pages 65-68. Light wrinkling at top/bottom of spine. Dust jacket is price-clipped, has light wrinkling at top/bottom of spine, slight darkening to spine, 1" triangular piece missing from bottom of rear panel, tiny stain at top of rear flap. VG/G.