Hold the Line: A Battalion Tested in the Bloodiest Battles of the Western Front

‘From Fromelles to the final advance — war as it was lived, in the words of the men who faced it.’

One battalion. Three years of war. Ordinary men under relentless pressure.

‘I was eighteen when I was first sent into battle at Fromelles… War is both the silliest and cruellest activity that a man can get mixed up in. It breaks my heart even now to think of it.’
— Walter Herbert ‘Bert’ Bishop, 55th Battalion

In 1915, news from Gallipoli stirred tens of thousands of young Australians to enlist. Th...