This book is a simple transcript from John's own faded hand written diaries that went unread for over 60 years, now made into a book so that one small story amongst the many will not be forgotten. John Gill's war diary is not about battles, heroism or conflict. It is a simple story of one young man's war. He started out with so much enthusiasm and excitement to document what he probably imagined, despite the obvious dangers, to be an adventure. None of us can totally imagine the horrors of war without having experienced it, and youth can often lead to a degree of naivety especially in that era before mass media and modern systems of communication. John's enthusiasm did not last and as the war progressed he suffered an illness brought on by the living conditions rather than the enemy, but in wars the living conditions themselves can be as much the enemy as the opposing army.