Plough and Scatter: The Diary-Journal of a First World War Gunner

J.Ivor Hanson’s personal diary describes his experiences as a gunner on the Western Front in the First World War, which left a deep and lasting impression on him. He wrote about the officers and men with whom he served, and the horror and humor of trench life – all subjects of Hanson’s intense scrutiny and incisive wit. He vividly describes the German Army’s crushing Spring Offensive in March 1918, when the British Army on the Western Front was almost pushed back to the Channel coast. Imperial War Museum historian Alan Wakefield has edited the diaries and provides engaging explanatory narratives for each chapter to set them within the context of the First World War.

Alan Wakefield is a curator in the Photograph Archive of the Imperial War Museum, a member of the British Commission for Military History, the Society for Army Historical Research and the Western Front Association. He is co-author with Simon Moody of Under the Devil’s Eye (Sutton, 2004). He lives in Hertfordshire.