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The Royal Naval Division- of which the Hood Battalion formed part- was raised at the beginning of the First World War and was made up of officers and men of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve- stokers of the Royal Fleet Reserve and seamen of the Royal Naval Reserve. Its father was Winston Churchill- then First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr Asquith- the Prime Minister- christened it Winstons Little Army. It was quite unlike any other formation in that these were soldiers who adhered to all the traditions and the practices of the Royal Navy- or if you like- sailors who went to war as soldiers. The Hood Battalion also attracted numerous officers of the highest calibre- among whom may be mentioned Oc Asquith- the Prime Ministers son- Patrick Shaw-Stewart- said to be the most brilliant young man of his generation- Bernard Freyberg- and- most famous of all- the poet Rupert Brooke- who was to die so tragically in a foreign field. The Hood Battalion saw some of the fiercest fighting of the First World War- particularly at Antwerp- in the Gallipoli Campaign and then again on the Western Front at the Ancre- at Gavrelle- and at Passchendaele.Len Sellers- whose interest in the Hood Battalion was first aroused when he discovered that his great-uncle had served with them- lets the participants tell their own story- having expended prodigious labour in unearthing the many first-hand accounts of the Hoods exploits included in this book. It is indeed a tale told by heroes....