It is inevitable that a book such as this relies to an overwhelming extent on the professional work, advice, comments and goodwill of many colleagues from a wide range of disciplines, as well as on the support of family, and the companionship of personal friends. I owe a great debt to all the individuals listed below, whose cooperation, expertise, insights and friendship have greatly influenced my own work, and made this book possible. None of them is responsible for what I have made of their many generosities.
As it would be invidious as well as impossible to rank these individuals according to my gratitude, I list them here in alphabetical order: Frédéric Adam, Zeyad al-Salameen, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, Marco Balbi, Annette Becker, Barbara Bender, Bob Bewley, Franky Bostyn, Jean Bourgeois, Isabelle Brandauer, James Brazier, Andy Brockman, Graham Brown, Martin Brown, David Cameron, John Carman, Piet Chielens, Željko Cimpric, Hugh Clout, David Cohen, Thomas Compère-Morel, Paul Cornish, Susan Daniels, Janiek Degryse, Anna Gow, Armando De Guio, Mark Dennis, Roger De Smul, Dominiek Dendooven, Aleks Deseyne, Yves Desfossés, Jan Dewilde, Marc Dewilde, Mike Dolamore, Nils Fabiansson, Hani Falahat, Neil Faulkner, David Field, Paola Filippucci, Philippe Gorczynski, Paul Gough, Fabio Gygi, Andy Hawkins, Italo Hellmann, Gary Hollingsworth, Patrik Indevuyst, Alain Jacques, David Kenyon, Arlene King, Joe Lahae, Mathieu de Meyer, Tom Morgan, Richard Osgood, Jon Price, Pedro Pype, Paul Reed, Rik Ryon, Jacques Schier, John Schofield, Aurel Sercu, Mansour Shqiarat, Ivan Sinnaeve, Tony Spagnoly, Harald Stadler, Birger Stichelbaut, David Thorpe, Christopher Tilley, Senior Captain A. Vander Mast, Johan Vandewalle, Gabriel Versavel, Carol Walker, Roger Ward, Patrice Warin, the late Marian Wenzel, John Winterburn, and John Woolsgrove, as well as www.greatwar.be and www.suffolkchurches.co.uk.
As always, I owe a great debt to my wife, Pauline, my children, Roxanne and Alexander, my parents, Geoff and Pat Saunders, and, ultimately, to my grandfathers, Alfred William Saunders of the King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) and Matthew Inkerman Chorley of the South Lancashire Regiment. Both fought in the First World War and survived. I can only imagine what they would have thought about the idea that the war that forged them as young men would, almost within their own lifetimes, become a part of archaeology.