The lambs / Peter James Cottrell.

Ginchy, autumn 1916. The 9th Battalion, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, known rather ominously as 'The Lambs', go over the top. In 1914, Kevin Flynn had hardly given the war a thought; everyone said it would be over by Christmas: the problem was no one said which year. Instead, desperate to impress a girl called Mary, Flynn and his friends, like thousands of fellow Irishmen eager not to miss the adventure of a lifetime, and keen to help set their country free, begin a journey that leads inexorably to the shattered ruins of Ginchy and suffering beyond imagination. Confronted by the vagaries of army life, the harsh realities of war and rising hostility at home, Flynn finds his courage, loyalty and love tested to the limit making him question whether it was worth becoming a lamb to the slaughter.