Prior to 1914 the Army Service Corps was little known to the British public and labored in obscurity to supply British front-line units. A wagon-load of ammunition had been delivered to the Brigade of Guards at Waterloo under heavy fire and tow Victoria Crosses had been won in the Indian Mutiny when the Corps; skilled horse-handlers had been pressed into service as cavalry, but the operations of the Corps were generally out of the public eye.

During the supreme effort of World War I, the Corps expanded into a small army in its own right of over 300,000 men. Four years of difficult and dangerous operations ere carried out in the mud of the Western Front, the snows of the Italian Alps and the deserts of the Middle East. At the end of the war the Corps received the coveted "Royal" title and remained the Royal Army Service Corps until the 1060s. This detailed history is supported by 120 photographs and 21 original documents.