Lt. Col. Frederick McKelvey Bell holds an eminent place among the Canadians that were engaged in the war effort in France; his medical unit was the first of the Canadians to land and set to work in France in 1914. A distinguished doctor and medical officer, the author recounts his adventures and japes among his comrades in a relaxed and almost comic tone during the passage across the Atlantic. It is surprising that the sang-froid of he and his friends remained intact as they approached the front and the carnage which they encountered at the military hospital. Bell and his comrades provided vital care to the wounded of the British forces, and even some of the captured German soldiers, of whom he paints vivid portraits.