Now that the Great War is definitely over it is necessary to get it adequately chronicled. Of necessity we must have comprehensive surveys of the war, formal histories in many volumes; but the real history of the great conflict is to be found not so much in these, as in the vital pieces of descriptive literature which our fighting men have struck off, often while the drama was being enacted before their eyes. It is with the object of getting together a really vivid and actual record of the world conflict, which will be of service not only to ourselves, but to our children, that the "ON ACTIVE SERVICE" Series has been formed. It consists of a number of volumes, uniform in format and production, which have been selected as being representative of particular aspects or phases of the war, written by soldiers, sailors and others who have witnessed or actually participated in what they describe. Here, in these personal experiences of our men, is an enduring record of the last four or five years; a record which, more surely than any formal histories, will carry forward the memory of those tragic but glorious days.