John Harris was a Sheffield based crime writer who grew up listening to the veteran's stories he heard around the city. Among these were the stories of the survivors of the 12th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment; the Sheffield Pals. This book is based on those stories.

The Sheffield Pals (which included my great grandfather) were formed on the outbreak of war in August 1914. [a:Richard A. Sparling|4549202|Richard A. Sparling|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], a veteran who became a sports journalist and wrote a history of the battalion, described the “£500 a year business men, stockbrokers, engineers, chemists, metallurgical experts, University and public school men, medical students, journalists, schoolmasters, craftsmen, shop assistants, secretaries, and all sorts of clerks” who joined up.

They went into action for the first time at the Somme on July 1st 1916, detailed to attack the village of Serre. At 7.20am the first wave of the battalion climbed out of the trenches, moved 100 yards into No Man's Land and lay flat on the ground. There they waited for the brigade mortar battery and divisional artillery to unleash a final hurricane bombardment of the German lines. A few minutes later, with the British front line coming under an intense German counter-barrage, the second wave took up position 30 yards behind the first. At 7.30am the bombardment lifted from the German front line. All four waves rose, straightened themselves, then advanced steadily towards the German lines.

Disaster struck almost immediately. Their smoke screen was ineffective and the battalion came under machine gun and artillery fire from the left flank and front. Half of the third and fourth waves had fallen before making it a few yards from their trenches. On the left, the bombardment had failed to cut the German barbed wire and the Sheffield Pals were trapped. On the right, a few men managed to force their way into the German trenches and, heavily outnumbered, engaged in vicious hand to hand fighting with the defenders. Some managed to return to the British lines. Most were never heard of again. By lunchtime, 513 of the Sheffield Pals had been killed or wounded.

Harris' book is, quite simply, the best novel written about the First World War by a non combatant. Thinly veiled - the battalion train at the ground of a football club called Rovers and a place out of town called Blackmires while the Sheffield Pals trained at Sheffield United's ground and Redmires to the west of the city - he tells the story of the 12th Yorks & Lancs. The characters are well developed, steering well clear of the cliches this genre is all too prone to, and the action, when it comes, is stomach turning.

So good is Covenant With Death that the novel's closing line is often quoted as the words of a veteran; “Two years in the making. Ten minutes in the destroying. That was our history”

The true story behind the novel is told in [b:Sheffield City Battalion: The 12th (Service) Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment|2536599|Sheffield City Battalion The 12th (Service) Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment|Ralph Gibson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1455533372s/2536599.jpg|16560538]. ( )

1st July 1916, The Somme. The worst day in the history of the British Army. No novel can quite capture this horror better than Harris's book. 1914 brought the advent of Britain's 'New Army', the tidal wave of volunteers that was formed into fighting units for the Western Front. Their baptism of fire.....The Somme.

John Harris was a Sheffield based crime writer who grew up listening to the veteran's stories he heard around the city. Among these were the stories of the survivors of the 12th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment; the Sheffield Pals. This book is based on those stories.

The Sheffield Pals (which included my great grandfather) were formed on the outbreak of war in August 1914. [a:Richard A. Sparling|4549202|Richard A. Sparling|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], a veteran who became a sports journalist and wrote a history of the battalion, described the “£500 a year business men, stockbrokers, engineers, chemists, metallurgical experts, University and public school men, medical students, journalists, schoolmasters, craftsmen, shop assistants, secretaries, and all sorts of clerks” who joined up.

They went into action for the first time at the Somme on July 1st 1916, detailed to attack the village of Serre. At 7.20am the first wave of the battalion climbed out of the trenches, moved 100 yards into No Man's Land and lay flat on the ground. There they waited for the brigade mortar battery and divisional artillery to unleash a final hurricane bombardment of the German lines. A few minutes later, with the British front line coming under an intense German counter-barrage, the second wave took up position 30 yards behind the first. At 7.30am the bombardment lifted from the German front line. All four waves rose, straightened themselves, then advanced steadily towards the German lines.

Disaster struck almost immediately. Their smoke screen was ineffective and the battalion came under machine gun and artillery fire from the left flank and front. Half of the third and fourth waves had fallen before making it a few yards from their trenches. On the left, the bombardment had failed to cut the German barbed wire and the Sheffield Pals were trapped. On the right, a few men managed to force their way into the German trenches and, heavily outnumbered, engaged in vicious hand to hand fighting with the defenders. Some managed to return to the British lines. Most were never heard of again. By lunchtime, 513 of the Sheffield Pals had been killed or wounded.

Harris' book is, quite simply, the best novel written about the First World War by a non combatant. Thinly veiled - the battalion train at the ground of a football club called Rovers and a place out of town called Blackmires while the Sheffield Pals trained at Sheffield United's ground and Redmires to the west of the city - he tells the story of the 12th Yorks & Lancs. The characters are well developed, steering well clear of the cliches this genre is all too prone to, and the action, when it comes, is stomach turning.

So good is Covenant With Death that the novel's closing line is often quoted as the words of a veteran; “Two years in the making. Ten minutes in the destroying. That was our history” ( )

Most of this novel covers the raising of a battalion from one city to fight the Germans in WW I. We meet the protagonist in late August 1914 and following his training and eventual deployment in Egypt. As the War becomes more intense in Europe, his unit is sent there. Here he prepares for the battle of the Somme. Two years in the planning and lost in ten minutes, we see through the soldiers' eyes the over confidence of the leadership and the incredible blunders that were made that let to half a million Allied deaths in one battle. The Germans lost the same number of men.

An additional bonus is what we learn about how the civilian population in England handle life at war as the soldiers are sent home for leave and experience a lack of sympathy for what life in the trenches is like. Civilians are concerned with rationing and the dragging out the war that was supposed to be over by Christmas 1914. ( )