With the "die-Hards" in Siberia

In the forgotten winter of 1919, a battalion of British soldiers found themselves thousands of miles from home, in the frozen wasteland of Siberia, fighting for a cause that had already been lost. John Ward commanded the Middlesex Regiment, known as the "Die-Hards", through one of the most bewildering episodes of the post-WWI era. Dispatched from Hong Kong to Vladivostok as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, Ward and his men arrived expecting to confront the Bolsheviks, but instead found themselves mired in political confusion, supply nightmares, and a landscape that seemed designed to break both man and machine. Through his eyes, we see the chaotic Allied coalition, Japanese troops pushing forward, Americans uncertain of their mission, White Russian forces in disarray, while the Bolsheviks advanced and the British rank-and-file asked the question no one could answer: why are we here? Ward writes with the plain-spoken honesty of a soldier who saw futility up close and refuses to dress it up. This is military history from the ground, where orders contradicted each other and victory was never on the table.