James McWilliams and R. James Steel are avid military historians. They have collaborated on two previous books on World War I: The Suicide Battalion (1978, 1990) and Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915 (1989) - as well as a unit history - The Battery (1996). R. James Steel is also the author of The Men Who Marched Away: Canada's Infantry in World War I, 1914-1918 (1989).