When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the British Army was completely unprepared, and the British Secretary of State for War, Lord Herbert Kitchener, issued a call for volunteers. The mass of unorganized trainees was called "Kitchener"s Mob". This is the eyewitness account of an American citizen living in London who volunteered to join Kitchener"s Mob and was sent to the trenches of France, just in time for the first stages of the Battle of the Somme.