《欢乐的牺牲》讲述了1917年4月至5月的春季攻势，也被称为阿拉斯战役。可能是因为噪音还没有平息，梅西内斯的爆炸声就再次响起，紧接着是更可怕的第三次伊普尔——人们记得是帕申代尔——阿拉斯之战没有得到应有的关注。然而，正如作者所指出的，从每日伤亡率来看，这是第一次世界大战中英国最致命、最昂贵的进攻性战斗。在这场战斗持续的39天里，平均伤亡率远远高于索姆或帕申代尔。乔纳森·尼科尔斯（Jonathan Nicholls）在他的第一本书中，给出了阿拉斯之战在军事史上的适当位置，并通过大量目击者的叙述加强了他的文本。毫无疑问，一位幸存者将这场战争描述为“战争中最野蛮的步兵战斗”，他并没有夸大。作者注定会在军事史学家的视野中高升，这一点也没有多大疑问。
Cheerful Sacrifice
Cheerful Sacrifice tells the story of the spring offensive of April – May 1917, otherwise known as the Battle of Arras. Probably because the noise had hardly died down before it started up again with the explosions at Messines, shortly to be followed by the even more horrible Third Ypres – remembered as Passchendaele – the Battle of Arras has not received the attention it deserves. Yet, as the author points out, on the basis of the daily casualty rate it was the most lethal and costly British offensive battle of the First World War. In the thirty-nine days that the battle lasted the average casualty rate was far higher than at either the Somme or Passchendaele. Jonathan Nicholls, in this his first book, gives the Battle of Arras its proper place in the annals of military history, enhancing his text with a wealth of eye-witness accounts. One is left in no doubt that the survivor who described it as ‘the most savage infantry battle of the war’, did not exaggerate. Nor can there be much doubt that the author is destined to rise high in the firmament of military historians.
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