The Riddles of Wipers: An Appreciation of the Trench Journal "The Wipers Times". This item is unavailable.The Riddles of Wipers: An Appreciation of the Trench Journal "The Wipers Times"

The Wipers Times was the Private Eye of the Ypres Salient during WW1. Edited, while under bombardment, by a battalion commander in the Sherwood Foresters, written by soldiers actually in the trenches and distributed by ration-wagon and ammunition-mule. The paper bears vivid witness to the shocking realities of trench warfare. Yet for all the occasional horror of its content, The Wipers Times was a gentle, humour-filled and satirical paper which, once its codes are cracked and its riddles solved, tells an interested reader much about the characters and personalities of the men in the British Army. The Mud, the Gas, the Shells; the Fear, the Courage, the Humour and the Bitterness; much is revealed about these and many other things in this remarkable book.

John Ivelaw-Chapman was educated at Cheltenham College. National Service in the RAF extended to an eighteen year commission. During this time he served as a pilot in Germany, Cyprus, East Africa, Aden and Malaysia. On retirement from the service, he worked as an antique dealer, auctioneer and occasional contributor to magazines and newspapers. His first book, High Endeavour (Leo Cooper) was compiled from his father's personal archive which documented an adventurous military life from Royal Flying Corps subaltern to vice-chief of air Staff in the nuclear-equipped Royal Air Force. He had always had an interest in the history of World War One and this interest became an obsession with the chance discovery of `The Collected Issues of the Wipers Times' and The Riddles of Wipers resulted. John Ivelaw-Chapman passed away in 2004.