Title search results
Showing 141 - 160 of 2627 items
Gallipoli: The End of the Myth
By Robin Prior. 2009
The noted historian&’s decisive and devastating history of the WWI Battle of Gallipoli &“sets a new standard for assessing the…
Allied Dardanelles campaign" (Mustafa Aksakal, American Historical Review). The Gallipoli campaign of 1915–16 was an ill-fated Allied attempt to take control of the Dardanelles, secure a sea route to Russia, and create a Balkan alliance against the Central Powers. A failure in all respects, the operation ended in disaster, and the Allied forces suffered some 390,000 casualties. In this conclusive study, military historian Robin Prior assesses the many myths about Gallipoli and provides definitive answers to questions that have lingered about the operation. Prior proceeds step by step through the campaign, dealing with naval, military, and political matters and surveying the operations of all the armies involved: British, Anzac, French, Indian, and Turkish. Relying on primary documents, including war diaries and technical military sources, Prior evaluates the strategy, the commanders, and the performance of soldiers on the ground. His conclusions are powerful and unsettling: the naval campaign was not &“almost&” won, and the land action was not bedeviled by &“minor misfortunes.&” Instead, the badly conceived Gallipoli campaign was doomed from the start. And even had it been successful, the operation would not have shortened the war by a single day. Despite their bravery, the Allied troops who fell at Gallipoli died in vain.A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2009The Last Post: Music, Remembrance and the Great War
By Alwyn W. Turner. 2014
A history of the military bugle call, its use at the end of World War I on Armistice Day, and…
its effect in today’s culture.At eleven o’clock on the morning of the 11th November 1919 the entire British Empire came to a halt to remember the dead of the Great War. During that first two-minute silence all transport stayed still, all work ceased and millions stood motionless in the streets. The only human sound to be heard was the desolate weeping of those overcome by grief. Then the moment was brought to an end by the playing of the Last Post.A century on, that lone bugle call remains the most emotionally charged piece of music in public life. In an increasingly secular society, it is the closest thing we have to a sacred anthem. Yet along with the poppy, the Cenotaph and the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, its power is profoundly modern. It is a response to the trauma of war that could only have evolved in a democratic age.In this moving exploration of the Last Post’s history, Alwyn W. Turner considers the call’s humble origins and shows how its mournful simplicity reached beyond class, beyond religion, beyond patriotism to speak directly to peoples around the world. Along the way he contemplates the relationship between history and remembrance, and seeks out the legacy of the First World War in today’s culture.In the past, while visiting the First World War battlefields, the author often wondered where the various Victoria Cross actions…
took place. He resolved to find out. In 1988, in the midst of his army career, research for this book commenced and over the years numerous sources have been consulted. Victoria Crosses on the Western Front: Battles of the Hindenburg Line - Havrincourt and Epehy is designed for the battlefield visitor as much as the armchair reader. A thorough account of each VC action is set within the wider strategic and tactical context. Detailed sketch maps show the area today, together with the battle-lines and movements of the combatants. It will allow visitors to stand upon the spot, or very close to, where each VC was won. Photographs of the battle sites richly illustrate the accounts. There is also a comprehensive biography for each recipient, covering every aspect of their lives warts and all: parents and siblings, education, civilian employment, military career, wife and children, death and burial/commemoration. A host of other information, much of it published for the first time, reveals some fascinating characters, with numerous links to many famous people and events.Sniper on the Ypres Salient: An Infantryman’s War In The Royal Welsh Fusiliers
By Sue Boase, William McCrae. 2022
Just after midnight on 22 April 1916 on the Western Front, a sergeant from the 15th (1st London) Royal Welsh…
Fusiliers came sliding and stumbling along the dark, mud-filled trench towards the four men, huddled together and soaked-through, in the shallow dugout. He was clutching his postbag in which there were four parcels for one of them, William McCrae, whose twentieth birthday fell on this day. A hand-written account by William, my grandfather, was found in my mother’s papers, long after his death. This book describes a year of his time fighting in the First World War, from December 1915 to December 1916. Two months after his birthday, he was marching towards the Somme, where he was to act as a runner during the key Welsh engagement in the Battle of Mametz Wood. Later, he went on to volunteer and train as a sniper. He continued in this role for over a year, becoming a lance corporal in the 38th Divisional Sniping Company while fighting on the Ypres Salient. His words emphasise the key role snipers played in the collecting of intelligence about the enemy, through close observation and careful reporting. His account stops abruptly in mid-sentence, just at the point where he indicates he is about to reveal more to us about ‘a new, interesting part of the line to be manned by us Snipers’. Piecing together clues from his sketches, maps and photos, and this book paints a picture of Williams’ time during the rest of the war. In 1917 he returned to England to train as a temporary officer in the 18th Officer Cadet Battalion at Prior Park, Bath. He came back to the Western Front as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment, where he was seconded to the 1/5 Lancashire Fusiliers until the end of the war. During this time, it is likely that his interest and experience as a sniper continued, with evidence that he may have taught at one of the Sniping Schools set up across France.Laugh or Cry: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914–1918
By Peter Hart, Gary Bain. 2022
Awakened by great shouted oaths below. Peeped over the side of the manger and saw a Belgian lass milking and…
addressing a cow with a comprehensive luridness that left no doubt in my mind that British soldiers had been billeted here before.' - Private Norman Ellison, 1/6th King’s Liverpool Regiment Humor helped the British soldier survive the terrible experiences they faced in the trenches of the Western Front during the Great War. Human beings are complicated, and there is no set pattern as to how they react to the outrageous stresses of war. But humor, often dark and representative of the horrors around them could and often did help. They may have been up to their knees in mud and blood, soaking wet and shot at from all sides, but many were still determined to see the ‘funny side’, rather than surrender to utter misery. Peter Hart and Gary Bain have delved deep into the archives to find examples of the soldier’s wit. The results are at times hilarious but rooted in tragedy. You have to laugh or cry."Winterton’s book is a good introductory effort on the haptic environment of World War I aviators and their personal artifacts."—The…
Journal of the Air Force Historical FoundationArchaeology provides a fascinating insight into the lives of the aviators of the First World War. Their descriptions of the sensation of flying in the open cockpits of the primitive warplanes of the day, and the artifacts that have survived from these first years of aerial combat, give us a powerful sense of what their wartime service was like and chart the beginning of our modern understanding of aviation. But the subject hasn’t been explored in any depth before, which is why Melanie Winterton’s pioneering book is so timely. Hers is the first study of the trench art, souvenirs and lucky mascots associated with the Royal Flying Corps which, in an original way, tell us so much about the experience of flying on the Western Front a century ago. Extensive quotations from the memoirs of these early airmen are combined with an analysis of the artifacts themselves. They convey something of the fear and anxiety the airmen had to grapple with on a daily basis and bring out the full significance of the poignant souvenirs they left behind. Pieces of crashed aeroplane – wooden propellers, strips of linen, fragments of metal – were recycled and circulated during the war and afterwards became the focus of attention in the domestic home. As Melanie Winterton demonstrates, these items connected the living with the deceased, which is why they are so strongly evocative even today.Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914 – 1918
By Louis Barthas. 2014
&“An exceptionally vivid memoir of a French soldier&’s experience of the First World War.&”—Max Hastings, New York Times bestselling author…
Along with millions of other Frenchmen, Louis Barthas, a thirty-five-year-old barrelmaker from a small wine-growing town, was conscripted to fight the Germans in the opening days of World War I. Corporal Barthas spent the next four years in near-ceaseless combat, wherever the French army fought its fiercest battles: Artois, Flanders, Champagne, Verdun, the Somme, the Argonne. First published in France in 1978, this excellent new translation brings Barthas&’ wartime writings to English-language readers for the first time. His notebooks and letters represent the quintessential memoir of a &“poilu,&” or &“hairy one,&” as the untidy, unshaven French infantryman of the fighting trenches was familiarly known. Upon Barthas&’ return home in 1919, he painstakingly transcribed his day-to-day writings into nineteen notebooks, preserving not only his own story but also the larger story of the unnumbered soldiers who never returned. Recounting bloody battles and endless exhaustion, the deaths of comrades, the infuriating incompetence and tyranny of his own officers, Barthas also describes spontaneous acts of camaraderie between French poilus and their German foes in trenches just a few paces apart. An eloquent witness and keen observer, Barthas takes his readers directly into the heart of the Great War. &“This is clearly one of the most readable and indispensable accounts of the death of the glory of war.&”—The Daily Beast (&“Hot Reads&”)The World Crisis: 1911-1914 (Winston S. Churchill World Crisis Collection #1)
By Winston S. Churchill. 2013
The causes of the Great War are examined in this first volume of the series that is &“essential reading, as…
fresh and compelling as ever&” (Jon Meacham, bestselling author of Franklin and Winston). An absorbing history of the outbreak of World War I from a true insider&’s point of view, the first volume of Winston S. Churchill&’s five-volume The World Crisis is unsurpassed as both a historical and personal account of the earth-shaking events leading up to WWI. Beginning in 1911, when Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, this report is based on thousands of his personal letters and memos. Churchill&’s epic series opens with a chilling description of the Agadir Crisis, and provides an in-depth account of naval clashes in the Dardanelles, one of Churchill&’s major military failures. It takes readers from the fierce bloodshed of the Gallipoli campaign to the tide-turning battles of Jutland and Verdun—as well as the United States&’ entry into the combat theatre. Written in powerful prose by a great leader who would also go on to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature, The World Crisis, 1911–1914 provides a perspective you won&’t find anywhere else: a dynamic insider&’s account of events that would shape the outcome of modern history. &“Whether as a statesman or an author, Churchill was a giant; and The World Crisis towers over most other books about the Great War.&” —David Fromkin, author of A Peace to End All PeaceTrapped Behind Enemy Lines: Accounts of British Soldiers and Their Protectors in the Great War
By John Anderson, Victor Piuk. 2015
As 1914 ends, the war which was supposed to be over by Christmas, had settled down to an entrenched stalemate.…
Trapped behind enemy lines are many British soldiers who are hidden by brave French families. The risks are high for both fugitives and their protectors. This book tells their story, while focussing on a young Scot who emerges from hiding as Mademoiselle Louise, leading an amazing double life for almost two years, ending in betrayal. Sentenced to death by the Germans only an impassionate plea from his adopted mother saves his life. Others are not so lucky.After the war he speedily returns from captivity in Germany, via Scotland to France and marries his sweetheart, but life remains hard in the war ravaged country. This extraordinary story was only revealed by a British journalist in 1927. The Daily Telegraph readers' response was overwhelming and culminated in our French heroines being feted on a lavish visit to London's Mansion House and an audience with the King, Queen, Prince of Wales and a three year old Princess Elizabeth.Trapped Behind Enemy Lines covers as aspect of The Great War that has bene overlooked. It will be of interest to those who love intrigue, adventure, love and betrayal.Tracing your Great War Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians (Tracing Your Ancestors)
By Simon Fowler. 2015
Do you have an ancestor who served at Ypres in the First World War, during the four years in which…
the city was in the front line? Perhaps you have thought of visiting the battlefields nearby and the monuments that commemorate them, and want to find out exactly where your ancestor served and what part he played in the four great battles that took place there?So many British soldiers served in Flanders during the long struggle to defend the Ypres Salient and to break out of it that there is a good chance that your ancestor was there at some stage of the war. This practical and informative handbook is an ideal guide to the struggle for the city and the stories of the men who took part in it. It is also a fascinating introduction to researching the Great War as a whole.Simon Fowler outlines the course of the fighting around the city and he introduces the most important historical resources that you can use to explore the history for yourself. The book identifies the key sources for family historians, including at The National Archives and the Imperial War Museum, together with the many resources online that researchers can turn to. There is also advice on the literature, archives, museums and monuments that may help you to gain an insight into your ancestor's story.Peace at Last: A Portrait of Armistice Day, 11 November 1918
By Guy Cuthbertson. 2018
A vivid, intimate hour-by-hour account of Armistice Day 1918, including photographs: “A pleasure to read . . . full of fascinating tidbits.” —The…
Wall Street JournalThis is the first book to focus on the day the armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany, ending World War I. In this rich portrait of Armistice Day, which ranges from midnight to midnight, Guy Cuthbertson brings together news reports, photos, literature, memoirs, and letters to show how the people on the street, as well as soldiers and prominent figures like D. H. Lawrence and Lloyd George, experienced a strange, singular day of great joy, relief, and optimism—and examines how Britain and the wider world reacted to the news of peace.“[A] brilliant portrayal of Britain on the day that peace broke out; when people could believe there was an end to the war to end all wars. He weaves a wonderful tapestry of the mood and events across the country, drawing on a wide range of local and regional newspapers . . . accessible history at its best . . . outstanding.” —The Evening StandardFirst Americans: U.S. Patriotism in Indian Country after World War I
By Thomas Grillot. 2018
The little-known story of how army veterans returning to reservation life after World War I transformed Native American identity. …
Drawing from archival sources and oral histories, Thomas Grillot demonstrates how the relationship between Native American tribes and the United States was reinvented in the years following World War I. During that conflict, twelve thousand Native American soldiers served in the U.S. Army. They returned home to their reservations with newfound patriotism, leveraging their veteran cachet for political power and claiming all the benefits of citizenship—even supporting the termination policy that ended the U.S. government&’s recognition of tribal sovereignty.The Telegraph Book of the First World War: An Anthology of the Telegraph's Writing from the Great War (Telegraph Bks.)
By Gavin Fuller and Michael Wright. 2014
An WWI archive of Great Britain’s Daily Telegraph news coverage reveals how the press influenced public perception of the Great…
War.One hundred years on, the First World War has not lost its power to clutch at the heart. But how much do we really know about the war that would shape the twentieth century? And, all the more poignantly, how much did people know at the time?Today, someone fires a shot on the other side of the world and we read about it online a few seconds later. In 1914, with storm clouds gathering over Europe, wireless telephony was in its infancy. So newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph were, for the British public, their only access to official news about the progress of the war.These reports, many of them eye-witness dispatches, written by correspondents of the Daily Telegraph, bring the WWI to life in an intriguing new way. At times, the effect is terrifying, as accounts of the Somme, Flanders and Gallipoli depict brave and glorious victories, and the distinction between truth and propaganda becomes alarmingly blurred. Some exude a sense of dramatic irony that is almost excruciating, as one catches glimpses of how little the ordinary British people were told during the war of the havoc that was being wrought in their name.Poignant, passionate and shot-through with moments of bleak humour, The Telegraph Book of the First World War is a full account of the war by some of the country’s most brilliant and colourful correspondents, whose reportage shaped the way that the war would be understood for generations to come.Prisoners & Escape: Those Who Were There
By Rachel Bilton. 2017
A wide range of personal experiences are covered in the eleven chapters of this book. Nearly all the stories are…
written by the participants who describe exactly what happened to them during the war. What makes them special is that they were written while the images were fresh in their minds. The experiences recorded are those of civilians and soldiers. Where possible information about these men has been provided to explain their life before and after the war. Also included are rarely seen images that augment the text.The writers tell true stories of spying, escape from certain death, escape from captivity and working for the Germans to help the Allied war effort. Edwin Woodhall describes his work in counter-intelligence, spies, counter-spies and disguises, in the early days of the war. Harold Beaumont tells the dramatic story of his escape through Belgium where he was helped by Nurse Cavell. The hardships and difficulties an escaper faced are detailed by Walter Ellison, who failed to get away, while a successful escape is told by Duncan Grinnell-Milne who returned to flying over the Western Front and quickly found himself in no mans land when his plane crashed. Captain Evans was eventually a successful escaper as was H.G. Durnford who managed to escape the first time. Marthe McKenna, one of the most famous spies in the war, tells of the time she was ordered to investigate and assist in a plot to assassinate the Kaiser. Esmee Sartorius tells of her escape to Holland at the start of the war, and the breath-taking thrills of two men disguised as German officers is told by Lieutenant Marchal. The final story describes how Trooper Potts escaped certain death while rescuing his friend on Burnt Hill in Gallipoli.In the winter of 1915, following the invasion of Serbia by the Central Powers, the Serbian Army retreated across the…
mountains of Albania and Montenegro together with thousands of civilians. Around 240,000 lost their lives. Today, the story of the retreat is little known, except in Serbia where it is represents the heroic Serbian sacrifice in the Great War. In this book Alex Tomić examines the centenary events memorializing the First World War with the retreat at its core, and provides a persuasive account of the ways in which the remembrance of Serbian history has been manipulated for political purposes. Whether through commemorations, ceremonies, or grass- root initiatives, she demonstrates how these have been used as distractions from the more recent unexamined past and in doing so provides an important new perspective on the cultural history of commemoration.The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War
By William Manchester. 1968
The Krupp family were the premier German arms manufacturers from the middle of the 19th century until the end of…
World War II, producing artillery pieces and submarines that set the standard for effectiveness. This book relates the history of this influential company.Sniping in the Great War
By Martin Pegler. 2017
A military history analyzing the evolution of sniper warfare during WWI by the firearms expert and author of Eastern Front…
Sniper. From the sharpshooters of the American Civil War to Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, military snipers are legendary for their marksmanship and effectiveness in battle. The specialized role of the sniper developed among the ranks of the British Army over the course of World War I. As Martin Pegler shows in this wide-ranging study, the technique of sniping adapted rapidly to the conditions of static warfare that prevailed through much of the conflict. Pegler&’s account follows the development of sniping from the early battles of 1914, through the trench fighting and the attritional offensives of the middle years, to the renewed open warfare of 1918. Focusing on the British and German sniping war on the western front, Pegler also looks at how snipers operated at Gallipoli, Salonika, and on the Eastern Front. He also covers sniper training, fieldcraft, and counter-sniping measures in detail. Sniping in the Great War includes a full reference section detailing the sniping rifles of the period and assessing their effectiveness in combat. Also featured are vivid memoirs and eyewitness accounts that offer insight into the lethal skill of Great War snipers and their deadly trade.The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships, 1871–1918
By Aidan Dodson. 2016
This illustrated study of the German Imperial Navy presents a ship-by-ship history from the dreadnaught era through WWI. The battleships…
of the Third Reich have been written about exhaustively, but there is little in English devoted to their predecessors of the Second Reich. In The Kaiser&’s Battlefleet, Aidan Dodson fills this significant gap in German naval history by covering these capital ships and studying the full span of battleship development during this period.Kaiser&’s Battlefleet presents a chronological narrative that features technical details, construction schedules and the ultimate fates of each ship tabulated throughout. With a broad synthesis of German archival research, Dodson provides fresh data and corrects significant errors found in standard English-language texts. Heavily illustrated with line work and photographs drawn from German sources, this study will appeal to historians of WWI German as well as battleship modelmakers.Kitchener's Men: The King's Own Royal Lancasters on the Western Front, 1915–1918
By John Hutton. 2008
In Kitchener's Men John Hutton provides a absorbing account of the raising, training and fighting experiences of the Service and…
Territorial battalions of the Kings Own Royal Lancasters in France during the Great War. His book gives a graphic insight into the daily routine and grim reality of warfare on the Western Front for men who were mostly recruited from the Furness area of the northwest. They came from the steel mills, shipyards and engineering workshops of this heavily industrialized part of Britain. They responded to the call to defend their country and its values at a critical moment in the nations history, and the endured incredible hardship, suffering and violence as a result. All together, these battalions of the King's Own took part in every major campaign on the Western Front from the spring of 1915 until the end of the war. They had a remarkable record, and John Hutton's meticulously researched history allows the reader to follow them through every phase of the fighting. His account makes compelling reading.Loos: French Flanders (Battleground Europe)
By Andrew Rawson. 2003
In September 1915 Kitcherner's men were in action for the first time in the largest offensive of the year. Using…
gas, British troops managed to open a three mile gap in the German line. However, misuse of the reserves allowed the chance of success to pass by. In the following struggle for Hohenzollern Redboubt, the British were defeated time after time by superior weapons and tactics. For the first time visitors will be able to explore this key battle, a battle that cost the BEF over 50,000 casualties.