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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 Third Ypres 1917 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.Miners' Battalion: A History of the 12th (Pioneers) King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 1914–1918
Par Malcolm Keith Johnson. 2017
The true nature and functions of a pioneer battalion were never fully understood during the war either by military or…
laymen. Pioneers pioneers, mused a red-hatted Staff Captain to me the other day. Sort of labor battalion, arent you? We sure are! I agreed. These words, written by Captain R. Ede England, who served with 12th King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry during the whole of the Great War, are as true today as they were when he wrote the original history of the battalion in the early 1920s. Little is known, or understood, of the contribution made by the many thousands of men who served with the original Pioneer battalions. Building and repairing roads, bridges, railway lines, gun emplacements, and laying barbed wire to protect the Front Line, were just some of the tasks that they performed on a regular basis. Fortunately, the subject of the British Armys logistical support in the war zone during the new industrialized warfare that developed between 1914 and 1918 is now being examined in greater detail. Miners Battalion, A History of the 12th (Pioneers) Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 1914-1918 follows the battalion throughout the war and shows how the men, mainly Yorkshire miners, applied their civilian skills to the purposes of war. It also reveals that in 1918, when forced to fight as infantrymen, the battalion performed with distinction, gaining the nickname, 'the Yorkshire Guards'.This extensively annotated wartime diary illuminates the military service of Leslie Howard Miller (1889–1979), a Canadian soldier who served in…
the First World War. Miller joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in 1914. In his off-duty hours, he kept this extraordinarily eloquent diary of his training, deployment overseas, service on the Western Front, and periods of leave in the United Kingdom. Graham Broad, working from a transcription of the diary produced by Miller’s family, includes a thorough introduction and afterword, as well as over 500 notes that situate and explain Miller’s many references to the people, places, and events he encountered. Unpublished for over a century, written in bracing and engaging prose, and illustrated with Miller’s own drawings and unseen photographs, Part of Life Itself illuminates a bygone world and stands as one of Canada’s most important wartime diaries.The Road to En-dor: A True Story Of Cunning Wartime Escape
Par Neil Gaiman, E. H. Jones. 2014
The incredible true story of two WWI POWs who used amateur magic to convince their captors that they were in…
touch with the spirit worldCaptured during World War I, Lieutenant E. H. Jones, a Welsh officer in the Indian Army, and Lieutenant C. W. Hill, an Australian serving in the R.A.F., were prisoners of war at the Yozgad prison camp in Turkey. Duty-bound as officers to attempt to escape, Jones sensed that what had previously been the harmless fun of fooling around with a homemade Ouija board could be turned into something much more productive. Playing on the credulous nature of their captors, Hill and Jones weaved an incredibly elaborate plot, hatched to plan their escape. Acting as mediums for the Ouija board, they attempted to convince their captors that they were gradually descending into insanity—which, had it been true, would have seen them repatriated. A true story of bravery, dedication, and extreme hardship, this book is a fascinating insight account of a daring escapade. As well as containing astonishing original materials including photographs, letters, and postcards, the book contains a preface by the author's grandson, as well as a foreword by Neil Gaiman who is linked to a film which is currently in pre-production. A free companion ebook is available to download from the Hesperus website (www.hesperuspress.com/the-road-to-en-dor) which includes back stories on the characters, maps, letters,and coded messages; and an exclusive short story written by Jones.This splendid and timely book will be invaluable to those visiting the battlefields, sites, museums, memorials and cemeteries of France…
and Belgium. It is intended for those planning and leading school groups and similar parties but is also ideal for individual/family visitors.Rather than list every site etc it provides realistic itineraries to the best places in the two major areas of the Somme and Ypres. Even these are flexible to allow party leaders suitable discretion.The author provides helpful information for each site such as its context in the War, visitor orientation, the 'spiel' (the essential facts to engage, inform and entertain), suggested activity and relevant photos and maps.This combines to make every visit of maximum benefit and interest and yet reduce the workload of the party leaders.There are also valuable tips for lunch breaks, free time ideas and other helpful pointers.Watford and South West Herts in the Great War (Your Towns & Cities in the Great War)
Par Eugenia Russell, Quentin Russell. 2015
This book highlights the importance of Watford as a regional centre within South West Herts during the years of the…
Great War as well as the cohesion of the local area and the impact events and initiatives had on the entire region. The organization and presence of the Army are discussed before focusing on different aspects of civilian life such as the contribution of civilians to the war effort, the Police and Fire Service, the role of Churches, Schools and the Press and changes in employment and local businesses. As the War wore on and the magnitude of the sacrifice sunk in, hospitals and charities became more prominent. The latter part of the book presents these as well as the many public and private ways of commemorating the War Dead in the aftermath of the conflict. The distinctiveness of such Memorials reflects the legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the artistic communities resident in Bushey and Watford.Sister Janet: Nurse & Heroine of the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879
Par Katie Stossel, Brian Best. 2006
Janet Well's achievements make for fascinating reading. She was only 18 when decorated for her nursing service to the Russians…
in the 1878 Balkan War. The following year she became the only nurse to serve at the Front in the Anglo Zulu War. After a period in Northern Zululand she was sent to the garrison at Rorke' Drift very soon after the legendary action. Revered by the soldiers, she had to make do in appalling conditions with scant supplies. She overcame extreme difficulties and prejudice despite her youth. After returning to England in time for her 20th birthday, her achievements were recognized by the award of the Royal Red Cross - the highest accolade and the equivalent of the Victoria Cross. This is a gripping tale of a true heroine who refused to accept the conventions of the age and in so doing made a huge contribution to the welfare of the British Army.Germany's High Sea Fleet in the World War
Par Reinhard Scheer. 2014
Anglo-German naval rivalry before 1914 had been expected to culminate in a cataclysmic fleet action in the North Sea once…
war was declared, a battle upon which the outcome of the war would depend: yet the two fleets met only once, at Jutland in 1916, and the battle was far from conclusive. In his own account of the war in the North Sea, first published in 1920, Admiral Scheer, the German commander at Jutland, gives his own explanation for the failure of either fleet to achieve the decisive victory expected of it, particularly the failure of his own operation plans that resulted in the battle of Jutland. This book is an invaluable account of one of the most important theatres of the First World War, written by one of its most senior commanders.Colchester in the Great War (Your Towns & Cities in the Great War)
Par Andrew Phillips. 2017
Few towns equalled Colchester in their role in the Great War. In this expert account, Colchester historian Andrew Phillips records…
four of the most dramatic years in the towns history.As Headquarters of Eastern Region, Colchesters garrison supplied many of the men who prevented the early defeat of France. The town then became a training area for at least 100,000 recruits. While training, guns on the Western Front could often be heard.At times Colchesters civilian population of 40,000 was equalled by 40,000 troops, who often billeted with local families or housed in large tent cities, which then became hut cities. With 20,000 troops to feed on average, long food queues became a daily experience until rationing was introduced, and soon thousands of requisitioned horses, trucks, artillery pieces and munitions were also assembled in the town.As the war took its deadly toll, Colchester became one vast hospital as the wounded arrived by train. An enlarged garrison hospital, an enlarged civilian hospital and six Red Cross Hospitals nursed at least 110,000 men. Colchester women made huge quantities of bandages, splints and gowns to alleviate the suffering of the war wounded. Colchester factories produced uniforms, guns, shells, mines, compressors and engines. Paxmans, the largest firm of the town, produced a staggering 20 million precision-machined parts. Over 10 per cent of Colchesters adult men died in the conflict, the highest in eastern England and twice the national average. Small wonder the town built one of the finest civic war memorials in England.Chelmsford in the Great War (Your Towns & Cities in the Great War)
Par Jonathan Swan. 2015
Almost 400 men from the Chelmsford were lost in the Great War. This book explores how the experience of war…
impacted on the Town, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Chelmsford were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. A record of the growing disillusion of the people, their tragedies and hardships and a determination to see it through. The Great War affected everyone. At home there were wounded soldiers in military hospitals, refugees from Belgium and later on German prisoners of war. There were food and fuel shortages and disruption to schooling. The role of women changed dramatically and they undertook a variety of work undreamed of in peacetime. Meanwhile, men serving in the armed forces were scattered far and wide. Extracts from contemporary letters reveal their heroism and give insights into what it was like under battle conditions.Using original personal and military diaries, with hundreds of carefully selected newspaper extracts, letters and photographs, this book traces individual…
stories of tragedy and heroism, involving tradesmen, apprentices, lawyers, musicians, sportsmen, brothers, husbands and fathers from Harrogate and the West Riding. As such, it characterises the experience of the British Infantryman in the Great War.The Territorials of the 1/5th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment were the unsung heroes of the Great War. These Saturday Night Soldiers from York and the northern West Riding of Yorkshire went out to face the might of the German Army in April 1915. Through the hot summer and dark winter that followed, they stopped bullets at the Battle of Aubers Ridge and choked on Phosgene gas at Ypres. Caught in the carnage of the notorious first day on the Somme, the West Yorkshire Territorials were held up by General Haig as convenient scapegoats for his tactical failure, only for the 1/5th Battalion to prove him wrong and redeem itself as an attacking force at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, and then again at Passchendaele in 1917. In the last year of the war, the battalion helped fight a rear-guard action on the Menin Road, and was effectively wiped out at the Second Battle of Kemmel Ridge, only to be re-constituted in time to take part in the bloody advances at Cambrai and Valenciennes, which helped bring the conflict to an end.Wigan in the Great War (Your Towns & Cities in the Great War)
Par Stephen McGreal. 2016
On 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. Originally perceived as a short campaign to curtail Germanic imperialism, it…
developed into a catastrophic four-year-long war of attrition. The First World War is justifiably associated with the horrors of trench warfare and the death of a generation, but history has overlooked the Home Fronts colossal contribution to victory.Shortly after the declaration of war, Lord Kitchener appealed for recruits for a new citizens army. Within four months 4,360 men from Wigan alone responded to the call, and by September 1914, the districts 5th Manchester Territorial Battalion were in Egypt. Everyday life altered immeasurably after the men left for war, those too old for military service worked in munitions factories, joined a Dads Army or dug for victory. The conflagration changed the political and social make up of Britain, allowing most women to escape a life of drudgery by filling occupations vacated by army recruits. The furtherance of the war effort involved every civilian from school age upwards in fundraising for hospital equipment and groceries, ambulances and the provision of a diverse range of home comforts for those at the Front. Compiled predominately from contemporary newspaper and first-hand accounts, this is the first book to deal specifically with the contribution to victory made by the townspeople of Wigan and the nearby district.Horses of the Great War: The Story in Art
Par John Fairley. 2015
Horses of the Great War explains the contribution of countless innocent houses using superb contemporary painting by artists such as…
Sir John Lavery, Sir Alfred Munnings and Stanley Spencer. These works supported by informed commentary tell how the horses were rounded up; how the cavalry halted the German advance in 1914 and again in 1918; how the turks were overwhelmed in the deserts of Palestine and Arabia. Most significantly the Western Front relied on horses for supply of everything from shells and ammunition to food and water in atrocious and perilous conditions. While the vets kept the surviving horses alive and well, in the end, vast numbers were slaughtered or sold.Rotherham in the Great War (Your Towns & Cities in the Great War)
Par Margaret Drinkall. 2014
Many Rotherham men had never fired a shot in their lives before they enlisted, to fight in what quickly became…
known as the Great War. Some of them had never travelled further than Sheffield or Doncaster and had only used lathes and ploughshares, prior to conscription. Now those same men were suddenly thrust into the mayhem of battlefields, trenches, violence and destruction. Whilst fathers, brother and sons were fighting abroad, Rotherham townspeople, found themselves in the midst of anti-German riots which took place on the weekend of Friday 14th May 1915. Violence and revenge was turned towards former neighbours and friends who were of German origin, even though they had lived peaceably in the town for many years. Reports of attacks by zeppelins resulted, not in local people taking shelter as was recommended, but rather taking to the fields and parks, often lifting children out of their beds to view these 'monsters' of the sky. The few lucky men and women who returned back to the town, found that life in Rotherham would never be the same again.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 1917 to Third Ypres 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.Givenchy in the Great War: A Village on the Front Line, 1914–1918
Par Phil Tomaselli. 2017
The village of Givenchy-ls-la-Basse sits on a small rise in the Pas de Calais Department in northern France. One hundred…
years ago it was overtaken by the First World War. The fighting there was intense eleven Victoria Crosses were won in this tiny locality between 1914 and 1918. Phil Tomasellis in-depth account shows what happened at Givenchy when it became a battlefield, and the story here was repeated in the other villages and towns on the Western Front. Givenchys key position made it the target for crushing bombardments, infantry assaults and subterranean warfare. The landscape was pulverized by shellfire, the ground beneath was honeycombed with tunnels. Mining operations, shelling, sniping and trench raids took place around the remains of the village even when this stretch of the front line was relatively quiet. The grueling struggle of attrition that characterized the fighting on the Western Front continued here throughout the war. Phil Tomasellis gripping narrative makes extensive use of war diary extracts, personal stories, official and unofficial histories.Guiseley Terriers: A History of the 1/6th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment
Par Stephen Barber. 2018
After the Battle of the Lys in April 1918, Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig said of the 147th (Territorial) Brigade:'I desire…
to express my appreciation of the very valuable and gallant services performed by troops of the 49th (West Riding) Division since the entry of the 147th Brigade into the Battle of Armentires. The courage and determination showed by this division has played no small part in checking the enemys advance and I wish to convey to General Cameron and all the officers and men under his command my thanks for all they have done.'In April 1918, the Saturday night soldiers from Bingley, Guiseley, Haworth, Keighley, Settle and Skipton halted the German advance at a critical time in the war during the German spring offensive. Haigs Backs to the Wall order had just been issued when the 1/6th Duke of Wellingtons Regiment was sent to the front-line at Armentires. After nearly four years at the front, they had been transformed from part-time enthusiastic amateurs to battle hardened veterans, having fought in some of the Great War's major battles, including suffering the effects of mustard gas at Nieuport. It was a source of pride to the men of the battalion that they had never given up ground to the enemy, unless ordered to by a higher authority, and only then reluctantly.Using newspaper archives, war diary extracts, personal accounts and previously unpublished photographs, Stephen Barber retraces the formation and history of the 1/6th Duke of Wellingtons Regiment from the creation of the Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1860, to its mobilisation in the Great War. A day-by-day account of their movements and actions over the four-year period culminates in the pursuit of the retreating German Army at Famars, on 1 November 1918.Norfolk Coast in the Great War focuses on the trials and joys, the achievements and disappointments, the humor and the…
sadness of everyday life in a region living on the edge of the country at the heart of the Kings vast Empire. Everyone from the folk who went off to fight, to scouts and schoolchildren, had a role to play in this coastline that had, since the time of the Spanish Armada, been considered a likely place for an enemy invasion. There were days of great tension, even terror, such as on the day of the first bombardment of the coast by the German Navy, and the day of Zeppelin attacks and dog fights out to sea when the flimsy planes of a fledgling RAF took on the Red Baron and his comrades.This unique study is based largely on original archive material, much of it never before published in book form. It is accompanied by many rare and fascinating photographs that show the day-to-day life of the people who lived in the many settlements on the coast and just inland. In addition, this book also gives an itinerary for a walk along the 46 mile stretch of the coast from Hunstanton to Cromer, taking in many of the places discussed and giving views that are exactly the same as they were 100 years ago.Lost Wings of WWI: Downed Airmen on the Western Front, 1914–1918
Par Martin W. Bowman. 2014
This new publication from eminent military historian Martin Bowman chronicles the stories of airmen downed on the Western Front between…
1914 and 1918, representing a contribution on the author's part to the 100th anniversary of the Great War. It's speciality focus makes for a truly unique compendium of visceral First World War accounts of the incredible, bloody, aerial battles flown by the RFC, German, American, British and Commonwealth pilots shot down over the Western Front, also including stories of their escapes and lives in PoW camps. Whilst the predominant focus is on the airmen who saw action during the Great War, the author also provides startling tales of female heroism. There is a full chapter dedicated to the life and death of Norfolk heroine, Edith Cavell, a Norwich-born nurse who saved the lives of hundreds of soldiers from both sides during the conflict, and perished in the endeavour. Amongst the famous pilots covered are; VCs Billy Bishop and Freddie West; Dice-with-Death Dallas; Mannock The King of the Fighter Aces and Frank Luke the Balloon Buster. This book contains vivid accounts of some of the most heroic actions in the history of aerial warfare, all taking place within the brutal four year stretch of the Great War.Aisne 1918 (Battleground North West France)
Par David Blanchard. 2015
This battlefield guide and history will focus mainly on the events of attack that fell on the British sector of…
the front between the 27th 1st June 1918, although the offensive which also befell the French forces will not be totally neglected. This area had been a French held sector since 1915 and the French had fought one of its major engagements of the war here in 1917, the ill-fated Nivelle Offensive. French monuments and cemeteries dominate the landscape. The British were also here in 1914, and they too have left reminders of their relative brief presence. However, the actions fought here early in the war tend to be found mainly to the west of the sector. The battlefield of May 1918 scales the heights of the Chemin des Dames ridge, along the Californe Plateau and descends to afforested valley of the Aisne river and canal. The retreat of the Britsh forces during the course of the first day and in following days extends further south almost to the Marne and takes in part of the Champagne region.