First World War Books

Book SynopsisThe horrors of the Western Front are widely known, but what was life like on 'the other side of the trenches' in World War I? Helen McPhail here shows how the rich agricultural and industrial areas of northern France were invaded by the Germans, then occupied and exploited by them, between the summer of 1914 and the Armistice in November 1918. Factories were stripped, household furniture and fittings requisitioned, food supplies taken, the population mistreated and malnourished and even taken to forced labour camps - the people lived in terror. Starvation loomed and contact with the outside world vanished. Based on original sources, including diaries, letters and journals, this fascinating account describes how - in the struggle to survive - French civilians responded in ways familiar in World War II: escape networks, espionage, producing clandestine newspapers and attempting to help British soldiers trapped behind enemy lines. It provides a unique viewpoint on a forgotten aspect of World War I.Trade Review'Revealing on both historical and domestic levels; it is full of odd insights and careful thought, and it is moving, too, in its recollection of a tragic and often forgotten experience of the French people.' - The Daily Telegraph 'a poignant and sensitive account' - Robert Gildea 'This richly documented account is to be highly commended and deserves to be widely read.' - European Business ReviewTable of ContentsIllustrations Chronology Acknowledgements Introduction Invasion Occupation Food Requisitions and Regulations Secrets ‘My Girl Guides’ ‘The Will of the German Authority’ Liberation Rebuilding Appendix 1 Industrial and Agricultural Production Lost through German Occupation Appendix 2 Agricultural Losses Appendix 3 The Legacy f War Appendix 4. The Cost of Reparation Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDuring the Great War eight battalions of the regiment went on active service and another seven (including 1st Garrison Battalion) served at home. No less than 32,000 men passed through the ranks of the regiment of whom some 6,000 died; forty-eight battle honours were awarded and one VC. Appendices contain separate rolls of honour of officers and other ranks with names grouped alphabetically by ranks; all ranks list of honours and awards and foreign awards, and separate lists of Mention in Despatches. The 1st, 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions served on the Western Front, the 2nd Battalion in Macedonia with 28th Division following ten months in France and Belgium, the 1/4th in India and Aden, 1/5th in India and Mesopotamia and finally the 10th Battalion (formed in Egypt in Feb 1917 from two converted Kent yeomanry regiments) fought in Palestine and on the Western Front with 74th (Yeomanry) Division.Apart from one chapter describing the raising of wartime battalions and the initial disposition of the two TF battalions, and one on their affiliated regiment, the Queen''s Own Rifles of Canada, the chapters of this history each cover well-defined periods of the war in the various theatres in which the parts played by all battalions involved are recorded. The groundwork or skeleton is based on battalion, brigade or divisional war diaries, fleshed out by personal narratives and diaries provided by men who had fought and survived. Where possible, the names of the officers who became casualties in any action are given in the text after the record of the battle, but only the number in the case of other ranks. Again, wherever possible the recipients of honours (all ranks) have been named in the account as news of their decorations reached their battalion. A good history.

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Book SynopsisGerman submarine operations in the First World War had an inauspicious start, with the Uboats having apparently no role to play in the war at sea. However by February 1915 their task was clear: a blockade of the United KingdomThis important book contains a complete history of the German Uboat campaign throughout the First World War and shows in great detail how great the threat to the Atlantic logistics and, later, personnel traffic was. The British Admiralty failed to appreciate this threat, and the Germans took full advantage of this, until the convoy system was finally applied in 1917, on the insistence of British Prime Minister Lloyd George.Importantly the book gives details of both overall strategy and individual boat tactics, and is one of the few such books generally available. In addition appendices look at the success of the convoy system and give a history of German submarine design 1904-1914. There are also details of German submarine construction and losses, German ''Aces'' and merchant ship sinkings, together with details of Austro-Hungarian and Turkish submarines.This is an essential book for naval historians, and is well illustrated with naval charts and photographs.

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Book SynopsisThis final volume of the history of the Merchant Navy takes us from the onset of unrestricted submarine warfare to the conclusion of hostilities, and its prime concern is to give an account of the ordeal to which the seamen were subjected in the last twenty months of the war. But it also gives a good account of how the Merchant Navy took the war to the enemy through the 10th Cruiser Squadron and the Auxiliary Patrol, and in surface engagements involving British armed merchant cruisers. The losses to British merchant shipping make grim reading. For the five months from February 1917 (the start of intensive U boat operations) to the end of June 1,837,842 tons (590 ships) were lost at a cost of 2,942 lives; April was the worst month of the war with 516,394 tons (155 ships) sunk by submarines and 997 lives lost. During this period the convoy system was introduced and developed and problems and successes are discussed as well as other steps taken to combat the menace of the U boat and mine: the hydrophone; the depth charge; dazzle painting and its effect; the paravane; the smoke screen and the tactics of stalking and hunting. The German attitude to Hospital ships in light of the Berlin Declaration of 28 January 1917 is discussed. This declaration is reproduced in full and the British response to accusations of misuse of ships sailing under the Red Cross. Several sinkings of hospital ships are described, that of the Llandovery Castle on 27 June 1918 (only 24 survivors out of 258) in great detail. There is a chapter on merchant seamen prisoners, their treatment, the camps where and the conditions in which they were held. An appendix shows the number and gross tonnage of British merchant vessels and fishing vessels lost through enemy action during each month of the war, the final total of merchant ships is 2,479, gross tonnage 7,759,090, with a loss of 14,287 men. Six hundred and seventy-five fishing vessels were lost (71,765 gross tonnage) at a cost of 434 lives.

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Book SynopsisEx-Private X is the pseudonym of Alfred McClelland Burrage , author, who served with 1/28th London Regiment (Artists Rifles), 190th Brigade, 63rd (RN) Division. Since the end of 1914 the battalion had acted as an Officers Training Corps and out of 15000 who served in the battalion 10250 were commissioned. Private X was an unsuccessful candidate. He joined his unit at Hesdin in early 1917 where it formed part of GHQ Troops, but from the summer of 1917 potential officers were trained in the UK and 1/28th became an ordinary infantry battalion. His front line service began in July 1917 when the battalion joined the 63rd Division which was then occupying the Oppy and Gavrelle sectors; in October it moved north to the salient where Third Ypres was in full swing. There are graphic descriptions of the conditions and the fighting during the attack on Passchendaele alongside the Canadians on 30th October which cost the battalion 350 casualties. Two months later there was more fierce fighting at Welch Ridge following the German successful counter-attack at Cambrai battle and again in the early days of the German March offensive But his gift with the pen also resulted in attacks, at times vitriolic, on troops behind the lines, especially the Military Police, the staff and the generals. Nor did he care for the Australians. To quote one example from the book, in which he is referring to the military police, he writes: "The military police were a nice crowd, too. The only good word I have to say for the Australians is that they killed a lot of these swine; but they didn''t kill half enough." The New Zealanders on the other hand he really liked and admired. His war ended on 7th April when he was sent back suffering with trench feet and was invalided home. While waiting in hospital he spoke to a Warrant Officer asking him if he could get him marked for England. "I can," the WO replied, "and that will cost you two pounds." Unfortunately Burrage didn''t have it, so he had to wait on - till 14th April when he started his journey home.

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Book Synopsis1/4th Hallamshire Bn of the Y & L (Yorks and Corks), the senior Territorial battalion of the Regiment, was based in Doncaster where it was fortuitously assembled, having just completed annual training, when war broke out.The battalion was part of 3rd West Riding Brigade, West Riding Division, later 148th Brigade, 49th Division; it remained in the same brigade and division throughout the war. In April 1915 the division arrived in France, the fourth TF division to join the BEF, and nominal roll of battalion officers embarking is given. Only two of them (and the RSM) were still with the battalion when it advanced into Germany in February 1919 as part of the Army of the Rhine.In the opening chapter the author notes that the task of the Battalion and of the division was more often to "stand and wait" in the trenches than to engage in the more widely-known and spectacular attacks of the war. They certainly had their fill of the Ypres salient. By the end of the first year in France, in April 1916, the total casualties amounted to 126 killed and 453 wounded. By the end the total dead numbered some 750 all ranks. The narrative provides a good account of the battalion''s experiences with frequent mentions of individuals, casualties and awards. Most useful is the fact that each page is headed with the date (month and year). There is a list of awards in the appendix and there is an index. There is one ''howler'' which needs to be corrected: in the preface by the brigade commander (R.L.Adlercron) he refers to ''50th Canadian Division'', there was no such division; he means the 50th Canadian Infantry Battalion

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Book SynopsisOtto Liman von Sanders (1855 - 1929) will always be associated with the Dardanelles campaign in which he commanded the Turkish Fifth Army, the army that defended Gallipoli, defeated the allied invasion and, after a campaign lasting some eight months (April-December 1915) forced the Allies to give up and withdraw. He was a cavalry officer who was commanding the German 22nd Division in Cassel when, in June 1913, he was offered the post of Chief of a German Military Mission in Turkey: he accepted and took up his post in December of that year and took over command of the Turkish First Army Corps, in Constantinople. Three months later, March 1914, he was given command of the Turkish Fifth Army defending Gallipoli and as such his version of events is of considerable interest to the history of that campaign. He later (1918) commanded the combined Turkish/German Yilderim force in Palestine where he was defeated by the greatly superior forces of Allenby. This account is based on notes written up in Malta where he was detained for some six months in 1919 before being permitted to return to Germany.

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Book SynopsisThe 2/20th Battalion was formed on 3 September 1914 and was allocated to 180th Brigade of the 60th (2/2nd London) Division with which it served till May 1918. The division went to France in June 1916 and served five months on the Western Front before being transferred to Salonika until June 1917 when it was again moved, this time to Palestine with the EEF. In May 1918 the battalion left the 60th Division in Palestine and returned to France, where it was attached briefly (three weeks) to 66th Division before being transferred to 185th Brigade, 62nd (2/West Riding) Division with which it saw out the war and with which it marched into Germany, the only Territorial division to be part of the Occupation Force.The 2/20th Bn''s war service in three different theatres makes this a specially interesting history, culminating as it does with the occupation of the Rhineland. This is an example of an excellent battalion history, intended primarily as a souvenir, an aid to memory for all who served in the battalion, a battalion fortunate enough to keep the same CO throughout the whole of its active service from arrival in France to demob in July 1919. The author has provided a comprehensive account of the battalion''s experiences, full of incident and one in which, bearing in mind his primary consideration, he has named many officers, NCOs and men as the story unfolds, an aspect most welcome to family historians, genealogists and medallists. There is a Roll of Honour for each theatre with names of the dead listed chronologically in each, regardless of rank. Total casualties amounted to 49 officers and 1313 other ranks of whom 18 and 331 were dead. Only six members of the battalion were taken prisoner. Appendices give the list of Honours and Awards; the nominal roll of officers who embarked with the battalion in June 1916 and what became of them; the nominal roll of WOs and sergeants who embarked in June 1916 including those started out at a lower rank but subsequently became sergeants - and what became of them; a list of the officers who joined the battalion overseas with date of joining and leaving (if they did) and why they left; and a similar list for WOs and sergeants. A final appendix describes the presentation of a King''s Colour to the battalion by HRH Prince Albert (later George VI) in April 1920, arranged to coincide with the unveiling of the war memorial. Highly recommended.

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Book SynopsisAn interesting and informative memoir which was written by an officer who went to France in 1914 with the 2nd Bn and who served throughout its time on the Western Front. He commanded the Bn during the battles at Aubers, Festubert and Loos and his account bear the stamp of authority.At the outbreak of war and leaving aside the Gurkha regiments, the 39th Garhnal Rifles were the only Regiment of the Indian Army to have two regular Bns. Both were swiftly committed to the early battles in France and Flanders and both suffered horrendous losses. Honours and awards, list of British Officers (with war services), copies of various operational orders, notes on trenches.

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