A Bibliography of British History, 1914-1989

A Bibliography of British History, 1914-1989
Author: Keith Robbins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 962
Release: 1996
Genre: Great Britain
ISBN: 9780198224969

Containing over 25,000 entries, this unique volume will be absolutely indispensable for all those with an interest in Britain in the twentieth century. Accessibly arranged by theme, with helpful introductions to each chapter, a huge range of topics is covered. There is a comprehensiveindex.

Aisne 1914

Aisne 1914
Author: Paul Kendall
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0750959940

The Battle of the Aisne fought in September 1914 introduced a new and savage mode of warfare to the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, their French allies and to the German Army. Both officers and men were trained to fight mobile wars. When they reached the north bank of the Aisne, the ‘Old Contemptibles’ would be stopped by the Germans entrenched on high ground, armed with machine guns and supported by heavy artillery. The British commanders would naively send their troops on futile assaults up slopes devoid of cover to attack the German lines dug in on the ridges along the Chemin des Dames and concealed by woodland. The British did not even have grenades. The BEF suffered 12,000 casualties. Their commanders, who were not trained to fight a modern war, were lost for a solution or even a strategy. It was on the Chemin des Dames that the first trenches of the Western Front were dug and where the line that would stretch from the Swiss frontier to the North Sea began. The Battle of the Aisne saw the dawn of trench warfare and a stalemate that would last for the next four years. Wide-ranging archival research by author Paul Kendall makes this the first in-depth study of the battle in print. His correspondence with surviving relatives of those who fought brings a human face to the terrible casualty statistics that would come to define the trenches.

A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army

A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army
Author: Arthur S. White
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2013-02-04
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 178150539X

This is one of the most valuable books in the armoury of the serious student of British Military history. It is a new and revised edition of Arthur White's much sought-after bibliography of regimental, battalion and other histories of all regiments and Corps that have ever existed in the British Army. This new edition includes an enlarged addendum to that given in the 1988 reprint. It is, quite simply, indispensible.

Kitchener’s Army

Kitchener’s Army
Author: Peter Simkins
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2007-08-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1844155854

Numbering over five million men, Britain's army in the First World War was the biggest in the country's history. Remarkably, nearly half those men who served in it were volunteers. 2,466,719 men enlisted between August 1914 and December 1915, many in response to the appeals of the Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. How did Britain succeed in creating a mass army, almost from scratch, in the middle of a major war ? What compelled so many men to volunteer ' and what happened to them once they had taken the King's shilling ? Peter Simkins describes how Kitchener's New Armies were raised and reviews the main political, economic and social effects of the recruiting campaign. He examines the experiences and impressions of the officers and men who made up the New Armies. As well as analysing their motives for enlisting, he explores how they were fed, housed, equipped and trained before they set off for active service abroad. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, ranging from government papers to the diaries and letters of individual soldiers, he questions long-held assumptions about the 'rush to the colours' and the nature of patriotism in 1914. The book will be of interest not only to those studying social, political and economic history, but also to general readers who wish to know more about the story of Britain's citizen soldiers in the Great War.

The Welsh at War: Through Mud to Victory

The Welsh at War: Through Mud to Victory
Author: Steven John
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 518
Release: 2018-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526700379

Welsh at War From Mons to Loos and the Gallipoli Tragedy is the culmination of twelve years of painstaking research by the author into the the Welsh men and infantry units who fought in the Great War.These units included the four regular regiments the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, South Wales Borderers Welsh Regiment and Welsh Guards as well as the Territorial Monmouthshire Regiment, the Yeomanry regiments, the Denbighshire Hussars, Pembroke Yeomanry, Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, Glamorgan Yeomanry and Welsh Horse Yeomanry and their amalgamation into service battalions for the regular regiments during 1917.Welsh troops fought with great courage in every theater of the war the Western Front, Aden, China, Gallipoli, Egypt, India, Italy, Salonika and in Palestine and as well as the casualties who were suffered during these campaigns, many men gained recognition for acts of gallantry.The book covers all of the major actions and incidents in which each of the Welsh infantry regiments took part from the opening of the war in 1914 until the end of 1915, as well as stories of Welsh airmen, Welshmen shot at dawn, Welsh rugby players who fell, Welsh gallantry winners and the Welshmen who died in non-Welsh units, such as the Dominion forces and other units of the British Armed Forces.While chronicling a history of the war through the events and battles that Welshmen took part in, the stories of individual casualties are included throughout, together with many compelling photographs of the men and their last resting places.

The Somme

The Somme
Author: Robin Prior
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2016-04-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300220294

Published in a new edition on the centenary of the seismic battle, this book provides the definitive account of the Somme and assigns responsibility to military and political leaders for its catastrophic outcome. “A magisterial piece of scholarship. . . . It is a model of historical research and should do much to further our understanding of the Great War and how it was fought.”—Contemporary Review “Revisionist history at its best.”—Library Journal (starred review) “A major addition to the literature on the military history of the Great War.”—Jay Winter

The British Army and the First World War

The British Army and the First World War
Author: Ian Beckett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 485
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316824543

This is a major new history of the British army during the Great War written by three leading military historians. Ian Beckett, Timothy Bowman and Mark Connelly survey operations on the Western Front and throughout the rest of the world as well as the army's social history, pre-war and wartime planning and strategy, the maintenance of discipline and morale and the lasting legacy of the First World War on the army's development. They assess the strengths and weaknesses of the army between 1914 and 1918, engaging with key debates around the adequacy of British generalship and whether or not there was a significant 'learning curve' in terms of the development of operational art during the course of the war. Their findings show how, despite limitations of initiative and innovation amongst the high command, the British army did succeed in developing the effective combined arms warfare necessary for victory in 1918.