The Retreat from Mons 1914: North

The Retreat from Mons 1914: North
Author: Jon Cooksey
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2014-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473835003

Mons to the Marne, the latest volume in Pen & Sword's Battle Lines series of walking, cycling and driving guides to the Western Front, is the essential companion for every visitor who is keen to retrace the path taken by the British Expeditionary Force immediately after the outbreak of the First World War. All the most famous battle sites of the Great Retreat are featured here. Expert guides Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland take visitors over a series of routes that can be walked or biked or driven, explaining the fighting that occurred in each place in vivid detail. They describe what happened, where it happened, and why, and who was involved, and point out the sights that remain there for the visitor to see. Their highly illustrated guidebook is essential reading for visitors who wish enhance their understanding of the fast-moving campaign that preceded the war in the trenches. It gives a fascinating insight into the experience of the troops, the terrain over which they fought and the character of fighting itself.As featured in the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald.

Mons

Mons
Author: John Terraine
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2000-01-17
Genre: Mons, 1st Battle of, Mons, Belgium, 1914
ISBN: 9781840222432

Twice in the 20th century, a British Expeditionary Force has taken the field in Northern France to fight beside the French Army. Twice, the Expeditionary Force has survived threat of complete destruction. But the differences between the Retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 and the first encounter with the enemy at Mons in 1914 are significant.

Retreat of I Corps 1914

Retreat of I Corps 1914
Author: Jerry Murland
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 141
Release: 2014-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1783463732

On 23 August 1914 it was only the two divisions of General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps that were directly engaged with the German First Army along the line of the Mons-Conde Canal. As the British Expeditionary Force withdrew from Mons and bivouacked around Bavay on 25 August, Sir John French and his GHQ advisors _ unsure of the condition of the routes through the Fort de Mormal - ordered the British Expeditionary Force to continue their retirement the next day and to avoid the 35 square miles of forest roads. Consequently II Corps used the roads to the west of the Fort de Mormal and Sir Douglas Haig's I Corps those to the east _ with the intention that the four divisions should meet again at Le Cateau. It was an intention that was ambushed by circumstance as I Corps encountered units of the German 7th Division at Landrecies on 25/26 August. Unsure of the weight of the German attack at Landrecies, Douglas Haig hurriedly left for Grand Fayt and ordered his two divisions to immediately begin their retirement along a route that would take them west of Le Cateau. It was this decision that kept the by now five divisions of the BEF apart until 1 September and is the subject of this book. I Corps was now coming under attack from the German Second Army and the resulting rearguard actions that Haig's men were involved in are covered in this volume:

Breaking the Fortress Line, 1914

Breaking the Fortress Line, 1914
Author: Clayton Donnell
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2013-10-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473830125

Breaking the Fortress Line 1914 offers a fascinating new perspective on the German offensive against France and Belgium in 1914. In graphic detail it describes the intense fighting that took place around the forts and fortified cities that stood in the path of the German invasion. The ordeal began with the German assault on the mighty fortress of Lige. They took twelve days to batter their way through the 'Gateway to Belgium', losing thousands of men in repeated frontal assaults, and they had to bring up the heaviest siege artillery ever used to destroy the defences.This is the epic struggle that Clayton Donnell depicts in this compelling account of a neglected aspect of the battles that followed the outbreak of the Great War. Not only does he reconstruct the German attack on the strongpoints they encountered along the entire invasion line, but he traces the history and design of these fixed defences and analyses the massive military building programmes undertaken by the French, the Germans and the Belgians between 1871 and 1914. Thousands of huge forts, infantry strongpoints, bunkers, casemates and shelters were dug out along the French and German borders. The German Moselstellung and Steinbruch-stellung were born. These massive concrete fortress systems with steel gun turrets and diesel motors to generate electricity were a completely new concept of fortress design.As war approached, France and Germany devised plans to overcome each other's powerful armies and these border defences. The French plan avoided contact with the German fortress system. But the Kaiser's army faced twelve forts at Lige, nine more at Namur, and then the strongpoints of the first and second Sr de Rivires lines. Clayton Donnell provides a gripping narrative of the violent confrontation that followed.

Underground Warfare 1914-1918

Underground Warfare 1914-1918
Author: Simon Jones
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: World War, 1914-1918
ISBN: 9781844159628

Simon Jones's graphic history of underground warfare during the Great War uses personal reminiscences to convey the danger and suspense of this unconventional form of conflict. He describes how the underground soldiers of the opposing armies engaged in a ruthless fight for supremacy, covers the tunneling methods they employed, and shows the increasingly lethal tactics they developed during the war in which military mining reached its apotheosis. He concentrates on the struggle for ascendancy by the British tunneling companies on the Western Front. But his wide ranging study also tells the story of the little known but fascinating subterranean battles fought in the French sectors of the Western Front and between the Austrians and the Italians in the Alps which have never been described before in English. Vivid personal testimony is combined with a lucid account of the technical challenges - and ever-present perils - of tunneling in order to give an all-round insight into the extraordinary experience of this underground war. AUTHOR: Simon Jones is a military historian and battlefield tour guide who specializes in the First World War. He has made a particular study of gas warfare and tunneling. Previously he was exhibitions officer at the Royal Engineers Museum and curator of the King's Regiment Museum. His publications include World War I Gas Warfare Tactics and Equipment as well as articles in Military Illustrated, the Imperial War Museum Review and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He is currently working on a book on tunneling on the Somme. SELLING POINTS: * Reassesses the impact of underground warfare on the course of the Great War * Uses vivid eyewitness accounts to recreate the experience of underground warfare * Traces the development of tunneling and mining techniques * Looks at the subterranean tactics practiced by the British, Germans, French, Austrians, Italians * Sets Great War tunneling in the longer context of military history ILLUSTRATIONS 15/20 photogrpahs *

Great War Railwaymen

Great War Railwaymen
Author: Jeremy Higgins
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2015-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1910500097

The railways were intrinsic to fighting the First World War, whether at home or abroad. On the Western Front and beyond trains ferried men and supplies to and from the front on a staggering scale, ensuring that the war machine functioned without pause. Back in Britain, the railway network shipped millions of tonnes of war material from the factories to the ports, becoming the lifeblood of the war effort. Great War Railwaymen details this incredible achievement, exploring not only the vast infrastructure, but also those who operated it. Despite the importance of the railways, many of those involved in the industry went off to fight in the mud and trenches, on the world's oceans, or in the skies above war torn Europe. Between them, they were awarded 2500 Military medals, 44 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 27 Military Crosses and 6 Victoria Crosses. This is their story. Meticulously researched and lovingly produced, Jeremy Higgins narrates the fascinating stories of over a thousand of these men, vividly capturing their wartime experiences and pressing home the vital importance of the railways, and those that ran them, to the Allied victory in the First World War.

Teenage Tommy

Teenage Tommy
Author: Richard van Emden
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2014-02-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473821754

Benjamin Clouting was just sixteen years old when he embarked with the British Expeditionary Force for France in August 1914. The youngest man in the 4th Dragoon Guards, he took part in the BEF's celebrated first action at Casteau on August 22nd, and, two days later, had his horse shot from under him during the famous cavalry charge of the 4th Dragoon Guards and the 9th Lancers at Audregnies. Ben served on the Western front during every major engagement of the war except Loos, was wounded twice, and in 1919 went with the Army of Occupation to Cologne. The son of a stable groom, Ben was brought up in the beautiful Sussex countryside near Lewes and from his earliest years was, as he often said himself, "crazy to be a soldier". He worked briefly as a stable boy before joining up in 1913; his training was barely completed when war broke out. The Regiment, knowing Ben to be under age, tried to stop him embarking for France, but he flatly refused to be left behind. During the next four years, he served under officers immortalized in Great War history, including Major Tom Bridges, Captain Hornby, and Lieutenant-Colonel Adrien Carton de Wiart VC.Teenage Tommy is a detailed account of a trooper's life at the front, vividly recalling, for example, the privations suffered during the retreat from Mons. and later, the desperate fighting to hold back the German onslaught at 2nd Ypres. But this is more than just a memoir about trench warfare. Ben's lively sense of humor and healthy disrespect for petty restrictions make this an entertaining as well as a moving story of life at the front.

Bloodline

Bloodline
Author: Iain Gordon
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2010-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1844684806

A guide to the history of each of the British Army’s regular formations, from their origins to their development over time. Using easy-to-follow, family-tree type tables, Bloodline shows the origins and development of every regular formation in the British Army including the latest amalgamations and changes brought about within the “Future Army Structure.” The charts illustrate clearly how, in some cases, up to twenty-five original regiments of the line have, over the centuries, by successive disbandments and amalgamations, been reduced to a single regiment in today’s superb but shamefully overstretched army. The Battle Honours of each post-Cardwell constituent are recorded separately so the progress of each of the original regiments, and the theatres in which it was involved, may be examined individually. The pedigrees and Honours of disbanded units are also recorded so their contribution will not be lost to posterity. A chronological summary of Battle honours provides an overview of the British Army’s campaigns over the past 300 years and notes on the origins of each formation place its original purpose within the political and historical perspective of the time. A robust editorial platform throughout applauds the Army as “the Nation’s most dependable and trustworthy institution” and castigates government neglect and public indifference for the unnecessary “blood and sacrifices” which successive generations of soldiers have had to make as a result of inadequate investment and preparation. Bloodline is a splendid record of achievement and will provide an invaluable work of reference for anyone who has dealings with, or simply an interest in or affection for, the British Army. Praise for Bloodlines “I know of no other resource that contains such a wealth of information about the History of the Regiments of the British Army. This will be a very useful addition to my shelf of military reference books.” —Daly History Blog “If you conduct research into the main elements of the British Army then this is an invaluable guide as to their lineage, hereditary and modern counterparts. The author has produced an outstanding reference text in one easy to follow volume. He has done great service to aiding researchers with this publication. In one excellent volume he has listed the principal elements of the Army and their histories. This concise volume deserves space on any serious researcher’s shelf.” —Military Archive Research