The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918 Vol 1

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918 Vol 1
Author: Sir Frederick Ponsonby
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2013-02-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781510636

The Grenadier Guards began the war with three battalions of which only one, the 2nd, was committed to the BEF; it was in the 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division. As soon as war was declared the 4th (Reserve) Battalion was formed and within five days 1,700 reservists had reported. In September 1914 the 7th Division was formed and the1st Battalion was allocated to 20th Brigade of the new division. On 14th July 1915 another Grenadier battalion was formed and numbered the 4th, the Reserve battalion then became the 5th. A month later the 4th battalion went to France to join the newly created Guards Division, and it was at this stage, also, that the 3rd Battalion, which hitherto had been retained in London by Kitchener for some undefined reason, was sent out to join the new division. Thus, by August 1915 there were four battalions of Grenadiers on the Western front where they remained for the rest of the war. By the end the Regiment had suffered 11,915 casualties of which 203 Officers and 4,508 Other Ranks were dead, seven VCs had been won and 34 Battle Honours awarded. This, as might be expected, is a very good history with detailed descriptions of the fighting and of the conditions the men endured. One sentence in particular paints a graphic picture of the state of the trenches in January 1915: The gruesome task of removing the dead was effected by floating the bodies down the communication trenches. The author tells the story in chronological order; vol I takes the record of the four battalions to the end of 1915, vol II to the German offensive of March 1918 and vol III to the armistice and beyond to the division's march into Germany. Each volume is paginated separately with its own contents list though the chapters run consecutively through all three. Each chapter covers a specific period and the chapter heading indicates which battalions are involved. There are plenty of maps to support the narrative, showing tactical details. Among the appendices are the Roll of Honour, a list of officers wounded with dates, lists of Awards, Mentions in Despatches and of Divisional Certificates of Gallantry and an account of the 7th (Guards) Entrenching Battalion. There is a table naming all other ranks who were commissioned during the war showing the regiment or corps to which they went. Finally there is an index to the names of officers.

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918 Vol 2

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918 Vol 2
Author: Sir Frederick Ponsonby
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2013-02-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781510652

The Grenadier Guards began the war with three battalions of which only one, the 2nd, was committed to the BEF; it was in the 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division. As soon as war was declared the 4th (Reserve) Battalion was formed and within five days 1,700 reservists had reported. In September 1914 the 7th Division was formed and the1st Battalion was allocated to 20th Brigade of the new division. On 14th July 1915 another Grenadier battalion was formed and numbered the 4th, the Reserve battalion then became the 5th. A month later the 4th battalion went to France to join the newly created Guards Division, and it was at this stage, also, that the 3rd Battalion, which hitherto had been retained in London by Kitchener for some undefined reason, was sent out to join the new division. Thus, by August 1915 there were four battalions of Grenadiers on the Western front where they remained for the rest of the war. By the end the Regiment had suffered 11,915 casualties of which 203 Officers and 4,508 Other Ranks were dead, seven VCs had been won and 34 Battle Honours awarded. This, as might be expected, is a very good history with detailed descriptions of the fighting and of the conditions the men endured. One sentence in particular paints a graphic picture of the state of the trenches in January 1915: The gruesome task of removing the dead was effected by floating the bodies down the communication trenches. The author tells the story in chronological order; vol I takes the record of the four battalions to the end of 1915, vol II to the German offensive of March 1918 and vol III to the armistice and beyond to the division's march into Germany. Each volume is paginated separately with its own contents list though the chapters run consecutively through all three. Each chapter covers a specific period and the chapter heading indicates which battalions are involved. There are plenty of maps to support the narrative, showing tactical details. Among the appendices are the Roll of Honour, a list of officers wounded with dates, lists of Awards, Mentions in Despatches and of Divisional Certificates of Gallantry and an account of the 7th (Guards) Entrenching Battalion. There is a table naming all other ranks who were commissioned during the war showing the regiment or corps to which they went. Finally there is an index to the names of officers.

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918 Vol 3

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918 Vol 3
Author: Sir Frederick Ponsonby
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2013-02-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781510679

The Grenadier Guards began the war with three battalions of which only one, the 2nd, was committed to the BEF; it was in the 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division. As soon as war was declared the 4th (Reserve) Battalion was formed and within five days 1,700 reservists had reported. In September 1914 the 7th Division was formed and the1st Battalion was allocated to 20th Brigade of the new division. On 14th July 1915 another Grenadier battalion was formed and numbered the 4th, the Reserve battalion then became the 5th. A month later the 4th battalion went to France to join the newly created Guards Division, and it was at this stage, also, that the 3rd Battalion, which hitherto had been retained in London by Kitchener for some undefined reason, was sent out to join the new division. Thus, by August 1915 there were four battalions of Grenadiers on the Western front where they remained for the rest of the war. By the end the Regiment had suffered 11,915 casualties of which 203 Officers and 4,508 Other Ranks were dead, seven VCs had been won and 34 Battle Honours awarded. This, as might be expected, is a very good history with detailed descriptions of the fighting and of the conditions the men endured. One sentence in particular paints a graphic picture of the state of the trenches in January 1915: The gruesome task of removing the dead was effected by floating the bodies down the communication trenches. The author tells the story in chronological order; vol I takes the record of the four battalions to the end of 1915, vol II to the German offensive of March 1918 and vol III to the armistice and beyond to the division's march into Germany. Each volume is paginated separately with its own contents list though the chapters run consecutively through all three. Each chapter covers a specific period and the chapter heading indicates which battalions are involved. There are plenty of maps to support the narrative, showing tactical details. Among the appendices are the Roll of Honour, a list of officers wounded with dates, lists of Awards, Mentions in Despatches and of Divisional Certificates of Gallantry and an account of the 7th (Guards) Entrenching Battalion. There is a table naming all other ranks who were commissioned during the war showing the regiment or corps to which they went. Finally there is an index to the names of officers.

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918; Volume 1

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918; Volume 1
Author: Frederick Edward Grey Baro Ponsonby
Publisher: Legare Street Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-10-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781016521581

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Coldstream Guards, 1914-1918 Vol. I [Illustrated Edition]

The Coldstream Guards, 1914-1918 Vol. I [Illustrated Edition]
Author: Lt. Col. Sir John Foster George Ross-of-Bladensburg
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 815
Release: 2015-11-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786250993

Includes 27 maps “History of the four active service battalions in the Great War with details of officers’ services during the war. The Coldstream Guards had three battalions in August 1914, all three committed to the BEF: the 1st Battalion was in the 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division; the 2nd and 3rd were both in 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division. As soon as war broke out a Reserve battalion (the 4th) was formed which provided drafts of 16,860 all ranks during the course of the war. In July 1915 a further battalion was raised as the Guards Pioneer Battalion for the Guards Division which was then being formed. This battalion was numbered 4th and the reserve battalion became the 5th. In all the Regiment suffered 14,137 casualties of which the dead numbered 180 officers and 3,860 other ranks. Seven VCs were won and 36 Battle Honours awarded. Volume I takes the story to the end of the Somme offensive, volume II begins with the situation at the end of 1916 after the Somme and carries through to the return of the Regiment to London in March 1919 and the Royal Review on the 22nd of that month when the Guards Division marched past their Colonel in Chief, the King. This is a well written history in which the author gives a good and detailed account of the Regiment’s actions, often with casualty details following various battles and nominal rolls of officers present for duty. He also comments on the wider issues, some of which had nothing to do with the Coldstream, not only on higher strategy on the Western Front but also on other campaigns such as Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Italy where no Guards battalions served, and it is in discussing these wider issues that he is sometimes frankly critical, allocating blame where he feels it belongs.Print ed.

Ypres 1914: Langemarck

Ypres 1914: Langemarck
Author: Nigel Cave
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2014-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781591997

These three Battleground Europe books on Ypres 1914 mark the centenary of the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front. Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the fighting was even more than usually chaotic and the stakes were extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their respective expertise to tell the story of the men – British, French, Indian and German - who fought over the unremarkable undulating ground that was to become firmly placed in British national conscience ever afterwards.??When, in October 1914, the newly created German Fourth Army attacked west to seize crossings over the Yser, prior to sweeping south in an attempt to surround the BEF, two things prevented it. To the north, it was the efforts of the Belgian army, reinforced by French troops, coupled with controlled flooding of the polders but, further south, the truly heroic defence of Langemarck, for three days by the BEF and then by the French army, was of decisive importance. The village stood as a bulwark against any further advance to the river or the town of Ypres. Here the German regiments bled to death in the face of resolute Allied defence and any remaining hope of forcing a decision in the west turned to dust.

The Great War

The Great War
Author: Isobel Charman
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 582
Release: 2014-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1448185939

During the First World War three quarters of a million British people died – a figure so huge that it feels impossible to give it a human context. Consequently we struggle to truly grasp the impact this devastating conflict must have had on people's day-to-day lives. We resort to looking at the war from a distance, viewing its events in terms of their political or military significance. The Great War: The People's Story is different. Like the all-star ITV series it accompanies, it immerses the reader in the everyday experiences of real people who lived through the war. Using letters, diaries, and memoirs – many of which have never previously been published – Isobel Charman has painstakingly reconstructed the lives of people such as separated newly-weds Alan and Dorothy Lloyd, plucky enlisted factory-worker Reg Evans and proudly independent suffragist Kate Parry Frye. A century on, they here tell their stories in their own words, offering a uniquely personal account of the conflict. The Great War: The People's Story is both a meticulously researched piece of narrative history and a deeply moving remembrance of the extraordinary acts of extremely ordinary people.

Ypres 1914

Ypres 1914
Author: Nigel Cave
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2019-03-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473884640

A vivid history of how a battered British Expeditionary Force stopped the advancing Germans, against the odds and just in time. Ypres 1914: The Menin Road is part of a three-book series about the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front. Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the battle was even more chaotic than usual, and the stakes were extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their respective expertise to tell the story of the men—British, French, Indian and German—who fought over this piece of ground. The most direct route to Ypres for the advancing German columns in October 1914 was along the axis of the Menin Road. It was here that the Old Contemptibles of the British Expeditionary Force earned their legendary heroic status as they fought off increasingly desperate German assaults day after day, while place names such as Zandvoorde, Polygon Wood, and Gheluvelt were first etched into the British national consciousness. Bent and battered by the German storm, dressed in rags and short of food, equipment, and ammunition, the regiments of the old professional army stood their ground against huge odds. When, on November 11, they finally halted the Prussian Guards around Polygon Wood, virtually within sight of Ypres, they were reduced to one thin firing line. The BEF was at its last gasp—but it had inflicted a crushing defeat on the German army.