The History of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment - Volume 1

The History of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment - Volume 1
Author: Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Ernest Whitton
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2012-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781514976

Volume 1 of 2. ‘The Old Army' is devoted to the regiment's doings before the Great War. It begins with the regiment’s origins as the 100th Prince Regent’s County of Dublin Regiment of Foot, which was raised to fight in the War of 1812-14 against the young United States. Becoming the 100thn Royal Canadian regiment, the unit was stationed in Montreal and Quebec, and then brought to Britain where ity trained at Aldershot and Shorrncliffe before being stationed in Malta and Gibraltar, then India and ireland. It saw service during the Indian Mutiny at the storming of Jhansi, and continued on colonial service in Aden, the Mediterranean, India and Ireland - as well as its native Canada and the West Indies - for the rest of the 19th century. This volume is accompanied by four maps and four illustrations. Prior to its disbanding in 1922, the regiment was stationed in the occupied Rhineland, in India and was on peace-keeping duties in Silesia, disputed betweeen Germany and Poland. This is a meaty history, which will interest anyone curious about Canada’s colonial regiments, and their role in the Great War. Both volumes come with an index.

The History of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment - Volume 2

The History of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment - Volume 2
Author: Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Ernest Whitton
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2012-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781514992

Volume 2 of 2. 'The Great War and the disbandment of the regiment' is a substantial record of service in many theatres of the war, in which the regiment's battalions saw service from the war's outbreak in 1914 - taking part in the first battle of the Aisne and the 'Race to the Sea' - through 1915 when it was in the Ypres Salient and also participated in the ill-fated Gallipoli expedition and in Macedonia. In 1916 io took part in the Battle of the Somme - but was also employed in suppressing the Irish repubican Easter Rising in Dublin. 1917 saw the regiment in action in Egypt and the Palestine campaign, as well as Canada's famous capture of Vimy Ridge on the western front. The end of the year brought the gruelling battles of Passchendaele and Cambrai. In 1918 the regiment withstood the German Spring offensives, before taking part in the victorious allied advance which led to the armistice. Prior to its disbanding in 1922, the regiment was stationed in the occupied Rhineland, in India and was on peac-keeping duties in Silesia, disputed btweeen Germany and Poland. This is a meaty history, which will interest anyone curious about Canada’s colonial regiments, and their role in the Great War. Volume II has eight illustrations and fourteen maps. Both volumes come with an index.

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 Irish regiments in the Great War

The Irish regiments in the Great War
Author: Timothy Bowman
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2013-07-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1847795536

The British army was almost unique among the European armies of the Great War in that it did not suffer from a serious breakdown of discipline or collapse of morale. It did, however, inevitably suffer from disciplinary problems. While attention has hitherto focused on the 312 notorious ‘shot at dawn’ cases, many thousands of British soldiers were tried by court martial during the Great War. This book provides the first comprehensive study of discipline and morale in the British Army during the Great War by using a case study of the Irish regular and Special Reserve batallions. In doing so, Timothy Bowman demonstrates that breaches of discipline did occur in the Irish regiments but in most cases these were of a minor nature. Controversially, he suggests that where executions did take place, they were militarily necessary and served the purpose of restoring discipline in failing units. Bowman also shows that there was very little support for the emerging Sinn Fein movement within the Irish regiments. This book will be essential reading for military and Irish historians and their students, and will interest any general reader concerned with how units maintain discipline and morale under the most trying conditions.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History
Author: Alvin Jackson
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 979
Release: 2014-03-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191667609

The study of Irish history, once riven and constricted, has recently enjoyed a resurgence, with new practitioners, new approaches, and new methods of investigation. The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History represents the diversity of this emerging talent and achievement by bringing together 36 leading scholars of modern Ireland and embracing 400 years of Irish history, uniting early and late modernists as well as contemporary historians. The Handbook offers a set of scholarly perspectives drawn from numerous disciplines, including history, political science, literature, geography, and the Irish language. It looks at the Irish at home as well as in their migrant and diasporic communities. The Handbook combines sets of wide thematic and interpretative essays, with more detailed investigations of particular periods. Each of the contributors offers a summation of the state of scholarship within their subject area, linking their own research insights with assessments of future directions within the discipline. In its breadth and depth and diversity, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History offers an authoritative and vibrant portrayal of the history of modern Ireland.

The Christmas Truce

The Christmas Truce
Author: Terri Blom Crocker
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2015-11-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813166179

In late December 1914, German and British soldiers on the western front initiated a series of impromptu, unofficial ceasefires. Enlisted men across No Man's Land abandoned their trenches and crossed enemy lines to sing carols, share food and cigarettes, and even play a little soccer. Collectively known as the Christmas Truce, these fleeting moments of peace occupy a mythical place in remembrances of World War I. Yet new accounts suggest that the heartwarming tale ingrained in the popular imagination bears little resemblance to the truth. In this detailed study, Terri Blom Crocker provides the first comprehensive analysis of both scholarly and popular portrayals of the Christmas Truce from 1914 to present. From books by influential historians to the Oscar-nominated French film Joyeux Noel (2006), this new examination shows how a variety of works have both explored and enshrined this outbreak of peace amid overwhelming violence. The vast majority of these accounts depict the soldiers as acting in defiance of their superiors. Crocker, however, analyzes official accounts as well as private letters that reveal widespread support among officers for the détentes. Furthermore, she finds that truce participants describe the temporary ceasefires not as rebellions by disaffected troops but as acts of humanity and survival by professional soldiers deeply committed to their respective causes. The Christmas Truce studies these ceasefires within the wider war, demonstrating how generations of scholars have promoted interpretations that ignored the nuanced perspectives of the many soldiers who fought. Crocker's groundbreaking, meticulously researched work challenges conventional analyses and sheds new light on the history and popular mythology of the War to End All Wars.

The Disparity of Sacrifice

The Disparity of Sacrifice
Author: Timothy Bowman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2020-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789621852

During the First World War approximately 200,000 Irish men and 5,000 Irish women served in the British armed forces. All were volunteers and a very high proportion were from Catholic and Nationalist communities. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Irish recruitment between 1914 and 1918 for the island of Ireland as a whole. It makes extensive use of previously neglected internal British army recruiting returns held at The National Archives, Kew, along with other valuable archival and newspaper sources. There has been a tendency to discount the importance of political factors in Irish recruitment, but this book demonstrates that recruitment campaigns organised under the auspices of the Irish National Volunteers and Ulster Volunteer Force were the earliest and some of the most effective campaigns run throughout the war. The British government conspicuously failed to create an effective recruiting organisation or to mobilise civic society in Ireland. While the military mobilisation which occurred between 1914 and 1918 was the largest in Irish history, British officials persistently characterised it as inadequate, threatening to introduce conscription in 1918. This book also reflects on the disparity of sacrifice between North-East Ulster and the rest of Ireland, urban and rural Ireland, and Ireland and Great Britain.