Victoria Crosses on the Western Front: August 1914–April 1915

Victoria Crosses on the Western Front: August 1914–April 1915
Author: Paul Oldfield
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 775
Release: 2014-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473838398

The research for this book commenced in 1988 while the author was serving in the Army. In the years since, numerous sources have been consulted, but career imperatives left insufficient time to complete the project until retirement from the military. In the past the author spent many days on the First and Second World War battlefields wondering precisely where the Victoria Cross actions took place. He resolved to find out.The book is designed for the armchair reader as much as the battlefield visitor. A detailed account of each VC action sets it in the wider strategic and tactical context. Detailed sketch maps show the area today, together with the battle-lines and movements of the combatants. It will allow visitors to stand upon the spot, or very close, where the VCs were won. Photographs of the battle sites illustrate the accounts. There is also a comprehensive biography for each VC recipient and photographs. The biographies cover every aspect of their lives 'warts and all' - parents and siblings, education, civilian employment, military career, wife and children, death and burial or commemoration. There is also a host of other information, much published for the first time. Some fascinating characters emerge, with numerous links to many famous people and events.As featured on BBC Radio Wiltshire and in the Daily Record, Gloucestershire Echo, Canterbury Times and Barking & Dagenham Post.

Call to Arms

Call to Arms
Author: Charles Messenger
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2015-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1780227590

This is a comprehensive account of how the British Army coped with and adapted to the enormous challenges and pressures of the First World War -- the first major continental war that the army had had to fight for almost a hundred years. Following the course of the War, both on the Western Front and in other theatres, Charles Messenger tells how the British Army managed the challenges of command, training, technology and new weapons of war. He examines officer selection, medicine, discipline, the manpower crisis of 1918, the integration of women into the forces and many other topics. Based on years of original research, this will become the standard work of reference on the organization and administration of the biggest army Britain has ever put into the field.

Dance of the Furies

Dance of the Furies
Author: Michael S. Neiberg
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2011-04-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674049543

By training his eye on the ways that people outside the halls of power reacted to the rapid onset and escalation of the fighting in 1914, Neiberg dispels the notion that Europeans were rabid nationalists intent on mass slaughter. He reveals instead a complex set of allegiances that cut across national boundaries.