The Green Howards in the Great War

The Green Howards in the Great War
Author: John Sheen
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Total Pages: 630
Release: 2024-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1399080962

In answer to Lord Kitchener’s appeal, in late August and September 1914 many men joined Alexandra’s Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment, better known as The Green Howards. Recruits came from around the Middlesbrough area and the ironstone mines on the North Yorkshire moors, while others came from the East Durham coalfield and the Durham City area. The 8th and 9th Battalions left the Regimental Depot in Richmond in late September and moved to Frensham on the Hampshire/Surrey border, where they trained hard until bad weather forced a move to barracks in Aldershot. They arrived on the Somme front at the end of June 1916, but were not involved in the fighting until 5 July, when the 9th Battalion captured Horseshoe trench and Lieutenant Donald Simpson Bell won the VC when he destroyed a German machine gun position. On 10 July both battalions took part in the capture of Contalmaison, a village that had been a first day objective. A second VC was awarded posthumously to Private William Short of the 8th Battalion during the fighting in Munster Alley in August 1916. The next year found the 23rd Division in the Ypres Salient, where they were in and out of the line until June 1917 when they took part in the Battle of Messines and the 8th Battalion had the honor of taking Hill 60. In November 1917 the division was sent to Italy to bolster the hard-pressed Italian Army, but the 9th Battalion returned to France in 1918 where they fought until the Armistice. The 8th Battalion stayed on in Italy and fought at the crossing of the Piave and Vittorio Veneto, which brought the war to an end in Italy.

Histories, Memories and Representations of being Young in the First World War

Histories, Memories and Representations of being Young in the First World War
Author: Maggie Andrews
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2020-10-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 3030499391

This book seeks to place children and young people centrally within the study of the contemporary British home front, its cultural representations and its place in the historical memory of the First World War. This edited collection interrogates not only war and its effects on children and young people, but how understandings of this conflict have shaped or been shaped by historical memories of the Great War, which have only allowed for several tropes of childhood during the conflict to emerge. It brings together new research by emerging and established scholars who, through a series of tightly focussed case studies, introduce a range of new histories to both explore the experience of being young during the First World War, and interrogate the memories and representations of the conflict produced for children. Taken together the chapters in this volume shed light on the multiple ways in which the Great War shaped, disrupted and interrupted childhood in Britain, and illuminate simultaneously the selectivity of the portrayal of the conflict within the more typical national narratives.

The Tale of the Next Great War, 1871-1914

The Tale of the Next Great War, 1871-1914
Author: I. F. Clarke
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 1995-11-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780815603580

This selection of short stories offers a return journey through the future as it used to be. Time speeds backwards to the 1870s—to the alpha point of modern futuristic fiction—the opening years of that enchanted period before the First World War when Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and many able writers delighted readers from Sydney to Seattle with their most original revelations of things-to-come. In all their anticipations, the dominant factor was the recognition that the new industrial societies would continue to evolve in obedience to the rate of change. One major event that caused all to think furiously about the future was the Franco-German War of 1870. The new weapons and the new methods of army organization had shown that the conduct of warfare was changing; and, in response to that perception of change, a new form of fiction took on the task of describing the conduct of the war-to-come.

Norfolk Coast in the Great War

Norfolk Coast in the Great War
Author: Stephen Browning
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2017-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473848784

Norfolk Coast in the Great War focuses on the trials and joys, the achievements and disappointments, the humor and the sadness of everyday life in a region living on the edge of the country at the heart of the Kings vast Empire. Everyone from the folk who went off to fight, to scouts and schoolchildren, had a role to play in this coastline that had, since the time of the Spanish Armada, been considered a likely place for an enemy invasion. There were days of great tension, even terror, such as on the day of the first bombardment of the coast by the German Navy, and the day of Zeppelin attacks and dog fights out to sea when the flimsy planes of a fledgling RAF took on the Red Baron and his comrades.This unique study is based largely on original archive material, much of it never before published in book form. It is accompanied by many rare and fascinating photographs that show the day-to-day life of the people who lived in the many settlements on the coast and just inland. In addition, this book also gives an itinerary for a walk along the 46 mile stretch of the coast from Hunstanton to Cromer, taking in many of the places discussed and giving views that are exactly the same as they were 100 years ago.

The Die-Hards in the Great War: Vol. 1

The Die-Hards in the Great War: Vol. 1
Author: Everard Wyrall
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2013-01-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781508313

The 'Die-Hards' is the nickname of the Middlesex Regiment, earned at the battle of Albuera in the Peninsular War in May 1811. The Regiment was one of five that had four regular battalions before the outbreak of war, it also had two Special Reserve battalions (5th and 6th) and four Territorial battalions, 7th to 10th. During the course of the war another thirty-nine battalions were formed making the Regiment the second largest along with the King's (Liverpool), though not all battalions survived to the end of the war; twenty-four of them went abroad, serving on the Western Front, Gallipoli, Italy, Macedonia, Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, Palestine, Gibraltar and Siberia. Losses amounted to 12,720, 81 Battle Honours and 5 VCs were awarded. The Middlesex were in it right from the start, the first soldier of the BEF to be killed was L/Cpl Parr, 4th Middlesex, on 21 August 1914, and the first officer to be killed was from the same battalion - Major W.H Abell, at Mons on 23 August. This is not a history that deals with each battalion independently, there are too many of them. The narrative describes the fortunes of the twenty-four active service battalions (with very good maps) in the various theatres of war, though mainly on the Western Front, and on every page there is, in the margin the date of the action or event being described and the battalion or battalions involved. The first volume covers 1914 to the end of 1916, and the second takes up the story from the beginning of 1917 to the armistice, including a chapter on operations in Siberia and Murmansk involving the 25th Battalion which didn't get home till September 1919. Speaking of his battalion [25th] the CO said: "One and all behaved like Englishmen - the highest eulogy that can be passed upon the conduct of men." Sentiments like that expressed today would almost get you clapped in irons! There is no Roll of Honour nor list of Honours and Awards. There is a very useful appendix listing all the active service battalions with the brigades and divisions to which they were allocated with any subsequent changes, and the theatres in which they served.

VALENTIN’S GREAT WAR (1914-1919)

VALENTIN’S GREAT WAR (1914-1919)
Author: Jacques Dewaele
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2013-09-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1291566473

This book is based on the correspondence between Valentin Dewaele, a Belgian First World War volunteer, and his mother, a refugee in North Wales. It is complemented by extracts from his diaries and letters from friends and other family members. It describes the extraordinary life in the trenches at the front in Western Flanders and Northern France. It a striking account of the long moments of boredom and discomfort, followed by episodes of intense drama. The letters and diaries continue to February 1919, when Valentin is demobilised. The correspondence with family and friends grows after the German capitulation as communication lines are re-established and people take stock of what has happened, seek out who has survived, gossip about who has collaborated with the Germans. Another important topic is the Dewaele family business, a prominent draper shop in Ostend, left in the hands of staff as the family fled to the UK before the Germans moved in.

Air and Sea Power in World War I

Air and Sea Power in World War I
Author: Maryam Philpott
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2013-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 085773332X

The Great War tore the fabric of Europe apart, killing over 35 million men and challenging the notion of heroism in war, Air and Sea Power in World War I focuses on the experience of World War I from the perspective of British pilots and sailors themselves, to demonstrate that the army-centric view of war studies has been too limited. The Royal Flying Corps, created in 1912, adapted quickly to the needs of modern warfare, driven by the enthusiasm of its men. In contrast, the lack of modernisation in the Royal Navy, despite the unveiling of HMS Dreadnought in 1906, undermined Britain's dominance of the seas. By considering five key aspects of the war experience, this book analyses how motivation was created and sustained. What training did men receive and how effectively did this prepare them for roles that were predominantly non-combative? How was motivation affected by their individual relationship with weaponry development, and how different was defensive service on the Home Front, when in close proximity to ordinary civilian life? Finally, Air and Sea Power in World War I looks at the changing reputation of the services during and after the conflict, and the extent to which these notions were created by the memoirs of pilots and sailors. Featuring new primary source material, including the journals of service men themselves, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of World War I and of Naval, Aviation and Military History.

Hertfordshire Soldiers of The Great War

Hertfordshire Soldiers of The Great War
Author: Dan Hill
Publisher: Frontline Books
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2020-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473893968

In Hertfordshire Soldiers of The First World War the authors explore a series of individual case studies of Hertfordshire men who served in various theaters during the First World War, all of which had been uncovered as part of the Herts At War community project. This unique collection of largely unknown accounts includes stories from the Western Front, Gallipoli, Salonika, Mesopotamia, East Africa, Egypt and even Russia in the fight against the Bolsheviks in 1919. The Herts At War team uncovered many letters and objects in the course of their research, including men who were Victoria Cross winners to those whose courage or bravery went unrecognized, as well as stoicism on the Home Front. One of the most moving of these surrounds a photograph which was found in the hands of Sergeant Percy Buck as he lay fatally wounded in a shell hole in 1917. On the back of the photograph of his wife and young son he had written his address and asked for whoever found the image to post it to his loved ones in the event of his death. Sergeant Buck would have assumed it would be a British comrade who would find the photograph, but the person who recovered it was a German soldier who subsequently sent it on to the grieving, but grateful, family. The war memorials of Hertfordshire contain the names of over 23,000 men and women who gave their lives whilst in the service of their country during the Great War; some of their tales are uncovered here. Indeed, the poignant collection of stories, anecdotes and artifacts revealed in this book bring the First World War to life in an unusual and highly moving fashion.

MI5 in the Great War

MI5 in the Great War
Author: Nigel West
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2014-07-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1849547777

In 1921, MI5 commissioned a comprehensive, top-secret review of the organisation's operations during the First World War. Never intended for circulation outside of the government, all seven volumes of this fascinating and unique document remained locked away in MI5's registry ... until now. Recently declassified and published here for the first time, MI5 in the Great War is filled with detailed, and previously undisclosed, accounts centring on the Security Service's activities during the conflict. The main narrative examines MI5's various attempts to both manage and detect double agents; the detection and execution of enemy spies; its study of German pre-war espionage; and the Kaiser's personal network of spies seeking to infiltrate British intelligence. Coinciding with the centenary of the start of the Great War, this historically significant document has been edited and brought up to date by bestselling writer and historian Nigel West, providing an extraordinary insight into the early years of MI5 and its first counterintelligence operations.