The Great War


Book Description

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.







The Belgian Cook-book


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Writing the Great War


Book Description

Begun within months of the war's outbreak, and not completed for a further 33 years, the writing of the Official Histories of World War I was a venture of unprecedented scale and complexity.










Loos 1915


Book Description

The battle of Loos was one of the most hard-fought battles that the British Expeditionary Force waged during the First World War. This work presents an interpretation of Loos, placing it not only within its political and strategic context, but also discussing command and control and the tactical realities of war on the Western Front during 1915.




The Monthly Army List


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The Lion and the Rose


Book Description

The Lion and the Rose tells the story of an infantry battalion in the Great War. Based on many unpublished sources, the book narrates the individual parts played by nearly 2,000 of those who served with the 4th King’s Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment from the day that war was declared in 1914 until the armistice in 1918 and in a few cases, the stories of men whose war continued long afterwards. The battalion first saw action in Festubert in May 1915 and went on to fight on the Somme, the Ypres Salient and Gillemont Farm, though the battalion’s epic stand at Givenchy on 9 April 1918 must rate as one of the greatest defensive actions of the war. Using contemporary combat reports, many of the major actions are described down to individual platoon level. The Lion and the Rose does not just concentrate on the major battles, but also examines everyday life in the trenches. Appendices give the most complete battalion roll to date and list those awarded medals for their bravery and also those nominated unsuccessfully for recognition. Illustrations: 28 black-and-white photographs and 13 in-text maps




The Embattled General


Book Description

Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Turner (1871-1961) was a capable but controversial Canadian general who played a critical role in the development of the Canadian Corps up to 1917 and contributed significantly to its success thereafter. Despite his many accomplishments (including being awarded the Victoria Cross), Turner is often portrayed as a political appointee and repeated failure - representations that ignore, minimize, or misconstrue his successes as a combat commander and head of Canadian forces in England. In The Embattled General, William Stewart reveals Turner's tactical, operational, and administrative contributions to the Canadian war effort. Uniquely, Turner held senior commands in both combat arms and administration. Stewart narrates and analyzes Turner's successes and failures in the Boer War and the First World War's battles of Ypres, Festubert, St Eloi, and the Somme. He also studies Turner's career after his transfer to command Canadian forces in England in December 1916, where Turner reformed an administration in chaos. After the war, Turner post-war played a key role in the formation of the Royal Canadian Legion. Based on exhaustive research from over 1,200 volumes of material, including many previously untouched sources, The Embattled General provides a balanced and just re-evaluation of Turner, identifying his merits as well as his flaws.