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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
A pilot's account of the war in the air
Books on the war in the air above the fields, broken landscapes and
trenches of France and Belgium in the First World War are not
numerous. Those written by pilots who experienced war in the air
during the infancy of aviation are fewer still. In the early years
of the 20th century the first clumsy attempts at mastering the
skies was followed quickly by the necessity, on the part of armies
and navies, to find individuals with the ability to learn the
skills and tactics of fighting in three dimensions. Those whose
learning failed them paid a price rarely expected of young
students. This book was written by a young American volunteer
during wartime. He informs his readers from the outset that he has
a poor opinion of his own abilities and of the contribution he
believes he can make, though this is difficult to understand for
those who have never taken the air to fight in a primitive flying
machine-without a parachute. Molter was one of those remarkable
young men, irrespective of his own opinion of himself, who elected
to volunteer to fight for France before America had entered the
war. He gives us an insightful account of flying combat missions
from the sharp end and no one who has an interest in the subject
will be disappointed with his story.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
The quantity of journalism produced during World War I was unlike
anything the then-budding mass media had ever seen. Correspondents
at the front were dispatching voluminous reports on a daily basis,
and though much of it was subject to censorship, it all eventually
became available. It remains the most extraordinary firsthand look
at the war that we have. Published immediately after the cessation
of hostilities and compiled from those original journalistic
sources-American, British, French, German, and others-this is an
astonishing contemporary perspective on the Great War. This replica
of the first 1919 edition includes all the original maps, photos,
and illustrations, lending an even greater immediacy to readers a
century later. Volume VII focuses on Russia during the war years,
from her early victories and defeats through the Revolution of
1919. American journalist and historian FRANCIS WHITING HALSEY
(1851-1919) was literary editor of The New York Times from 1892
through 1896. He wrote and lectured extensively on history; his
works include, as editor, the two-volume Great Epochs in American
History Described by Famous Writers, From Columbus to Roosevelt
(1912), and, as writer, the 10-volume Seeing Europe with Famous
Authors (1914).
The last great war of the horse
The role of the 'war horse' particularly during its twilight years
during the First World War has recently become the focus of much
interest. All armies have used horses in wartime as cavalry and
mounted infantry, as officers chargers, for artillery or for
transport and supply. Some large nations, because the horse formed
a central role in its domestic life, became more associated with
horses and horsemanship in the period when mechanised transport was
making its first halting appearance onto the field of conflict.
Russia was famous for its Cossacks and among the countries of the
British Empire and Commonwealth the accomplished riders of
Australia, New Zealand and, especially noteworthy, Canada-the home
of the author of this book. Naturally, the author is concerned with
the activities of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, but his book
examines in detail the role of horses in every aspect of the Great
War. He was not oblivious to the suffering of horses in war though,
he clearly demonstrates a great affection for them in their
military role. The book concludes with pictures and vignettes of
individual horses of renown in the Canadian Army and a short piece
on the service of dogs.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
The current dogma concerning the origins of the First World War
supports the militarist myth that wars are caused by stupid, evil,
aggressive nations on the other side of the world who refuse to get
along with the intelligent, good, peaceful people on this side.
This book attempts to understand the real causes of war and to
dissociate propaganda from historical fact. By reviewing the events
of the pre-1914 period, the responsibility of Germany for the
outbreak of the war is reconsidered.
It begins with a short account of the situation after the
Franco-Prussian War, when France was isolated and Germany secure in
the friendship of all the other Great Powers, and proceeds to
describe how France created an anti-German coalition. The account
of the estrangement of England from Germany attempts to correct the
usual pro-British prejudice and to explain the real causes of this
development. The centrepiece of the work is the creation of the
Triple Entente.
This book is unique in its positive approach to the German
Empire of 1871-1918.
Dissects the politics of commemoration of soldiers, veterans, and
relatives from WWI The United States lost thousands of troops
during World War I, and the government gave next-of-kin a choice
about what to do with their fallen loved ones: ship them home for
burial or leave them permanently in Europe, in makeshift graves
that would be eventually transformed into cemeteries in France,
Belgium, and England. World War I marked the first war in which the
United States government and military took full responsibility for
the identification, burial, and memorialization of those killed in
battle, and as a result, the process of burying and remembering the
dead became intensely political. The government and military
attempted to create a patriotic consensus on the historical memory
of World War I in which war dead were not only honored but used as
a symbol to legitimize America's participation in a war not fully
supported by all citizens. The saga of American soldiers killed in
World War I and the efforts of the living to honor them is a
neglected component of United States military history, and in this
fascinating yet often macabre account, Lisa M. Budreau unpacks the
politics and processes of the competing interest groups involved in
the three core components of commemoration: repatriation,
remembrance, and return. She also describes how relatives of the
fallen made pilgrimages to French battlefields, attended largely by
American Legionnaires and the Gold Star Mothers, a group formed by
mothers of sons killed in World War I, which exists to this day.
Throughout, and with sensitivity to issues of race and gender,
Bodies of War emphasizes the inherent tensions in the politics of
memorialization and explores how those interests often conflicted
with the needs of veterans and relatives.
The quantity of journalism produced during World War I was unlike
anything the then-budding mass media had ever seen. Correspondents
at the front were dispatching voluminous reports on a daily basis,
and though much of it was subject to censorship, it all eventually
became available. It remains the most extraordinary firsthand look
at the war that we have. Published immediately after the cessation
of hostilities and compiled from those original journalistic
sources-American, British, French, German, and others-this is an
astonishing contemporary perspective on the Great War. This replica
of the first 1919 edition includes all the original maps, photos,
and illustrations, lending an even greater immediacy to readers a
century later. Volume VI covers March 1918 through September 1918,
from the last battles on the Western Front through the Paris peace
conference and revolution in Germany. American journalist and
historian FRANCIS WHITING HALSEY (1851-1919) was literary editor of
The New York Times from 1892 through 1896. He wrote and lectured
extensively on history; his works include, as editor, the
two-volume Great Epochs in American History Described by Famous
Writers, From Columbus to Roosevelt (1912), and, as writer, the
10-volume Seeing Europe with Famous Authors (1914).
Translated into English as the Winner of the Geisteswissenschaften
International Translation Prize for Work in the Humanities and
Social Sciences 2015. During the Great War, mass killing took place
on an unprecedented scale. Violence and the German Soldier in the
Great War explores the practice of violence in the German army and
demonstrates how he killing of enemy troops, the deaths of German
soldiers and their survival were entwined. As the war reached its
climax in 1918, German soldiers refused to continue killing in
their droves, and thus made an active contribution to the German
defeat and ensuing revolution. Examining the postwar period, the
chapters of this book also discuss the contested issue of a
'brutalization' of German society as a prerequisite of the Nazi
mass movement. Biographical case studies on key figures such as
Ernst Junger demonstrate how the killing of enemy troops by German
soldiers followed a complex set of rules. Benjamin Ziemann makes a
wealth of extensive archival work available to an Anglophone
audience for the first time, enhancing our understanding of the
German army and its practices of violence during the First World
War as well as the implications of this brutalization in post-war
Germany. This book provides new insights into a crucial topic for
students of twentieth-century German history and the First World
War.
This title presents new research highlighting the invention of new
weaponry and its front-line combat use. No army went to war in 1914
ready to conduct trench warfare operations. All the armies of the
First World War discovered that prolonged trench warfare required
new types of munitions alongside the conventional howitzers,
large-calibre guns and explosive shells. This volume examines how
the British went about inventing and manufacturing new weaponry
such as hand grenades, rifle grenades and trench mortars when no
body of knowledge about trench warfare munitions existed. It also
examines how tactics were developed for these new munitions. Based
on new research, this is the first book to discuss the complexity
of invention and manufacture of novel weapons such as the Mills
grenade and the Stokes mortar, and to consider the relationship
between technical design and operational tactics on the ground. In
so doing the book presents a different model of the trench warfare
conducted by the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front,
and also provides a blueprint to understanding the relationship
between technology and tactics applicable to all types of weapons
and warfare. "Continuum Studies in Military History" offers
up-to-date, scholarly accounts of war and military history.
Unrestricted by period or geography, the series aims to provide
free-standing works that are attuned to conceptual and
historiographical developments in the field while being based on
original scholarship.
A British territorial battalion during the First World War
The Sherwood Foresters were described before the outbreak of the
Great War as part of the 'best territorial brigade in the kingdom.'
These were part time soldiers mainly from Nottinghamshire and
Derbyshire and, of course, they derived their regimental name from
the great forest of Sherwood, legendary haunt of Robin Hood. The
magnitude of the 1914-18 war demanded a huge and steady supply of
manpower from Britain and its colonies and so the attrition of the
early period of the war made the mobilisation of the Territorial
Force inevitable. Thus it was that these amateur soldiers, together
with others who had volunteered, were destined to fight their war
on the Western Front and in the author of this book they had an
able chronicler to record their services. Most regimental histories
of this period include a list of engagements which reads like a
history of the war and this book is no exception; here are the
Salient, the Hohenzollern Redoubt, Vimy Ridge and the Somme
together with descriptions of the regiment's achievements at
Gommecourt, Bellacourt, Lens, St. Elie, Hill 70, Gorre, Essars and
other iconic engagements. It was not until the last bullet had been
fired that the men who survived marched home again.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
Tall, sun-bronzed, hardy. Resourceful, independent, egalitarian.
Scornful of authority, loyal to their mates. These mythical
characteristics of the Anzac 'diggers' are central to our idea of
what it is to be Australian. But did the soldiers themselves fit
the stereotype? How closely does the myth match the reality? This
penetrating study strips away celebratory generalisations and
measures the Anzac legend against the actual experiences of one
battalion that fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front in
World War I. The diaries and letters written by soldiers of the 1st
Battalion reveal attitudes, insights, comments and criticisms that
qualify and even contradict the Anzac legend. In Dinkum Diggers,
Dale James Blair compares these first-hand accounts by front-line
infantrymen with unit diaries, operational records, service and
repatriation records, as well as with interviews with family
members and statistical analysis, to present a well-rounded picture
of the complexities of the 1st Battalion's experience. By narrowing
the focus of Australian war experience to a single battalion, he
demonstrates nuances and subtleties, showing how the men vie
An American journalist with the German Army
Until the United States of America came into the First World War
on the side of the Allies in 1917, it was a neutral nation
considered, in theory at least, to have no interest in the outcome
of the war. This enabled American journalists to visit both sides
of the battle lines and this in turn enabled the author of this
book, Edward Lyell Fox, to gain access to the German war effort in
considerable depth and detail. Accounts of the Great War from the
German perspective are not common in the English language and so
this book provides interesting insights from a neutral viewpoint.
Fox visited the Western Front and was present as the conflict at
Ypres broke out. He also accompanied the German Army through the
Flanders campaign and later visited the Russian Front with German
forces. He was an eyewitness at the Battle of Augustowo Wald in
East Prussia-an overwhelming German victory. Fox concludes his book
with an account of the work of the American Red Cross on the battle
front. This is an interesting book for students who seek both a
different view of the conflict and an examination of less familiar
battles fronts.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
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