"Richard Rubin has done something that will never be possible for anyone to do again. His interviews with the last American World War I veterans--who have all since died--bring to vivid life a cataclysm that changed our world forever but that remains curiously forgotten here."--Adam Hochschild, author of "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
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In 2003, 85 years after the end of World War I, Richard Rubin set out to see if he could still find and talk to someone who had actually served in the American Expeditionary Forces during that colossal conflict. Ultimately, he found dozens, aged 101 to 113, from Cape Cod to Carson City, who shared with him at the last possible moment their stories of America's Great War. Nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century, they were self-reliant, humble, and stoic, never complaining, but still marveling at the immensity of the war they helped win, and the complexity of the world they helped create. Though America has largely forgotten their war, you will never forget them, or their stories. A decade in the making, "The Last of the Doughboys" is the most sweeping look at America's First World War in a generation, a glorious reminder of the tremendously important role America played in the war to end all wars, as well as a moving meditation on character, grace, aging, and memory.
"An outstanding and fascinating book. By tracking down the last surviving veterans of the First World War and interviewing them with sympathy and skill, Richard Rubin has produced a first-rate work of reporting."--Ian Frazier, author of "Travels in Siberia"
"I cannot remember a book about that huge and terrible war that I have enjoyed reading more in many years."--Michael Korda, "The Daily Beast"

Despite Damon Runyons iconic status as a fiction writer and reporter, one particular chapter of his extraordinary career has been completely overlooked. During World War I he was an accredited war correspondentwriting a series of dispatches from Europe, he followed the American Doughboys through France, into Germany, and back home. This period marked a monumental transition not only in Americas view of itself and its role in the world, but of Runyons own style and how we could come to portray America. Along with his collected dispatches, this volume also includes his wartime poetry. Biographical and literary introductions and exhaustive notes provide additional information about the people, places, and events that made up his writing. A vital bridge from his earlier regional writing to his later Broadway works, these stories of civilians thrust into military uniforms provide a rare behind-the-scenes look at World War I and the formation of Runyonesque style itself.

The typewritten script of a First World War pilot's diary with a large number of photographs was submitted to the publishers William Heinemann and published by them in 1933. Heinemann stated on the book's jacket that the diary contained no names, dates, or anything that could reveal the identity of the writer or the squadron in which he served. The publishers understood that the diarist was killed in action in 1918 and that it was in deference to the wishes of those who were close to him that his diary should be published. So remarkable were the photographs that their veracity was immediately questioned, but no proof of their authenticity or otherwise could be ascertained. It was not until 1983 that a collection of documents, photographs and artefacts was presented to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Some of the photographs were recognised as being those of the mystery diarist and the truth was soon revealed. The author was Wesley Archer, an American with Canadian parents who served with the RFC in the First World War, and the photographs and diary had been faked.

In the aftermath of the Great War the East Africa campaign was destined to be dismissed by many in Britain as a remote 'sideshow' in which only a handful of names and episodes - the Koenigsberg, von Lettow-Vorbeck, the 'Naval Expedition to Lake Tanganyika' - achieved any lasting notoriety. But to the other combatant powers - Germany, South Africa, India, Belgium and Portugal - it was, and would remain, a campaign of huge importance. Africa quite simply mattered. A 'small war', consisting of a few 'local affairs', was all that was expected in August 1914 as Britain moved to eliminate the threat to the high seas of German naval bases in Africa. But two weeks after the Armistice was signed in Europe British and German troops were still fighting in Africa after four years of what one campaign historian described as 'a war of extermination and attrition without parallel in modern times'. The expense of the campaign to the British Empire was immense, the Allied and German 'butchers bills' even greater. But the most tragic consequence of the two sides' deadly game of 'tip and run' was the devastation of an area five times the size of Germany, and civilian suffering on a scale unimaginable in Europe. Such was the cost of 'The White Man's Palaver', the final phase of the European conquest of Africa. 'Superb' Sunday Times 'Masterful' Daily Mail 'Gripping' Daily Telegraph

Recent discussion, academic publications and many of the national exhibitions relating to the Great War at sea have focussed on capital ships, Jutland and perhaps U-boats. Very little has been published about the crucial role played by fishermen, fishing vessels and coastal communities all round the British Isles. Yet fishermen and armed fishing craft were continually on the maritime front line throughout the conflict; they formed the backbone of the Auxiliary Patrol and were in constant action against-U-boats or engaged on unrelenting minesweeping duties. Approximately 3000 fishing vessels were requisitioned and armed by the Admiralty and more than 39,000 fishermen joined the Trawler Section of the Royal Naval Reserve. The class and cultural gap between working fishermen and many RN officers was enormous. This book examines the multifaceted role that fishermen and the fish trade played throughout the conflict. It examines the reasons why, in an age of dreadnoughts and other high-tech military equipment, so many fishermen and fishing vessels were called upon to play such a crucial role in the littoral war against mines and U-boats, not only around the British Isles but also off the coasts of various other theatres of war. It will analyse the nature of the fishing industry's war-time involvement and also the contribution that non-belligerent fishing vessels continued to play in maintaining the beleaguered nation's food supplies.

World War I had a profound impact on the United States of America, which was forced to 'grow' an army almost overnight. The day the United States declared war on Germany, the US Army was only the 17th largest in the world, ranking behind Portugal - the Regular Army had only 128,00 troops, backed up by the National Guard with some 182,000 troops. By the end of the war it had grown to 3,700,000, with slightly more than half that number in Europe. Until the United States did so, no country in all history had tried to deploy a 2-million-man force 3,000 miles from its own borders, a force led by American Expeditionary Forces Commander-in-Chief General John J. Pershing. This was America's first truly modern war and rising from its ranks was a new generation of leaders who would control the fate of the United States armed forces during the interwar period and into World War II. This book reveals the history of the key leaders working for and with John J. Pershing during this tumultuous period, including George S. Patton (tank commander and future commander of the US Third Army during World War II); Douglas MacArthur (42nd Division commander and future General of the Army) and Harry S. Truman (artillery battery commander and future President of the United States). Edited by Major General David T. Zabecki (US Army, Retired) and Colonel Douglas V. Mastriano (US Army, Retired), this fascinating title comprises chapters on individual leaders from subject experts across the US, including faculty members of the US Army War College.

Whilst the men and women of national service age were called to arms in the various Services, a parallel process was being undertaken involving the civilian population. This initiative relied in the main on volunteers accepting challenges and committing to undertake duties - some of which were far outside the comfort of their day jobs, or indeed, their previous experiences. This recruitment drive involved many more members of the population, including men and women of all ages (some with experience of the First World War), and young adults - some of which had only recently left school. Most, though not all, were provided with uniforms or badges of office - signalling to one and all that they were involved in the war effort. Of course, there were exceptions in that some young men were sent to the mining industry instead of undertaking their National Service in the armed forces, for example. In this case, there was no uniform per se; however, these so-called 'Bevin Boys' did undertake a vital role in the war effort whilst remaining civilians. Unlike the start of the First World War, the importance to the war effort of women was recognised from the outset. Some were asked to help in the manufacture of armaments, which is not covered here. Others were asked to work on the land, with timber, on the canals... the list of the varied roles was extensive. Another facet of this civilian recruitment drive focused on our young adults, for they were recognised for their potential military roles in the future. To that end, many boys (and in some cases, girls) were put into uniforms and trained in various activities.

This book tells the little-known stories of three all-Jewish battalions formed in the British army as part of the Allies' Middle East campaign, recruiting soldiers from the United States, Canada, England, and Argentina. Many of the soldiers, ranging widely in education level, social class, and combat experience, were displaced immigrants or children of such immigrants. Together, they coalesced into the all-Jewish battalions: "the liberators of the Promised Land." The ranks of the Jewish Legions included some who would become prominent leaders, such as David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel's second president; however, this book focuses on the experiences of ordinary soldiers who served alongside them. Drawing on diaries, memoirs, and letters, the book follows their journey at sea through unrestricted submarine warfare; by trains and trucks through Europe, Egypt, and Palestine; and their battlefield experiences. The authors show how these Yiddish-speaking young men forged a new kind of soldier identity with unique Jewish features, as well as an evolving sense of nationalism.

What did home mean to British soldiers and how did it help them to cope with the psychological strains of the Great War? Family relationships lie at the heart of this book. It explores the contribution letters and parcels from home played in maintaining the morale of this largely young, amateur army. And it shows how soldiers, in their turn, sought to adapt domestic habits to the trenches. Pursuing the unconscious clues within a rich collection of letters and memoirs with the help of psychoanalytical ideas, including those formulated by the veteran tank commander Wilfred Bion, this study asks fundamental questions about the psychological resources of this generation of young men. It reveals how the extremities of battle exposed the deepest emotional ties of childhood, and went on marking the post-war domestic lives of those who returned. -- .

Beneath the Killing Fields of the Western Front still lies a hidden landscape of industrialised conflict virtually untouched since 1918. This subterranean world is an ambiguous environment filled with material culture that that objectifies the scope and depth of human interaction with the diverse conflict landscapes of modern war. Covering the military reasoning for taking the war underground, as well as exploring the way that human beings interacted with these extraordinary alien environments, this book provides a more all-encompassing overview of the Western Front. The underground war was intrinsic to trench warfare and involved far more than simply trying to destroy the enemy's trenches from below. It also served as a home to thousands of men, protecting them from the metallic landscapes of the surface.With the aid of cutting edge fieldwork conducted by the author in these subterranean locales, this book combines military history, archaeology and anthropology together with primary data and unique imagery of British, French, German and American underground defences in order to explore the realities of subterranean warfare on the Western Front, and the effects on the human body and mind that living and fighting underground inevitably entailed.

Long out of print, this new edition memoir by an intelligent and articulate "other rank", provides fascinating insights into the Great War infantryman's experience. In autumn 1915, twenty-year-old Gerald Dennis enlisted in Kitchener's Army. Assigned to the 21st (Service) Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, affectionately known as the "Yeoman Rifles", he experienced fierce fighting on the Somme 1916, during Messines Ridge and Third Ypres in 1917 before deployment to Italy in the immediate aftermath of the Caporetto disaster. Re-assigned to a battalion of the Cameron Highlanders in summer 1918, Dennis took part in the advance to victory before demobilisation in 1919. A vivid and engaging record of wartime service and comradeship, his recollections are not those of the archetype disenchanted ex-soldier: "Whatever impressions the readers of this book draw, I would like to emphasise that I bear no resentment or bitterness. As far as I could, I have drawn a true and honest picture of my army life ... I realise that I did only the merest little bit for my King and Country, not that we gave either special thought. We had volunteered for them."

Newly available in paperback, this groundbreaking study examines the dynamics of race and masculinity to provide fresh historical insight into the First World War. It examines, in detail, the experiences of Jamaicans who served in the British West Indies Regiment and other British regiments. From the earliest days of the war there was reluctance to accept Jamaican and other West Indian volunteers. Black volunteers were deemed to lack the masculine qualities of stoicism and self control necessary to modern warfare. But more significanlty, prewar fears of white racial degeneration merged with concerns that many white men could not withstand the psychological effects of modern warfare. If Imperial race and gender hierarchies were to be preserved, black soldiers could not be seen to outperform white soliders on the battlefield and so were generally deployed in labour battalions. This study also provides a comprehensive discussion of the war's impact on anti-colonial struggles in the West Indies. Despite their exclusion from the front line, black Jamaican volunteers appropriated codes of military heroism, sacrifice and citizenship. After the war, veterans enlisted the idealised imagers of chivalric combat to support demands for land and political enfranchisement, culminating in the nationalist upsurge of the late 1930s. A lively and accessible account that will prove invaluable to undergraduates studying the Imperial dimensions of the First World War. It will also be of great interest to students exploring the broader implications of race and masculinity in the British Empire and to the general reader interested in warfare or black history.

The Somerset town of Frome is something of a paradox. Since being founded at the end of the sixth century its fiercely independent nature has been unchanging. A nature which, as one columnist has noted: 'seems to have revolved around the eminently sensible attitude of "To hell with national events! We will stay as we are."' And yet a century ago, when called on by its country to do its duty in the Great War, it rose to the task admirably. Men from Frome and the surrounding area experienced action in all the theatres of war that the global conflict encompassed, and they took part in the numerous battles and campaigns, on land and at sea, that have become synonymous with that conflict: Ypres, Gallipoli, Jutland, the Somme. At the same time, its civilian population received a special commendation after the war for its effort throughout it. However, the town's contribution did not stop there, as many of the returning soldiers helped to create several of the national and international monuments and memorials that would pay eternal tribute to their comrades who fell on the fields of Flanders and elsewhere.Using letters, diaries, photographs, newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts, along with other archive material, local historian and author David Lassman has assembled the story of Frome during the Great War; a story which charts the transformation of this once rich and powerful textile centre and manufacturing town, along with its people, through the life-changing events of 1914 to 1918.

The 'Forgotten Voices' of the First World War speak for the final time. LAST POST is very consciously the last word from the handful of First World War survivors who were left alive in 2004. Now they have passed away, our final human connection with the First World War has been broken. Max Arthur, a skilled interviewer, took the very last chance we had to ask questions of those who were there. Now updated to include a new introduction by the author for the centenary of the First World War.

For Home and Empire is the first book to compare voluntary wartime mobilization on the Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand home fronts. Steve Marti shows that collective acts of patriotism strengthened communal bonds, while reinforcing class, race, and gender boundaries. Which jurisdiction should provide for a soldier's wife if she moved from Hobart to northern Tasmania? Should Welsh women in Vancouver purchase comforts for hometown soldiers or Welsh ones? Should Maori enlist with a local or an Indigenous battalion? Such questions highlighted the diverging interests of local communities, the dominion governments, and the Empire. Marti applies a settler colonial framework to reveal the geographical and social divides that separated communities as they organized for war.

In Britain since the 1960s television has been the most influential medium of popular culture. Television is also the site where the Western Front of popular culture clashes with the Western Front of history. This book examines the ways in which those involved in the production of historical documentaries for this most influential media have struggled to communicate the stories of the First World War to British audiences. Documents in the BBC Written Archives Centre at Caversham, Berkshire, the Imperial War Museum, and the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives all inform the analysis. Interviews and correspondence with television producers, scriptwriters and production crew, as well as two First World War veterans who appeared in several recent documentaries provide new insights for the reader. Emma Hanna takes the reader behind the scenes of the making of the most influential documentaries from the landmark epic series The Great War (BBC, 1964) up to more recent controversial productions such as The Trench (BBC, 2002) and Not Forgotten: The Men Who Wouldn't Fight (BBC, 2008). By examining the production, broadcast and reception of a number of British television documentaries this book examines the difficult relationship between the war's history and its popular memory.

*Telling tales about men* explores some of the ways in which conscientious objectors to compulsory military service were viewed and treated in England during the First World War. In doing so it considers these men's experiences, their beliefs, perceptions and actions. Each of the six main chapters explores a different collection of ideas about objectors. Thus, they are, for example, portrayed as cowards, heroes, traitors, patriots, criminals, deviants, degenerates and upstanding, intensely moral men. Here the tales told draw upon sources ranging from diaries, government papers, tribunal records, newspapers, magazines and novels and are informed by writings from fields including literary studies, criminology, sociology and law as well as various branches of historical studies. *Telling tales about men* is essential reading for scholars in the fields of the First World War, pacifism, militarism and gender. It is also aimed at those with a general interest in the Great War and the military as well as in peace movements and pacifism. -- .

Ypres today is an international 'Town of Peace', but in 1914 the town, and the Salient, the 35-mile bulge in the Western Front, of which it is part, saw a 1500-day military campaign of mud and blood at the heart of the First World War that turned it into the devil's nursery. Distinguished biographer and historian of modern Europe Alan Palmer tells the story of the war in Flanders as a conflict that has left a deep social and political mark on the history of Europe. Denying Germany possession of the historic town of Ypres and access to the Channel coast was crucial to Britain's victory in 1918. But though Flanders battlefields are the closest on the continent to English shores, this was always much more than a narrowly British conflict. Passchendaele, the Menin Road, Hill 60 and the Messines Ridge remain names etched in folk memory. Militarily and tactically the four-year long campaign was innovative and a grim testing ground with constantly changing ideas of strategy and disputes between politicians and generals. Alan Palmer details all its aspects in an illuminating history of the place as much as the fighting man's experience.

The Battles of Coronel and the Falklands: British Naval Campaigns in the Southern Hemisphere 1914-1915 tells the story of British cruiser warfare and naval strategy in the Southern Atlantic in 1914 and 1915. This was the last naval campaign that was fought by surface warships without the intrusion of modern technology such as aircraft, submarines, mines, etc. German commerce raiders had been at large in the southern oceans since the declaration of war on 4 August 1914 and it was imperative that British forces should hunt and destroy them before they caused untold damage to British trade.The campaign to bring a German squadron to battle met with disaster (the Battle of Coronel) before final victory at the Falklands Islands. Individual raiders like the Emden, Dresden and Konigsburg were also hunted and destroyed in a fascinating series of actions where bravery and courage were displayed by both sides.

Simon Armitage has been commissioned by 14-18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Writers' Centre Norwich to write a sequence of poems in response to 26 panoramic photographs of battlefields associated with the Battle of the Somme chosen from archives at Imperial War Museum, London. The Somme Offensive took place on the Western Front between July and November 1916, and is considered to be one of the bloodiest in British military history. Armitage has written thirty poems of between two and 20 lines that are versions of The Georgics by the Roman poet Virgil. Paired with black-and-white images that are a hundred years old, the contemporary words meld with the visual devastations of war to haunting effect.