'Lloyd George at War, 1916-1918' provides a much needed re-evaluation of this charismatic prime minister's wartime leadership. Calling on a wide range of primary sources and focussing on Lloyd George's role in the war cabinet, Cassar compellingly argues that George's reputation as the "man who won the war" was wholly unmerited. Instead Cassar shows that Lloyd George's heavy handed leadership was often detrimental to the Allied cause. From his wholehearted support for the disastrous Nivelle offensive, to his pursuit of a peripheral strategy that diverted troops away from the critical theatre of war on the Western Front, Cassar shows that Lloyd George consistently bucked the advice of his generals in preference for ineffectual and dangerous military strategies. Cassar's approach also differs from that of other studies of Lloyd George by adopting a thematic approach in preference to a chronological narrative, thereby allowing a closer evaluation of Lloyd George's handling of complex issues.

A century after it began, we still struggle with the terrible reality of the First World War, often through republished photographs of its horrors: the muddy trenches, the devastated battlefields, the maimed survivors. Due to the crude film cameras used at the time, the look of the Great War has traditionally been grainy, blurred, and monochrome-until now. The First World War presents a startlingly different perspective, one based on rare glass plate photographs, that reveals the war with previously unseen, even uncanny, clarity. Scanned from the original plates, with scratches and other flaws expertly removed, these oversized reproductions offer a wealth of unusual moments, including scenes of men in training, pictures of African colonial troops on the Western front, landscapes of astonishing destruction, and postmortem portraits of Belgian soldiers killed in action. Readers previously familiar with only black-and-white or sepia-toned prints of the hostilities will be riveted by the book's many authentic color photographs, products of the early autochrome method. From children playing war games to a wrenching deathbed visit, these images are extraordinary not only for their subject matter, but also for the wide range of emotions they evoke. Accompanied by a preface from celebrated writer Geoff Dyer and an essay by historian David Van Reybrouck, the photographs here serve both as remarkable witnesses to the everyday life of warfare and as dramatic works of art in their own right. These images, taken by some of the conflict's most gifted photographers, will radically change how we visualize the First World War.

This book addresses the potentially deadly challenge of getting across No Man's Land in good shape to fight at the other side. It explores the development of the British Army's infantry battle tactics during the Great War using the largest infantry regiment, the Northumberland Fusiliers, as a case study. Principles and, in particular, practice are covered. The study demonstrates the transformation of the British Army from an essentially Victorian army to a recognisably modern army; adapting tactics to the circumstances and saving lives in the process. A novel research approach is used; comparing Army doctrine with the reality at battalion level which yields a unique insight into experience and learning on the Western Front. Two hundred and eleven attacks and 75 raids are identified through a census of all 28 of the Regiment's battalion war diaries covering 25,876 diary days. The analysis is set in the overall context of the War taking in the full sweep, from beginning to end, and also gives some small insight into the so called sideshows. A by-product of the research approach has been a detailed activity analysis, the `doings', summarising what each Northumberland Fusiliers' battalion was engaged in every day and for the Regiment in aggregate. This is a secondary but no less valuable theme of the study, which also yields good material on infantry training. Furthermore, when activities are known on a daily basis, it is possible to correlate attacks with fatalities and to attempt to discover relationships between the two.

After the great battles of 1916, the Allied Armies planned to launch massive attacks North and South of the Somme. The German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917 forced the new French CinC General Nivelle to rethink and the French embarked on a major attack in the Aisne area and along the Chemin des Dames, with the British conducting large scale diversionary operations around Arras. The French suffered disastrously and, rendered incapable of further offensive operations, it fell to the British to step up the pressure, which they did albeit at a terrible price. This latest work by expert Jack Sheldon describes the event of Spring 1917 from the defenders' perspective. In particular it reveals the methods the Germans used to smash the French attacks and Oberst Fritz von Lossberg's transformation of the defences in the Arras front. Actions described in detail are the bitter battles around Monchy Le Preun, the Roeux Chemical works and Bullecourt as well as the capture of Vimy Ridge.

Reassesses the role of the British Naval Staff during the First World War, challenging many widely-held views, and casting much new light on controversial issues and individuals. Winner of the Society for Nautical Research's prestigious Anderson Medal, 2010. Nicholas Black examines the role of the Naval Staff of the Admiralty in the 1914-18 war, reassessing both the calibre of the Staff and the function and structure of the Staff. He challenges historians such as Arthur Marder and naval figures such as Captains Herbert Richmond and Kenneth Dewar who were influential in creating the largely bad press that the Staff has receivedsubsequently, showing that their influence has, at times, been both unhealthy and misinformed. The way in which the Staff developed during the war from a small, overstretched and often manipulated body, to a much more highly specialised and successful one is also examined, reassessing the roles of key individuals such as Jellicoe and Geddes, and suggesting that the structure of the Staff has been misunderstood and that it was a rather more sophisticated body than historians have traditionally appreciated. Black also looks at how the Staff performed in various major naval issues of the war: the role of the Grand Fleet, the war against the U-boat, the Dardanelles Operation and the implementation of the economic blockade against Germany. Overall, the book complements, and at times challenges, both operational histories of the war and biographies of the leading individuals involved. NICHOLAS BLACK is Head of History at Dulwich College.

Dancing in the Sky is the first complete telling of the First World War fighter pilottraining initiative established by the British in response to the terrible losses occurring in the skies over Europe in 1916. This program, up and running in under six months despite enormous obstacles, launched Canada into the age of flight ahead of the United States.

The results enabled the Allies to regain control of the skies and eventually win the war, but at a terrible price. Flying was in its infancy and pilot training primitive. This is the story of the talented and courageous men and women who made the training program a success, complete with the romance, tragedy, humour, and pathos that accompany an account of such heroic proportions. A valuable addition to Canada's military history, this book will appeal to all who enjoy an exceptional adventure story embedded in Canada's past.

The fast and formidably-armed battlescruisers of Great Britain and Germany that were developed before and during the First World War are, in this new book, compared and contrasted in a way, and at a level of detail that has never been attempted before. The authors begin by looking at the relationship and rivalry between Great Britain and Germany and at how foreign policy, strategic and tactical considerations, economic, industrial and technological developments, and naval policies led to the instigation of the battlecruiser programmes in both countries. Chapters are then devoted to the development of the type in each country, at their design and construction, protection, propulsion plants, weapons, fire control, and communication systems, focussing particularly on the innovative aspects of the designs and on their strengths and weaknesses. These ships eventually clashed in the North Sea at Dogger Bank, in January 1915, and while neither side suffered losses, the differences in their design and handling were apparent, differences that would be more starkly highlighted a year later at Jutland when three British ships were destroyed.These actions, and others they took part in, are described and assessed by the authors who then conclude by analysing their strengths and limitations. This is a major new work for naval enthusiasts everywhere.

A treasure-trove of previously unpublished letters and first hand accounts from British 'tommies' of life and death in the trenches during the First World War. This is the story of the men who held the front line in France and Flanders. It is a graphic account of a strange and seemingly unending style of life and death in all their facets. It is a unique approach, an anthology interwoven with a continuous commentary so that the reader is always kept aware of the context of the writing. The balanced and un-emotive approach cannot, however, fail to leave the reader deeply moved. Domestic life in the line: accommodation, food and drink, wiring and carrying, the whole day and night routine are investigated, as are the operational aspects of trench life - raiding and patrolling in no-man's-land and the German lines. Actual battle experience is also featured, but one of the most interesting parts of the book is devoted to the attitudes of front line soldiers, officers and their men, to each other; to the staff; to their Allies; to wounds; to fear; to God; to the sheer horror of it all. There is also a strong sense of humour about some of the material included - often a necessary antidote to the appalling conditions, but it should not be thought that everyone involved hated it. Some young soldiers found in it experience and responsibility beyond their years, while the professionals went to war with cool enthusiasm. The aim of this all encompassing portrayal of the front line is to grip the reader such that it cannot be put down, and that by the time it is finished he or she will have a genuine understanding of what it was like to fight in the trenches of the Western Front.

George S. Patton is one of the most controversial, celebrated, and popular military leaders in American history, and his accomplishments and victories have been greatly documented. Yet Patton spent years in the Army before garnering national attention and becoming a highly-regarded and respected military leader. This work explores Patton's beginnings as a driven and intrepid soldier and his battles leading up to the Great War -- military experiences which would be influential in his development as a commander. Drawing upon Patton's papers and archival documents in the National Archives, this is an early-career biography of the eminent military leader. It begins with his exploits as a relatively junior but ambitious Army officer who, due to his family's wealth and influence, was able to join General John J. Pershing's American Expeditionary Force (AEF). This assignment would ultimately change his life in two ways: it would make Pershing the mentor Patton would emulate for the rest of his life, and it would catapult his military career as the first tanker in the US Army. This study follows Patton's trajectory, from the creation of the Tank Corps and the Light Tank School, to Patton's eventual successes and injuries during the Battle of Saint Mihiel, the attack into Pannes, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Revealed is that the experience Patton gained in World War I was seminal in his evolvement as a leader and laid the groundwork for not only his own personal future triumphs but also for the success of the entire United States Army armored forces in World War II.

This fascinating book tells the forgotten story of four to five thousand British civilians who were interned at the Ruhleben camp near Berlin during the First World War and formed a unique community in the heart of enemy territory. The civilians included academics, musicians, businessmen, seamen and even tourists who had been in Germany for only a few days when war broke out. This book takes a fresh look at German internment policies within an international context, using Ruhleben camp as a particular example to illustrate broader themes includeing the background to the German decision to intern 'enemy aliens'; Ruhleben as a 'community at war'; the role of civilian internment in wartime diplomacy and propaganda; and the place of Ruhleben in British memory of the war. This study will be of interest to all scholars working on the First World War, and to all those concerned with the broader impact of modern conflicts on national identities and community formation. -- .

This fascinating book tells the forgotten story of four to five thousand British civilians who were interned at the Ruhleben camp near Berlin during the First World War and formed a unique community in the heart of enemy territory. The civilians included academics, musicians, businessmen, seamen and even tourists who had been in Germany for only a few days when war broke out. This book takes a fresh look at German internment policies within an international context, using Ruhleben camp as a particular example to illustrate broader themes includeing the background to the German decision to intern 'enemy aliens'; Ruhleben as a 'community at war'; the role of civilian internment in wartime diplomacy and propaganda; and the place of Ruhleben in British memory of the war. This study will be of interest to all scholars working on the First World War, and to all those concerned with the broader impact of modern conflicts on national identities and community formation. -- .

Few army chaplains had as varied a career during the First World War as the Reverend Benjamin O'Rorke. A regular army chaplain who had seen service in the Boer War he was mobilised with 54 other chaplains at the start of hostilities. He went to France with 4 Field Ambulance where he was taken prisoner by the Germans at the end of August 1914. He was repatriated in July 1915 and wrote a book of his experiences. Returning to France he served as frontline chaplain before being posted to serve as a staff chaplain to the Deputy Chaplain General. Posted back to the UK in June 1918 he died on 25th December 1918 during the flu epidemic. The central part of the book is a transcription of the diary he kept during January to June 1918. At the heart of the administration of Church of England chaplaincy on the Western Front he recorded an inside view of how chaplains were thinking, particularly about postwar British society. His notes include record of sermons preached throughout the war which give a fascinating record of one chaplain's perspective on the developing war. The book puts the experiences of Ben O'Rorke within the context of chaplaincy during the First World War. His story ran in parallel to that of Bishop Llewellyn Gwynne, Bishop of Khartoum, who had been in London in August 1914 and with the help of O'Rorke had been commissioned into the Army Chaplains'Department. Gwynne had prepared O'Rorke for confirmation. It is into Gwynne's office as DCG that O'Rorke would be posted. Gwynne's extensive war time diaries help to shed light on O'Rorke and his work. This book will appeal to all who are interested in how a regular army chaplain coped with mobilisation, life as a prisoner of war, and then of the ever lengthening war. It provides information on the large number of chaplains with whom he came into contact whilst keeping the diary. As well as an introduction and notes to explain the diary and other writings there is a discussion about the value of chaplains'diaries and letters in understanding the First World War. Additionally, guidance is provided as to where original source material can be located.

A heartwarming and dramatic World War I saga of secrets, love and the British royal family for readers of Daisy Styles and Maisie Thomas. 'A heartwarming historical novel' Rosie Goodwin 'A gripping historical saga' Daisy Styles Roll out the red carpet. The royal train is due in half an hour and there's not a minute to be wasted. It's 1915 and the country is at war. In the small Norfolk village of Wolferton, uncertainty plagues the daily lives of sisters Ada, Jessie and Beatrice Saward, as their men are dispatched to the frontlines of Gallipoli. Harry, their father, is the station master at the local stop for the royal Sandringham Estate. With members of the royal family and their aristocratic guests passing through the station on their way to the palace, the Sawards' unique position gives them unrivalled access to the monarchy. But when the Sawards' estranged and impoverished cousin Maria shows up out of the blue, everything the sisters thought they knew about their family is thrown into doubt. The Royal Station Master's Daughters is the first book in a brand-new World War I saga series, inspired by the Saward family, who ran the station at Wolferton in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through this history-making family we get a glimpse into all walks of life - from glittering royalty to the humblest of servants. Don't miss the second book in the series, The Royal Station Master's Daughters at War, coming in 2022. Pre-order now. 'Anyone who reads romantic fiction in a historical setting should love [The Royal Station Master's Daughters] but for anyone who knows Sandringham it really does evoke something of the place and life on the estate' Neil Storey, WWI historian

1914-1918, David Stevenson's history of the First World War, has been acclaimed as the definitive one-volume account of the conflict In the summer of 1914 Europe exploded into a frenzy of mass violence. The war that followed had global repercussions, destroying four empires and costing millions of lives. Even the victorious countries were scarred for a generation, and we still today remain within the conflict's shadow. In this major analysis David Stevenson re-examines the causes, course and impact of this 'war to end war', placing it in the context of its era and exposing its underlying dynamics. His book provides a wide-ranging international history, drawing on insights from the latest research. It offers compelling answers to the key questions about how this terrible struggle unfolded: questions that remain disturbingly relevant for our own time. 'It's harder to imagine a better single-volume comprehensive history of the conflict than this superb study' Ian Kershaw 'Perhaps the best comprehensive one-volume history of the war yet written' New Yorker 'David Stevenson is the real deal ... His defining characteristic is his outstanding rigour as an historian ... tremendously clever' Niall Ferguson 'This history of the 1914-1918 conflict surpasses all others. It is tough, erudite and comprehensive' Independent

The First World War has been described as the "primordial catastrophe of the twentieth century." Arguably, Italian Fascism, German National Socialism and Soviet Leninism and Stalinism would not have emerged without the cultural and political shock of World War I. The question why this catastrophe happened therefore preoccupies historians to this day. The focus of this volume is not on the consequences, but rather on the connection between the Great War and the long 19th century, the short- and long-term causes of World War I. This approach results in the questioning of many received ideas about the war's causes, especially the notion of "inevitability."

The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times--modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society--and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment. With The First World War, John Keegan, one of our most eminent military historians, fulfills a lifelong ambition to write the definitive account of the Great War for our generation.

Probing the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict, Keegan takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe's crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis. He reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf an entire continent.

But the heart of Keegan's superb narrative is, of course, his analysis of the military conflict. With unequalled authority and insight, he recreates the nightmarish engagements whose names have become legend--Verdun, the Somme and Gallipoli among them--and sheds new light on the strategies and tactics employed, particularly the contributions of geography and technology. No less central to Keegan's account is the human aspect. He acquaints us with the thoughts of the intriguing personalities who oversaw the tragically unnecessary catastrophe--from heads of state like Russia's hapless tsar, Nicholas II, to renowned warmakers such as Haig, Hindenburg and Joffre. But Keegan reserves his most affecting personal sympathy for those whose individual efforts history has not recorded--"the anonymous millions, indistinguishably drab, undifferentially deprived of any scrap of the glories that by tradition made the life of the man-at-arms tolerable."

By the end of the war, three great empires--the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman--had collapsed. But as Keegan shows, the devastation ex-tended over the entirety of Europe, and still profoundly informs the politics and culture of the continent today. His brilliant, panoramic account of this vast and terrible conflict is destined to take its place among the classics of world history.

With 24 pages of photographs, 2 endpaper maps, and 15 maps in text

Empires at War, 1911-1923 offers a new perspective on the history of the Great War. It expands the story of the war both in time and space to include the violent conflicts that preceded and followed the First World War, from the 1911 Italian invasion of Libya to the massive violence that followed the collapse of the Ottoman, Russian, and Austrian empires until 1923. It also presents the war as a global war of empires rather than a a European war between nation-states. This volume tells the story of the millions of imperial subjects called upon to defend their imperial governments' interest, the theatres of war that lay far beyond Europe, and the wartime roles and experiences of innumerable peoples from outside the European continent. Empires at War covers the broad, global mobilizations that saw African solders and Chinese labourers in the trenches of the Western Front, Indian troops in Jerusalem, and the Japanese military occupying Chinese territory. Finally, the volume shows how the war set the stage for the collapse not only of specific empires, but of the imperial world order writ large.

The pages of history recall scarcely any parallel episode at once so romantic in character and so extensive in scale." ,Winston S. ChurchillIn 1917, two empires that had dominated much of Europe and Asia teetered on the edge of the abyss, exhausted by the ruinous cost in blood and treasure of the First World War. As Imperial Russia and Habsburg-ruled Austria-Hungary began to succumb, a small group of Czech and Slovak combat veterans stranded in Siberia saw an opportunity to realize their long-held dream of independence.While their plan was audacious and complex, and involved moving their 50,000-strong army by land and sea across three-quarters of the earth's expanse, their commitment to fight for the Allies on the Western Front riveted the attention of Allied London, Paris, and Washington.On their journey across Siberia, a brawl erupted at a remote Trans-Siberian rail station that sparked a wholesale rebellion. The marauding Czecho-Slovak Legion seized control of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and with it Siberia. In the end, this small band of POWs and deserters, whose strength was seen by Leon Trotsky as the chief threat to Soviet rule, helped destroy the Austro-Hungarian Empire and found Czecho-Slovakia.British prime minister David Lloyd George called their adventure one of the greatest epics of history," and former US president Teddy Roosevelt declared that their accomplishments were unparalleled, so far as I know, in ancient or modern warfare."

In October 1918, war-weary German sailors mutinied when the Imperial Naval Command ordered their engagement in one final, fruitless battle with the British Royal Navy. This revolt, in the dying embers of the First World War, quickly erupted into a full scale revolution that toppled the monarchy and inaugurated a period of radical popular democracy. The establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919 ended the revolution, relegating all but its most prominent leaders to a historical footnote. In A People's History of the German Revolution, William A. Pelz cuts against the grain of mainstream accounts that tend to present the revolution as more of a 'collapse', or just a chaotic interregnum that preceded the country's natural progression into a republic. Going beyond the familiar names of Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg or Clara Zetkins, Pelz explores the revolution from the bottom up, focusing on the active role that women, rank-and-file activists, and ordinary workers played in its events. Rejecting the depiction of agency as exclusively in the hands of international actors like Woodrow Wilson or in those of German elites, he makes the compelling case that, for a brief period, the actions of the common people shaped a truly revolutionary society.

Robert Prager, a lonely German immigrant searching for the American dream, was probably the most shameful U.S. casualty of World War I. From coast to coast, Americans had been whipped into a patriotic frenzy by a steady diet of government propaganda and hate-mongering. In Collinsville, Illinois, an enraged, drunken mob hung Prager from a tree just after midnight on April 5, 1918. Coal miners in the St. Louis suburb would show the nation they were doing their patriotic part - that they, too, were fighting the fight. And who would stop them anyway? Not the alderman or businessmen who watched silently. Not the four policemen who let Prager from their custody, without drawing a weapon. And who would hold the mob leaders accountable? Certainly not the jury that took just ten minutes to acquit them, all while a band played "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the courthouse lobby. Peter Stehman sheds light on the era's hijacking of civil liberties and a forgotten crime some might say has fallen prey to "patriotic amnesia." Unfortunately, the lessons from Patriotic Murder on intolerance and hate still resonate today as anti-immigration rhetoric and uber-nationalism have resurfaced in American political discussion a century later.

With the Great War (1914-18) Centennial beginning in 2014, this is a comprehensive study of Prussian/German railways in peace and strife, 1825-1918 -men, rails, lines, engines, cars, and stations. They all played a crucial part in Germany's Wars of Unification during 1864-71, the interwar years, and the final catastrophe that toppled many crowns, thrones, and states, all told from a railroad perspective, a unique way of exploring the history of the 19th-20th Centuries. Here the reader will also find the sagas of the other railways aligned both for and against the Second Reich: Berlin-Baghdad, Trans-Siberian, Hejaz, African, Italian, American, and more. Presented also are notable individual historic trains, such as those of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tsar Nicholas II, hospital conveyances, differing gauges, railroad guns, armored trains, Lenin's infamous "sealed train" through Germany to Russia, and much more. Here, too, are the famous men who made "training" a successful wartime tool: banker Bleichroder, soldiers von Moltke, raider Lawrence of Arabia, Bulow and Hindenburg, and how French Marshal Foch's railroad dining car became the focal point of the Great War's final ending.From the very first German passenger service to the Russian Civil War, this is epic railroading as a military force.

'The First World War cut deep into the consciousness of modern man'

For four years, while statesmen and generals blundered, the massed armies of Europe writhed in a festival of mud and blood. All the madness, massacres, and mutinies of the foulest war in history are brought home here by action pictures of the day and the text of an uncompromising historian.