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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
Wallach provides a pioneering study of coalition warfare. Using
World War I as a case study, Wallach examines such important
aspects as Allied pre-war planning; the particularistic interests
of coalition partners; human relations; the framework for
coordination mechanisms within coalitions; the application of such
concepts as a general reserve, unified command, and amalgamation of
forces; logistical problems; war finance; and the transition from
war to peace.
In the process, Wallach shows that coalition warfare is among
the most difficult forms to develop and maintain successfully.
Unfortunately, as recent post-Cold War experiences illustrate,
coalition warfare is an ongoing military issue. As such, this book
will be of great interest to military planners as well as students
of the history of World War I.
COLONIAL SETTLERS, ASKARIS AND MASAI SCOUTS. AMBUSH AND BATTLE
AMONG WILD ANIMALS AS DANGEROUS AS THE ENEMY ITSELF. Colonial
neighbours in British & German East Africa fought their war far
from the Western front across country familiar today as the great
game reserves. The East African Mounted Rifles were six squadrons
amalgamated from hastily formed volunteer units such as Bowkers
Horse and the Legion of Frontiersmen. Encounters with enraged
lions, horses camouflaged as zebras, a brief period as marines all
form part of this most unusual account of a most unusual campaign.
An incredible adventure from the Great War
This is a unique and riveting book. The steamer Tara and her crew
spent the early part of WW1 patrolling the Northern Channel between
England and Ireland before a transfer to coastal duties off Egypt
and Libya. There she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat
operating from a secret base on the Libyan coast. To ensure no
intelligence of it's presence leaked to the British, the Germans
towed the survivors-including this book's author, the Tara's
captain, into captivity at the hands of the Senussi-religious
zealots in league with the Ottoman Turkish forces. Then began a
tortuous ordeal for the crew who suffered abuse, starvation and in
some cases death at the hands of their gaolers. Abortive escape
attempts across the relentless 'Red Desert' followed before rescue
finally came in the form of a dramatic hunt and final assault by
the forty armoured cars of the Duke of Westminster's squadron. An
absolutely essential and gripping read which will be a delight to
all those interested in the fortunes of British seamen, the war in
the Middle East and well told accounts of true adventure.
Between 1917 and 1919 women enlisted in the Women's Land Army, a
national organisation with the task of increasing domestic food
production. Behind the scenes organisers laboured to not only
recruit an army of women workers, but to also dispel public fears
that Britain's Land Girls would be defeminized and devalued by
their wartime experiences.
The East African Campaign through a British Army Doctor's eyes The
author of this book-a practicing doctor in the British Army-had
already served on the Western Front in the early months of the
Great War and had actually become a P. O. W. at the hands of the
German enemy. Now in the East African Campaign he explains-in
writings originally intended for his own family-every aspect of war
in this little reported theatre. We learn about the movements of
troops and battle actions, but also of the character of troops from
many countries and of the African tribes who fought for each side.
We hear of the trials of the motor transport men-dodging ambush and
wild animals equally-and of the adventures of the "behind the
lines" intelligence gatherers living thrilling and dangerous lives
in the bush. Finally we are shown the difficulties of keeping men
healthy and the problems of saving lives under the most arduous
conditions. This is an unusual and interesting perspective on war
from a medical man in Africa.
Nets, mines and bullets
Very rarely, as we warm our hands by a coal fire or eat our fish
supper, do we think about what it took to heat our rooms or fill
our plates. We may feel grateful that the task was fortunately
undertaken by others-that it is something we would not wish to do
ourselves-but nothing more. The life of the fishermen of Northern
waters is, and always has been, a perilous one, many brave sailors
have drowned in pursuit of food for our nation. When war came the
fishing fleet, aware of its duty, did not dry dock and hang its
nets until peace returned. It still set out to fish, aware that the
perils of its trade would be worsened by the presence of an enemy
that knows that a hungry nation will be subdued more quickly. It
would have been enough if that was all British fishermen had done,
but they also gathered intelligence, cleared mines, fought actions
from armed fishing vessels and many other incredible acts of
courage and devotion. These were not men whose achievements were
seen as glamorous, but they were nonetheless brave, unsung heroes
in war as well as in peace. This book details the actions of
British Fishermen in Northern waters during the First World War; it
is, of course, an account so full of action and incident that it is
essential reading for those interested in the study of maritime
warfare.
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 front-line soldiers of the First World War endured appalling
conditions in the trenches and suffered unprecedented slaughter in
battle. Their morale, as much as the strategy of their commanders,
played the crucial part in determining the outcome of `the war to
end all wars'. J. G. Fuller examines the experience of the soldiers
of the British and Dominion armies. How did the troops regard their
plight? What did they think they were fighting for? Dr Fuller draws
on a variety of contemporary sources, including over a hundred
magazines produced by the soldiers themselves. This is the first
scholarly analysis of the trench journalism which played an
important role in the lives of the ordinary soldiers. Other themes
explored include the nature of patriotism, discipline, living
conditions, and leisure activities such as sport, concert parties,
and the music hall. Dr Fuller's vivid and detailed study throws new
light on the question of warfare, and in particular how the British
and Dominion armies differed from those of their allies and
opponents, which were wracked by mutiny or defeat as the war went
on.
The commander of the BEF's view of the Great War
This book, written by Sir John French, concerns his period of
command during the first period of the Great War. Predictably, as
in many commander's memoirs it displays much partiality as to his
own actions and those of others. This is particularly noteworthy
since the consensus view of the history of the time does not
judge-with much justification-French kindly. At the outbreak of the
war French was the obvious choice for command and his views
accorded with the government establishment if not with more forward
thinking military men under his command. Fast moving German
offensives revealed French's military strategy with its faith in
inflexible defensive strongpoints to be hopelessly out of date.
Events overtook him and were it not for Smith-Dorrien's aggressive
action during the First Battle of Mons-for which seemingly French
never forgave him-the BEF could easily have been overwhelmed.
French became increasing out of touch and indecisive and was
replaced in 1915 by Haig. This book is far from a balanced history,
but is an important account of how a nineteenth century soldier saw
his twentieth century war. It also contains much factual
information on the dispositions of troops and actions in what was a
fluid stage of the conflict.
World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from
1914 to 1918. Contemporaneously known as the Great War or "the war
to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70
million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making
it one of the largest wars in history. This series of Eight volumes
provides year by year analysis of the war that resulted in the
death of more than 17 million deaths worldwide.
An insightful account of the devastating impact of the Great War,
upon the already fragile British colonial African state of Northern
Rhodesia. Deploying extensive archival and rare evidence from
surviving African veterans, it investigates African resistance at
this time.
The Avant-Garde in Interwar England addresses modernism's ties to
tradition, commerce, nationalism, and spirituality through an
analysis of the assimilation of visual modernism in England between
1910 and 1939. During this period, a debate raged across the nation
concerning the purpose of art in society. On one side were the
aesthetic formalists, led by members of London's Bloomsbury Group,
who thought art was autonomous from everyday life. On the other
were England's so-called medieval modernists, many of them from the
provincial North, who maintained that art had direct social
functions and moral consequences. As Michael T. Saler demonstrates
in this fascinating volume, the heated exchange between these two
camps would ultimately set the terms for how modern art was
perceived by the British public.
Histories of English modernism have usually emphasized the seminal
role played by the Bloomsbury Group in introducing, celebrating,
and defining modernism, but Saler's study instead argues that,
during the watershed years between the World Wars, modern art was
most often understood in the terms laid out by the medieval
modernists. As the name implies, these artists and intellectuals
closely associated modernism with the art of the Middle Ages,
building on the ideas of John Ruskin, William Morris, and other
nineteenth-century romantic medievalists. In their view, modernism
was a spiritual, national, and economic movement, a new and
different artistic sensibility that was destined to revitalize
England's culture as well as its commercial exports when applied to
advertising and industrial design.
This book, then, concerns the busy intersection of art, trade, and
national identity in the early decades of twentieth-century
England. Specifically, it explores the life and work of Frank Pick,
managing director of the London Underground, whose famous patronage
of modern artists, architects, and designers was guided by a desire
to unite nineteenth-century arts and crafts with twentieth-century
industry and mass culture. As one of the foremost adherents of
medieval modernism, Pick converted London's primary public
transportation system into the culminating project of the arts and
crafts movement. But how should today's readers regard Pick's
achievement? What can we say of the legacy of this visionary patron
who sought to transform the whole of sprawling London into a
post-impressionist work of art? And was medieval modernism itself a
movement of pioneers or dreamers? In its bold engagement with such
questions, The Avant-Garde in Interwar England will surely appeal
to students of modernism, twentieth-century art, the cultural
history of England, and urban history.
The epic battle of the Marine Fusiliers in the Great War
The men of the French Fusiliers Marins were always bound to draw
public attention because irrespective of their proud military
tradition, which often had them fighting alongside the celebrated
French Foreign Legion, their distinctive uniform set them apart
from the ordinary 'poilus' of the French infantry. The 'naval
style' uniform of the men with their characteristic jaunty red
pompomed hats and their officers in naval finery made them a unit
guaranteed to draw attention and inspire admiration and romance.
The role of this unit should not be confused with that of British
Royal Marines. They were not intended to be sea going soldiers but
to serve as land based infantry primarily in defence of naval
stations and in campaigns where amphibious landings and naval
support was essential. In the opening stages of the First World War
between the middle of October and the middle of November 1914,
these remarkable troops fought at Dixmude in Flanders, against the
overwhelming tide of the German Army, in a fierce action that
upheld their finest traditions, but all but annihilated them. This
book is the account of that battle.
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.
In this book, seven internationally renowned experts on Japanese
and Asian history have come together to investigate, with
innovative methodological approaches, various aspects of the
Japanese experience during and after the First World War.
The importance of the Italian front in the First World War is often
overlooked. Nor is it realised that British troops fought in Italy.
The Forgotten Front demonstrates Italy's vital contribution to the
Allied effort, including Lloyd George's plan to secure overall
victory by an offensive on this front. Although his grand scheme
was frustrated, British troops were committed to the theatre and
played a real part in holding the Italian line and in the final
victory of 1918. George H. Cassar, in an account that is original,
scholarly and readable, covers both the strategic considerations
and the actual fighting.
Faced by stalemate on the Western Front, Lloyd George argued
strongly in 1917 for a joint Allied campaign in Italy to defeat
Austria-Hungary. Knocking Germany's principal ally out of the war
would lead in turn to the collapse of Germany itself. While his
plan had real attractions, it also begged many questions. These
allowed Haig and Robertson to join the French high command to
thwarting it. The disastrous Italian defeat at Caporetto in October
1917 led, however, to the deployment of a British corps in Italy
under Sir Herbert Plumer, which bolstered the Italians at a
critical juncture. Subsequently led by the Earl of Cavan, British
troops fought gallantly at the battle of Asiago in February to
March 1918 and contributed significantly to the final defeat of
Austria-Hungary at Vittorio Veneto in October.
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