Dunes, sandstorms, freezing crags and searing heat; these are not the usual images of World War I. For many men from all over the British Empire, this was the experience of the Great War. Based on soldiers' accounts, this book reveals the hardships and complexity of British Empire soldiers' lives in this oft-forgotten but important campaign.

For nearly all of the Great War, the Jewish doctor Bernhard Bardach served with the Austro-Hungarian army in present-day Ukraine. His diaries from that period, unpublished and largely overlooked until now, represent a distinctive and powerful record of daily life on the Eastern Front. In addition to key events such as the 1916 Brusilov Offensive, Bardach also gives memorable descriptions of military personalities, refugees, food shortages, and the uncertainty and boredom that inescapably attended life on the front. Ranging from the critical first weeks of fighting to the ultimate collapse of the Austrian army, these meticulously written diaries comprise an invaluable eyewitness account of the Great War.

Shell shock achieved a very high political profile in the years 1919-1922. Publications ranging from John Bull to the Morning Post insisted that shell-shocked men should be treated with respect, and the Minister for Health announced that the government was committed to protecting shell-shocked men from the stigma of lunacy. Yet at the same time, many mentally-wounded veterans were struggling with a pension system which was failing to give them security. It is this conflict between the political rhetoric and the lived experience of many wounded veterans that explains why the government was unable to dispel the negative wartime assessment of official shell-shock treatment. There was also a real conflict between the government's wish to forget shell shock whilst memorialising the war and remembering the war dead. As a result of these contradictions, shell shock was not forgotten, on the contrary, the shell-shocked soldier quickly grew to symbolise the confusions and inconsistencies of the Great War.

The new histories of love and romance offered within this edited collection illustrate the many changes, but also the surprising continuities in understandings of love, romance, affection, intimacy and sex from the First World War until the beginning of the Women's Liberation movement.

. Uses previously unavailable archival evidence to challenge earlier theories
The popular image of the First World War is dominated by two misconceptions. The first holds that the war was an exercise in futility in which incompetent upper class generals callously sacrificed an entire generation of young men to no good purpose. The second holds that the debate about British strategic policy during the First World War was a gladiatorial contest between brass hats' (generals), and frock coats' (politicians).
Historians, denied access for too long to the contemporary records of the private deliberations of policy-makers, had been forced to follow both interpretations. David French challenges this orthodoxy and suggests that the policy-makers were united in trying to relate strategic policy to a carefully considered set of war aims. His challenging conclusion is that the policy-makers never lost sight of their goal, which was to ensure that Britain fought the war at an acceptable cost and emerged from it with its security enhanced against both its enemies and its allies."

Although events in East Asia were a sideshow in the great drama of World War I, what happened there shattered the accord between Japan and the United States. This book pursues the two-fold question of how and why U.S.-Japanese tensions developed into antagonism during the war by inquiring into the historical sources of both sides. Kawamura explains this complex phenomenon by looking at various factors: conflicts of national interests--geopolitical and economic; perceptual problems such as miscommunication, miscalculation, and mistrust; and, most important of all, incompatible approaches to foreign policy. America's universalism and the unilateralism inherent in Wilsonian idealistic internationalism clashed with Japan's particularistic regionalism and the pluralism that derived from its strong sense of racial identity and anti-Western nationalistic sentiments.

By looking at the motives and circumstances behind Japan's expansionist policy in East Asia, Kawamura suggests some of the centrifugal forces that divided the nations and challenged the premise of Wilsonian internationalism. At the same time, through critical examination of the Wilson administration's universalist and unilateral response to Japan's actions, she raises serious questions about the effectiveness of American foreign policy. At the close of the 20th century, after 50 years of Cold War, those in search of a new world order tend to resort to Wilsonian rhetoric. This book suggests that it can be unwise to apply a universalistic and idealistic approach to international conflicts that often result from extreme nationalism, regionalism, and racial rivalry.

WAR IN THE TRENCHES - COUNTDOWN TO BATTLE This is not a book about the broad sweep of war. Although the title mentions two major battles of the Great War, this account is, in fact, the story of just a few weeks between May 1917 and July 1917 as experienced by a subaltern of the Lancashire Fusiliers. It is a detailed account where personalities and small events seem to fifi ll its pages to become tellingly signififi cant-whole lifetimes seem to pass in months. Life in the trenches is recorded with all its dangers, tragedies and discomforts punctuated by lighter moments, as we share the inexorable build-up to the big attack and the fury of war that changed and ended lives in minutes. This is a fifi rst rate, intimate and personal account of the Western Front warfare the British infantry knew.

The worlds great navies grappling for dominance of the high seas
The Battle of Heligoland Bight was the first naval battle of the Great War, fought in the late summer of 1914 when the Royal Navy devised a plan to ambush German patrols operating in the northern North Sea. A sizeable force of British warships under the commands of Tyrwhitt, Keyes, Goodenough and Beatty were set to the task and the ensuing conflict resulted in the sinking of three German light cruisers and one destroyer. Three German light cruisers were also damaged. The British loss was light and the action is widely regarded as a victory for the British. The most significant outcome was a reluctance on the part of the Kaiser to further risk his battle fleet and it remained impotently confined to port. The actions in the South Pacific and South Atlantic that were the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands centred around the marauding naval squadron under the command of von Spee. The German squadron inflicted a humiliating and crushing defeat against a weaker force under Cradock off the coast of Chile and an outraged admiralty despatched a substantially stronger squadron under Doveton Sturdee to exact revenge. It caught up with von Spee's squadron as he was about to raid the base at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands and practically annihilated it. These two small naval engagement histories have been brought together for good value by Leonaur. They are available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

World War I was a uniquely devastating total war that surpassed all previous conflicts for its destruction. But what was the reality like on the ground, for both the soldiers on the front-lines and the women on the homefront?Drawing on intimate firsthand accounts in diaries and letters, 'War Experiences in Rural Germany' examines this question in detail and challenges some strongly held assumptions about the Great War. The author makes the controversial case for the blurring of 'front' and 'homefront'. He shows that through the constant exchange of letters and frequent furloughs, rural soldiers maintained a high degree of contact with their home lives. In addition, the author provides a more nuanced interpretation of the alleged brutalizing effect of the war experience, suggesting that it was by far not as complete as has been previously understood. This pathbreaking book paints a vivid picture of the dynamics of total war on rural communities, from the calling up of troops to the reintegration of veterans into society.

This book provides a concise set of thirteen essays looking at various aspects of the British left, movements of protest and the cumulative impact of the First World War. There are three broad areas this work intends to make a contribution to; the first is to help us further understand the role the Labour Party played in the conflict, and its evolving attitudes towards the war; the second strand concerns the notion of work, and particularly women's work; the third strand deals with the impact of theory and practice of forces located largely outside the United Kingdom. Through these essays this book aims to provide a series of thirteen bite-size analyses of key issues affecting the British left throughout the war, and to further our understanding of it in this critical period of commemoration. -- .

William Mitchinson analyses the role and performance of the Territorial Force during the first two years of World War I. The study looks at the way the force was staffed and commanded, its relationship with the Regular Army and the War Office, and how most of its 1st Line divisions managed to retain and promote their local identities.

This book represents a first considered attempt to study the factors that conditioned industrial chemistry for war in 1914-18. Taking a comparative perspective, it reflects on the experience of France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Britain, Italy and Russia, and points to significant similarities and differences. It looks at changing patterns in the organisation of industry, and at the emerging symbiosis between science, industry and the military.

The 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was raised in August 1914 and sailed for Gallipoli in July 1915. Upon arrival, the Battalion was almost immediately thrown into action at the Suvla Bay landings on 6 August 1915. The 6th Lincolns continued to serve at Gallipoli until the evacuation of Suvla. Following a period of respite in Egypt, the Battalion was transferred to the Western Front where it served until Armistice. Compiled from a previously unpublished manuscript written in the 1920's, this book provides a unique and colourful account of the Battalion's history throughout WW1, as told by Colonel F.G. Spring who served with the Battalion in 1915. The book also contains a Roll of Honour listing the names of all those who died with the Battalion, as well as the citations for those awarded medals for gallantry. Given that the Battalion War Diary for Gallipoli was lost, this publication is represents the most comprehensive account of the 6th Lincolns during the Great War.

In 1918, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) played a critical role in defeating the German army and thus winning the First World War. This 'Hundred Days' campaign (August to November 1918) was the greatest series of land victories in British military history. 1918 also saw the creation of the Royal Air Force, the world's first independent air service, from the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. Until recently, British histories of the First World War have tended to concentrate on the earlier battles of 1916 and 1917 and often underplayed this vitally important period."Changing War" fills this significant gap in our knowledge by providing in-depth examinations of key aspects of the operations of the British Army, the Royal Air Force and its antecedents in the climactic year of the First World War. Written by a group of established historians and emerging scholars it sheds light not only on 1918, but on the revolutionary changes in warfare that took place at that time.