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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War
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Playing the Game - The British Junior Infantry Officer on the Western Front 1914-1918 (Paperback)
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Playing the Game - The British Junior Infantry Officer on the Western Front 1914-1918 (Paperback)
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The British Army expanded significantly during the First World War,
creating a huge demand for new officers to lead the infantry
through the horrors and privations of trench warfare. Thousands of
civilians accepted commissions with little or no previous military
experience, and success on the Western Front depended to a large
extent on their ability to learn new skills and responsibilities
quickly. This book examines the lives and careers of these junior
infantry officers, focusing especially on the transition from
civilian to soldier. It does so by looking particularly at the
young men who volunteered in the early stages of the war having
only recently left either public school or university. Products of
Edwardian society, they reflected prevailing military opinions
about the importance of entrusting command to 'gentlemen'. Once in
the army, they continued to draw on traditional ideas, habits and
practices to make sense of their new roles and surroundings but,
faced with an unprecedented type of modern warfare, they also
rapidly gained military knowledge and experience. The synthesis of
these various influences gave junior infantry officers a
distinctive character amongst the many voices of the First World
War. This book follows their transition and the creation of this
identity though its different stages, beginning with an exploration
of the educational and social backgrounds which moulded the young
men of 1914, creating their habits, traditions, expectations and
familiar activities. It examines a series of formative experiences,
including obtaining a commission, training, travelling abroad,
visiting the trenches and coming under fire. Once on active
service, officers learned how to perform their duties in the field,
cope with the rigours of trench life and work alongside the various
personalities who populated the front. Their social lives and
activities are also scrutinised. The book concludes with an
examination of the psychological challenges encountered on the
Western Front, exploring the ways in which traditional concepts of
heroism and a soldierly identity were remoulded in the face of an
industrialised and impersonal war.
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