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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Recomended reading on the subject of the Great War 1914-1918
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F.W. Bewsher
The Highland Division was one of the pre-war Territorial divisions. Its HQ was in Perth with brigade HQs in Aberdeen, Inverness and Stirling. On mobilization the division moved down to its war station in Bedford where it remained, carrying out training till embarking for France in May 1915. During this period six of its battalions were sent to France, three in November 1914 and three in the following March, replaced by two Highland battalions and a brigade of four Lancashire battalions; it is not clear whether the latter were required to wear kilts. They were transferred to the 55th (West Lancashire) Division when that division reformed in France in January 1916 and were replaced, appropriately, by Scottish battalions. It was in May 1915, just as the division arrived in France, that it was designated 51st and the brigades 152nd, 153rd and 154th; by the end of the war the 51st (Highland) Division had become one of the best known divisions in the BEF.More information on:
History of the 51st (Highland) Division 1914-1918
John Ewing
The division’s record is graphically described in this history - what Field Marshal Lord Plumer in his foreword referred to as “a record of wonderful development of fighting efficiency.” There are useful appendices giving the Order of Battle, command and staff lists with the various changes; a table showing periods spent in the line, with locations; a table of battle casualties and the VC citations. The maps are good with adequate detail for actions to be followed.More information on:
History of the 9th (Scottish) Division
A.M. McGilchrist
The story of the 1/10th, 2/10th and 3/10th (Scottish) Battalions of the King’s (Liverpool Regiment), referred to in this account as 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions Liverpool Scottish. The 1st and 2nd fought on the Western Front , the 3rd remained in the UK. Appendices include nominal roll of 1st Battalion on embarkment, list of Honours and Awards including the only VC and bar awarded, and Roll of Honour.More information on:
Liverpool Scottish 1900-1919
Col. H. C. Wylly
This volume is concerned principally with the battalion’s service in the Great War during which it fought on the Western Front in 10th Brigade, 4th Division till the end of 1916 when it was transferred to 48th Brigade of 16th(Irish) Division. The last part gives a very full and often moving description of the disbandment of the battalion. 269 officers and 4508 WOs, NCOs and men of the Regiment died during the war and an appendix lists the names of the officers showing which battalion they were serving in. There is a full list of Honours and Awards including Mentions in Despatches and foreign awards for the whole regiment. Another appendix lists the officers of the 1st and 2nd battalions serving at the time of disbandment and shows which regiments they transferred to or whether they retired.More information on:
CROWN AND COMPANY 1911-1922. 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers
A Detailed & readable history with num. anecdotes . Appendices inc. officers’ services, awards. The first 60 or so pages deal with the pre-war history,. The rest of book is devoted to the Great War in which three battalions served, the 1st and 2nd Battalions on the Western Front, the 3rd was a training battalion. Each battalion is covered separately concluding, in the case of the active service battalions, with a detailed itinerary. This is a very good history with many informative appendices including casualty lists by battalions, nominal roll of all officers who served between 1859 and 1919 with service, and in a number of cases biographical details, honours and awards including mentionsMore information on:
History of the London Rifle Brigade 1859-1919
G. Goold Walker
The history of this somewhat complex regiment has been admirably handled. Each of the units has a section to itself and each section has its own chapters numbered separately. The story begins with the 1st Battalion, then follow ‘A’ Battery. ‘B’ Battery, the Siege Battery, 2nd Battalion, 2/A Battery, 2/B Battery and finally the third line units and the regimental Depot. There is a combined regimental Roll of Honour, arranged alphabetically (officers and men together) There are three indexes, one of persons, one of places and one of units.More information on:
Honourable Artillery Company in the Great War 1914-1919
C.H.Dudley Ward
A very good history incorporating nominal roll of all WOs, NCOs and men who served with it, noting casualties and awards, records of service of all officers, chronology of every move from arrival in France to arrival in Cologne and list of enemy divisions engaged.More information on:
History of the Welsh Guards
C.T. Atkinson
The author is among the foremost of the Great War divisional and regimental historians and this book is typical of his standard of writing and composition. He has provided a continuous narrative in a chronological order, bringing in the various battalions as they came onto the stage in the relevant theatre of war. He has made use of war diaries, not only of the battalions but also, where appropriate of brigades and divisions. He was also able to make use of collected accounts of various actions and experiences of those who took part in them, giving the point of view of the man in the trenches. One third of the book, some 250 pages, contains the complete list of honours and awards, including Mention in Despatches, and the Roll of Honour, listed alphabetically by battalions.More information on:
Devonshire Regiment 1914-1918
S.Stagoll Higham
This remarkable book contains a complete record of all whose names have been inscribed in the regiment’s Muster Roll since August 1914, showing commissions obtained, when and in which corps/regiments; honours and decorations awarded with citations where published; and a list of all casualties. There is a total of 15,022 names, that is everyone who at one time or another served in the Regiment in any capacity. 10,256 received commissions, eight VCs were awarded, and the casualties suffered throughout the war numbered 6,071 of whom 2,003 were killed. There are summary tables of awards and of casualtiesMore information on:
Artists Rifles: Regimental Roll of Honour and War Record 1914-1919
C.A.Cuthbert Keeson
This is a good history with plenty of detail and with many names, covering the period from the earliest days up to the Great War in an appendix (185 pages) at the end of the book. It covers each battalion in turn - 1/9th, 2/9th, the amalgamated 9th and finally 3/9th. There is the Roll of Honour and a list of Honours and Awards, including Mentions in Despatches.More information on:
History and Records of Queen Victoria's Rifles 1792-1922
E.G. Godfrey
This history begins with the names of divisional and brigade commanders under whom the battalion served, followed by the Honours list where all recipients are named, except for Mention in Despatches where totals are given. The early history of the battalion is briefly narrated before the Great War, which takes up the bulk of the book. In addition to details of actions fought, in each chapter attention is given to some particular aspect of military training or operations, such as communications between front and rear, transport difficulties, individual exploits and so on, while to facilitate reading, at the head of each page appears the number of the battalion being discussed. The book ends with the Roll of Honour (1050 dead) and an index.More information on:
Cast-iron Sixth: A History of the Sixth Battalion, London Regiment (City of London Rifles)
H.C. O'Neill
Sourced frm the battalion diaries, personal diaries of officers, special accounts of particular actions contributed by soldiers actually involved, letters and conversations, the author explains in some detail how the regiment expanded and how each wartime battalion came to be formed. The appendix gives the Roll of Honour of officers (1054 names); a table showing the numbers of Warrant Officers, NCOs and Men on the Roll of Honour, by battalions; a table summarising decorations awarded, including foreign awards; brief biographies or notes on a number of RF general ranking officers; and several accounts of soldiers who took part in the various operations.More information on:
Royal Fusiliers in the Great War
John Milne
This account is written primarily for those who served or whose relatives served in the battalion, which is a good thing as we get plenty of names and the details of daily life in the trenches, officer casualties and new arrivals are mentioned by name in the text other ranks by totals. A reprint of the 1935 original.More information on:
Footprints of the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment: August 1914 to November 1918
J.D. Hills
This battalion history, based essentially on the War Diary supplemented by contributions from various battalion members. There is plenty of meat in this history, detailed accounts of actions and events in and out of the trenches, names of officers and other ranks, list of honours and awards.More information on:
Fifth Leicestershire: A Record of the 1/5th Battalion the Leicestershire Regiment, TF, During the War 1914-1919
Everard Wyrall
This history covers all the battalions though only very briefly those that did not go overseas. The author, a prolific writer of divisional/regimental histories follows his customary pattern of arranging his story chronologically with chapters devoted to specific battles and periods of trench warfare. In the margins of the text describing events he notes the dates, as in a diary, and identifies the battalions involved. The Roll of Honour lists the officers alphabetically by ranks without indicating the battalion or date of death; the other ranks are shown by battalions and by ranks within each battalion. Given the number of battalions covered in this single volume the account of all the activities is necessarily compressed, based essentially on the War Diaries, without anecdotal contributions The maps are very good, uncluttered yet displaying tactical detail easy to follow.More information on:
East Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War 1914-1918
This reprint covers the Regular and TF battalions, each with their own index; And deals with the Service battalions and includes the Roll of Honour and the list of Honours and Awards for all battalions. It also has a separate index. There are numerous sketch maps in the text.More information on:
History of the Dorsetshire Regiment 1914-1919
Everard Wyrall
Wyrall arranges his record of the regiment in chronological order, following the course of the war from the arrival of the1st Battalion in France. As he describes the operations and events he indicates in the margin the date of the action he is writing about with the identity of the battalion involved; operations in other theatres have their own chapters. Appendices list, by name, Honours and Awards including Mention in Despatches, promotions for service in the field, summary of other rank casualties (deaths) in each battalion (officers are totalled together) and brief records of service.More information on:
History of the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) 1914-1919
C.D. Bruce
The first two chapters in the book provide an historical outline of the raising of the 1st Battalion in 1702 and take its story through to 1923. The book recounts story of the 2nd Battalion on the Western Front, mainly by use of quotations from eyewitness accounts, letters, diaries and official documents supported by good maps. A good feature of this history is the recording by name of officers joining the battalion or leaving or becoming casualties, and the arrival of drafts with strengths.More information on:
History of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, 1st and 2nd Battalions 1881-1923
Noel C Shirley
United States Naval Aviation 1910-1918 for the first time provides a comprehensive study of the formation and initial deployment of naval aviation in the first world war. The book covers not only the subject of naval aircraft, but also describes the activities of the Navy in the field of lighter-than-air craft. Specific information is provided on each of the Naval Air Stations constructed and operated, both domestically as well as in Foreign Service during the War. Detailed discussion is also provided regarding the role of Marine Corps aviation during this time period.More information on:
United States Naval Aviation 1910-1918
James Inglis
Account of war service of men and women from Brodrick, Isle of Arran and list of other Arran men on active service. This book begins with an account of the effect of the war on the island, especially preoccupation with the danger from U-boats threatening the communications and supply route with the Scottish mainland. The main part of the book consists of war service details of those who served, including nurses; some accounts are brief, others are much longer. There are separate headings for Nurses, Royal Navy and Merchant Navy, for regiments/corps, for Canadians and Australians and individuals are shown under the appropriate heading. At the end is list of names of other Arran men on active serviceMore information on:
Brodick: Arran and the Great War 1914-1918
Peter Barton, Peter Doyle & Johan Vandewalle
Whilst the war raged across Flanders fields, an equally horrifying and sometimes more dangerous battle took place underground. "Beneath Flanders Fields" tells the story of the tunnellers' war, which still remains one of the most misunderstood, misrepresented and mystifying conflicts of the Great War. A wealth of personal testimonies reveal the engineering, technology and science behind how this most intense of battles was fought - and won. They speak of how the tunnellers lived a relentless existence in the depths of the battlefield for almost two and a half years, enduring physical and mental stresses that were often more extreme than their infantry counterparts. Their lives were reduced to a complex war of silence, tension and claustrophobia, leading up to the most dramatic mine offensive in history launched on 7 June 1917 at Messines Ridge. Yet, Messines was not the end of their story, which continued with the crafting of a whole underground world of headquarters, cookhouses and hosMore information on:
Beneath Flanders Fields: The Tunnellers War 1914-1918
Simon Jones
Simon Jones's graphic history of underground warfare during the Great War uses personal reminiscences to convey the danger and suspense of this unconventional form of conflict. He describes how the underground soldiers of the opposing armies engaged in a ruthless fight for supremacy, covers the tunnelling methods they employed, and shows the increasingly lethal tactics they developed during the war in which military mining reached its apotheosis. He concentrates on the struggle for ascendancy by the British tunnelling companies on the Western Front. But his wide-ranging study also tells the story of the little known but fascinating subterranean battles fought in the French sectors of the Western Front and between the Austrians and the Italians in the Alps which have never been described before in English. Vivid personal testimony is combined with a lucid account of the technical challenges - and ever-present perils - of tunnelling in order to give an all-round insight into the extraordMore information on:
Underground Warfare 1914-1918
Ralph J. Whitehead
"The Other Side of the Wire" brings to life a period long forgotten in the decades that have passed since the Great War ended in 1918. Until recently most books written on the Battle of the Somme concentrated almost exclusively on the British effort with only a brief mention of the period before 1 July 1916 and the German experience in the battle. Most simply ignore the nearly two years of warfare that preceded the momentous offensive. By focusing on one of the principal German formations involved in the Somme fighting, author Ralph Whitehead brings to life this little-known period, from the initial German advance on the Somme in September 1914 through the formation of the front that became so well known almost two years later. - Ralph Whitehead is a member of the Plugstreet Project Team.More information on:
The Other Side of the Wire. Volume 1
John Starling & Ivor Lee
From 1917 British Soldiers who were unfit or too old for front line service were to serve unarmed and within the range of German guns for weeks or even months at a time undertaking labouring tasks. The vital, yet largely unreported role played by these brave soldiers was crucial to achieving victory in 1918. For this book John Starling and Ivor Lee have brought together extensive research from both primary and secondary sources. It traces how Military Labour developed from non-existent in 1914, to a Corps in November 1918 some 350,000 strong, supported by Dominion and foreign labour of more than a million men. The majority of the Labour Corps did not keep war diaries, therefore this work provides vital information for those wishing to acquire information about an ancestor who served in the Corps.More information on:
No Labour, No Battle: The Labour Corps in the First World War
Alan Weeks
It is said that 'an army marches on its stomach', but histories of the First World War usually concentrate on its political and military aspects. The gargantuan task of keeping the British Expeditionary Force fed and watered is often overlooked, yet without adequate provision the soldiers would never have been able to fight. Tommy couldn't get enough tea, rum or fags, yet his commanders sent him bully beef and dog biscuits. But it was amazing how 2 million men did not usually go short of nourishment, although parcels from home, canteens and estaminets had a lot to do with that. Incredibly, Tommy could be in a civilised town supping, beer, wine, egg and chips, and a few hours later making do with bully beef in a water-filled trench. Alan Weeks examines how the army got its food and drink and what it was like.More information on:
Tea, Rum and Fags: Sustaining Tommy 1914-1918
John Sheen
Sheen's history has all of the insight and detail we have come to expect of modern scholarship, drawing deeply on official, regimental and private records. With many excellent photographs, most of which will not have been seen before, and lacing the battalion's history with the stories of individual officers and men, he takes us through the whole war from the battalion's first searing experiences on the Aisne, right through to the honour of advancing into Germany as part of the army of occupation. In between, the 1915 nightmares of Hooge, the latter stages of the Somme, Hill 70, Cambrai and ceaseless engagement in 1918. The story also brings out how the nature of the battalion inevitably changed, from wholly regular through mostly volunteer to conscript, yet managed to maintain an ethos and professional air throughout.More information on:
The Steel of the DLI (2nd Bn 1914/18)
Paul Cornish
More information on:
Machine-Guns and the Great War
Alexander Turner
Osprey Campaign book exploring the Battle of Messines. At 0310 hours on 7 June 1917, the pre-dawn gloom on the Western Front was shattered by the 'pillars of fire' - the rapid detonation of 19 huge mines, secreted in tunnels under the German lines and containing 450 tonnes of explosives. Admitted by the Germans to be a 'masterstroke', the devastating blasts caused 10,000 soldiers to later be posted simply as 'missing'. Launching a pre-planned attack into the carnage, supported by tanks and a devastating artillery barrage, the British took the strategic objective of Messines Ridge within hours. A rare example of innovation and success in the First World War, this book is a fresh and timely examination of a fascinating campaign.More information on:
Messines 1917
The War Department
More information on:
The Attack of the British Ninth Corps at Messines Ridge (1917)
BENEATH HILL 60 tells the extraordinary true story of Oliver Woodward, the legendary Australian metal scientist. In 1916, Woodward faced the most difficult decision, ultimately having to separate from his new young love for the deadly carnage of the Western Front. On treacherous territory, behind the German enemy lines, Woodward and his secret platoon of Australian tunnelers face a suicidal battle to defend a leaking, tunnel system. A tunnel packed with enough high explosives to change the course of the War.More information on:
Beneath Hill 60 [DVD]
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