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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
At discounted prices.
Norman Ellison
Writer, broadcaster and naturalist, Norman Ellison's diary of a soldier's life in the trenches of Flanders in World War I.More information on:
Remembrances of Hell
Harvey, William Frederick James
More information on:
"PI" in the sky: a history of No. 22 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
Clive Dunn
Story of the 7th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. With the creation of the Territorial Force in 1908 the battalion was re-designated as the 7th Battalion. It went to France in April 1915 with the rest of the Northumbrian Division seeing action almost immediately at the Second battle of Ypres. In November 1915 the battalion was picked to become the divisional pioneers. The 1/7 Battalion suffered 600 fatalities. In 1920 when the Territorial Army was reformed it was re-raised in its original role as infantry. The story concludes on 10 December 1936 when the 7th Battalion Durham Light Infantry became the 47th (Durham Light Infantry) A.A. Battalion R.E. (T.A.), whose personnel went on to serve in the Second World War.More information on:
The Fighting Pioneers - The Story of the 7th Battalion DLI
Ian Hall
Written at the request of the Alnwick and District Centenary Commemoration Group, this small book examines the effects of the First World War on the district. These include the implementation of little-known anti-invasion precautions, how people reacted in the first weeks of war, the army encampments around Alnwick and the threat of aerial bombardment from Zeppelins which led to the arrival of the Royal Flying CorpsMore information on:
Alnwick in the Great War: Stories from the Home Front in Alnwick and District
Nigel Lands
An accurate and well-researched history of a bicycle manufacturer, covering over a century from its small beginnings, to its position as probably the biggest producer of bicycles in the UK outside the Raleigh conglomeration, to its eventual demise in the face of foreign competition. Not only that, it is an interesting social history lesson about the place of a major employer within a small community. It records the diverse interests necessary for a manufacturer to succeed in an industry that is notorious for its peaks and troughs.More information on:
Elswick-Hopper of Barton-on-Humber: The Story of a Great British Cycle Maker
Chaz Bowyer
The History of No. 27 Squadron RFC/RAC 1915 to 1969More information on:
The Flying Elephants
John Ross
Regency Press (London & New York) Ltd 1987More information on:
Royal Flying Corps to the R.A.F., India, 1919: The 28 Squadron RAF
Richard Llewellyn Davie
A narrative written from the notes and diary of Corporal Richard Llewellyn Davies of the 3rd Battalion of the Monmouthshire Regiment and the 9th Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers.He left his native village of Hollybush in the Sirhowy Valley Monmouthshire on the morning of the 5th of August 1914. Three times wounded and twice gassed he survived the whole of the main battles of the Western Front and returned home in January 1919. Of the nine volunteers that left the village with him, he was the only one to return home in 1919.More information on:
Never so Innocent Again
Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes
The issue of military executions during the war has always been controversial and embargoes have made it difficult for researchers to get at the truth. Now these two writers give us a vast amount of information. They show that trials were grossly unfair and incompetent. Many of the condemned men had been soldiers of exemplary behaviour, courage and leadership but had cracked under the dreadful strain of trench warfare. This acclaimed book is the authority on this shameful sagaMore information on:
Shot At Dawn
Martin Streetley
During WW2, the Royal Air Force 100 Group provided electronic warfare support for the nightly British bombing raids over occupied Europe. This book is something of a history of the group and it's operations. I say something of a history because really only part of the book is a history of the operations, and it's rather dull. The rest of the book is composed of numerous diagrams and drawings of radio equipment, antenna installations, maps, and all sorts of illustrations that would be very much at home in a technical manual. This is most definitely NOT a book for someone looking for some exciting WW2 "war in the air" action. It is a serious, scholarly, technical look at the functions of the group. Even then, the book is not for the faint of heart. If you really, really want to learn more about WW2 airborne electronic warfare then it would be worth your time. Still, it is about the only really in-depth book I've found on this particular subject.More information on:
Confound and Destroy
G H F Nichols
George Nichols was an artillery officer serving with the 82nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He was wounded in 1917, and returned to the guns in March 1918, just in time to experience the fury of the Kaiserschlacht, the great German offensive designed to knock the British army out of the war. Nichols wrote a powerful account of the Kaiser's last great offensive battle from inside the eye of the storm, and it is one of the few primary source accounts which are told from the often overlooked perspective of the British artillerymen. Nichols, with wonderful British reserve, records how the men of the Royal Field Artillery steadfastly manned their guns. Nichols survived the onslaught and in 1919, was able to produce a full account of both the retreat and the British counter-attack which won back the lost ground. First published in 1919, while censorship was still in force, this wonderful primary source has long been out of print and it's welcome return makes for essential reading for anyonMore information on:
Defiance!: Withstanding the Kaiserschlacht
J. Ivor Hanson & A Wakefield
J. Ivor Hanson's personal diary describes his experiences as a gunner on the Western Front in the First World War, which left a deep and lasting impression on him. He wrote about the officers and men with whom he served, and the horror and humour of trench life - all subjects of Hanson's intense scrutiny and incisive wit. He vividly describes the German Army's crushing Spring Offensive in March 1918, when the British Army on the Western Front was almost pushed back to the Channel coast. Imperial War Museum historian Alan Wakefield has edited the diaries and provides engaging explanatory narratives for each chapter to set them within the context of the First World War.More information on:
Plough & Scatter: The Diary-Journal of a First World War Gunner
David Hutchison
The Young Gunner describes the history of the Royal Field Artillery in France and Flanders in the Great War, including the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The book is based on the letters and journals of Second Lieutenant Colin Hutchison who joined the army aged 19 just before the war started. He found himself in command of a single gun in battle in 1914, a section of guns in 1915, a battery of six guns in 1916, and a brigade of 24 guns by the end of the war. He tells the story of front line action in thirteen battles on the Western Front, including Mons 1914, Ypres 1915, The Somme 1916, Passchendaele 1917 and Ypres 1918. His personal stories are inspiring, but more importantly his letters and journals describe, in a consistent style, not only life on the front line with the artillery, but also the details of his tactical deployment in battle.David explains, from his perspective, why so many men died unnecessarily in that war, and why the changes in tactical thinking he saw as necessary tMore information on:
The Young Gunner: The Royal Field Artillery in the Great War
Alex Revell
AVIATION ELITE UNITS 41, Osprey PublishingWhen No 60 Sqn arrived in France in May 1916, partially equipped with the delightfully named Morane Bullet, there were only two dedicated single-seat fighter squadrons on the Western Front. In the opening weeks of the battles of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the squadron suffered heavy casualties and it was withdrawn from the front. Re-equipped with Nieuport scouts, the unit went on the offensive. Witnessing the exploits of pilots like Albert Ball, who scored 20 victories with the unit before his death, it rapidly became one of the most successful fighter units of the war. This book tells the complete story of the unit, from its humble beginnings to the end of the war.
More information on:
No 60 Sqn RFC/RAF
Phyllida Shaw
In 1914 Morris Meredith Williams was living in Edinburgh with his wife Alice, a sculptor, and earning his living from book illustration and teaching. A short man, his attempt to join the army in 1914 failed, but six months later he was accepted by the Bantam Battalion, 17th Welsh Regiment. Never without a sketchbook and pencils in his pocket, he drew at every opportunity, producing an extraordinary record of his surroundings on the Western Front. After the war some of the sketches became oil paintings while others inspired a series of war memorials in bronze, stone, wood and stained glass, most notably for the Scottish National War Memorial, on which he and Alice worked together. In this stunning book, the Meredith Williams’s art is displayed in fine style, ranging from the touching and heartfelt to the most brutal, stark images of the waste and loss of war.More information on:
An Artist's War: The Art and Letters of Morris and Alice Meredith Williams
Joe Bamford
Captain Stephen Wynn Vickers joined the Cheshire Regiment in August 1914, but after being badly wounded he remustered to the RFC. While other young pilots were killed or injured almost as soon as they got their wings, Captain Vickers survived numerous crash and forced landings. He joined 101 Squadron in 1917 and completed seventy-three sorties over enemy territory before being repatriated in May 1918 and awarded the newly inaugurated DFC, as well as the MC. With the war drawing to a close, he became a flying instructor at an RAF station in Lincolnshire, but he did not live long enough to receive either his medals or the distinction that he deserved..More information on:
Surviving the Skies : a Night Bomber Pilot in the Great War.
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