Download or read book Eyewitnesses at the Somme written by Tim Cook and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1915, news of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing and the slaughter at Gallipoli stirred tens of thousands of young men to go to war.They answered the call and formed battalions of the Australian Imperial Force. By the time the new recruits were combat ready, the campaign at Gallipoli had ended. Their battlefields became the muddy paddocks of France and Belgium.Based on eyewitness account, Eyewitnesses at the Somme traces the story of one of these battalions, the 55th, from its birth in the dusty camps of Egypt through three years of brutal, bloody conflict on the bitter western front.When the Great War ended in 1918, over 500 of the 3,000 men who served in the 55th had been slain and another 1,000 wounded. Eyewitnesses at the Somme, shares personal stories of Australian men as they stared down the horrors of war with determination, courage and comradeship. With chapters devoted to the significant battles at Fromelles, Doignies, Polygon Wood, Pronne and Bellicourt, this book tells the story of one battalion, but in doing so it encapsulates the experiences of many Australians on the Western Front.

Download or read book Eyewitness on the Somme 1916 written by Matthew Richardson and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-06-30 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was the soldiers experience of the Battle of the Somme? How did the men who were there record their part in the fighting or remember it afterwards? How can we, 100 years later, gain an insight into one of the most famous and contentious - episodes of the Great War? Matthew Richardsons graphic account, which is based on the vivid personal testimony of those who took part, offers us a direct impression of the reality of the battle from the perspective of the ordinary soldiers and junior officers on the front line. He draws heavily on previously unpublished personal accounts letters, diaries, and memoirs, some never before translated into English to build up a multifaceted picture of the Somme offensive from the first disastrous day of the attack, through the subsequent operations between July and November 1916. In their own words, the soldiers who were caught up in the conflict recall in unflinching detail the fighting across the entire Somme battlefield. The narrative features the recollections of British, Commonwealth, French and American soldiers, and interweaves their testimony with descriptions left by their German adversaries. For the first time in a single volume, the reader has the opportunity to explore all facets of this momentous five-month-long struggle. Over 100 black-and-white contemporary photographs, many previously unpublished, accompany the text, whilst a selection of artifacts recovered from the battlefield is illustrated in colour. These striking objects bear silent witness to the ferocity of the battle, and often reflect some moment of personal tragedy.

Download or read book Spirits of the Somme written by Bob Carruthers and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1st of July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, was the blackest day in the history of the British Army. 60,000 men became casualties on that one day alone.In a major new documentary film premiering on the Discovery Channel next year, Emmy Award winning film maker Bob Carrruthers returns to the battlefield on 1st July and retraces the events which unfolded on that disastrous day. Drawing extensively on rare film and photographs from both British and German sources, the spirit of the men who fought and died on that day is beautifully evoked by these powerful and haunting images from 1916.The film also reveals how the sacrifice of the men of the Somme is being honoured today by the work of the historians and enthusiasts who strive to increase our understanding of the battle and to commemorate the memory of that terrible day.This is the companion book to the documentary film and is written by well-known author and film maker Bob Carruthers.

Download or read book Eyewitnesses to the Great War written by Ed Klekowski and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the novelist Edith Wharton, who toured the front in her Mercedes in 1915, this book describes the wartime experiences of American idealists (and a few rogues) on the Western Front and concludes with the doughboys' experiences under General Pershing. Americans were "over there" from the war's beginning in August 1914, and because America was neutral until April 1917, they saw the war from both the French and German lines. Since most of the Americans who served, regardless of which side they were on, were in Champagne and Lorraine, this sector is the focus. Excerpts from memoirs are supplemented by descriptions of personalities, places, battles and even equipment and weapons, thus placing these generally forgotten American adventurers into the context of their times. A special set of maps based upon German Army battle maps was drawn and rare photographs supplement the text.

Download or read book The Somme written by Richard van Emden and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epic and brutal WWI battle is vividly recounted through the words and photos of the soldiers who lived through it. One of the most famous battles of the Great War, the offensive on the Somme took place in 1916, from July and November. It was there that Kitcheners famous Pals Battalions were first sent into action en masse. It was a battlefield where many of the dreams and aspirations of a nation, hopeful of victory, were agonizingly dashed. Because of its legendary status, the Battle of the Somme has been the subject of many books. Yet this volume is the first of its kind, in which the soldiers’ own stories and photographs are used to illustrate both the campaign's extraordinary comradeship and its carnage.

Download or read book World War I written by Simon Adams and published by DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley). This book was released on 2023-11-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, go back in time and experience history with this picture-led guide to the First World War. From disaster to victory, Eyewitness World War I captivates readers and gives an insight into life in the muddy trenches, and what it was like to be a soldier, along with a broader picture of the world-changing events that led to the start of the conflict. More than 250 photographs, illustrating the people, places, and stories of the conflict, give a unique eyewitness view of the conflict dubbed the "war to end all wars". DK Eyewitness World War I expertly illustrates the lessons of the First World War and how they impact our world today. This museum in a book uses striking full-colour photographs and illustrations of warfare, weaponry, vehicles, maps, and secret documents along with amazing facts, infographics, statistics, and timelines to reveal this conflict as never before. Part of the best-selling DK Eyewitness series, this popular title has been reinvigorated for the next generation of information-seekers and stay-at-home explorers, with a fresh new look, new photographs, updated information, and a new "eyewitness feature - fascinating first-hand accounts from experts in the field.

Download or read book The Somme written by Martin Gilbert and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-05-29 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of our most distinguished historians, an authoritative and vivid account of the devastating World War I battle that claimed more than 300,000 lives At 7:30 am on July 1, 1916, the first Allied soldiers climbed out of their trenches along the Somme River in France and charged out into no-man's-land toward the barbed wire and machine guns at the German front lines. By the end of this first day of the Allied attack, the British army alone would lose 20,000 men; in the coming months, the fifteen-mile-long territory along the river would erupt into the epicenter of the Great War. The Somme would mark a turning point in both the war and military history, as soldiers saw the first appearance of tanks on the battlefield, the emergence of the air war as a devastating and decisive factor in battle, and more than one million casualties (among them a young Adolf Hitler, who took a fragment in the leg). In just 138 days, 310,000 men died. In this vivid, deeply researched account of one history's most destructive battles, historian Martin Gilbert tracks the Battle of the Somme through the experiences of footsoldiers (known to the British as the PBI, for Poor Bloody Infantry), generals, and everyone in between. Interwoven with photographs, journal entries, original maps, and documents from every stage and level of planning, The Somme is the most authoritative and affecting account of this bloody turning point in the Great War.

Download or read book The First Day on the Somme written by Martin Middlebrook and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2006-05-25 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the British Army’s experience at the Battle of the Somme in France during World War I. After an immense but useless bombardment, at 7:30 AM on July 1, 1916, the British Army went over the top and attacked the German trenches. It was the first day of the battle of the Somme, and on that day, the British suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, two for every yard of their front. With more than fifty times the daily losses at El Alamein and fifteen times the British casualties on D-day, July 1, 1916, was the blackest day in the history of the British Army. But, more than that, as Lloyd George recognized, it was a watershed in the history of the First World War. The Army that attacked on that day was the volunteer Army that had answered Kitchener’s call. It had gone into action confident of a decisive victory. But by sunset on the first day on the Somme, no one could any longer think of a war that might be won. Martin Middlebrook’s research has covered not just official and regimental histories and tours of the battlefields, but interviews with hundreds of survivors, both British and German. As to the action itself, he conveys the overall strategic view and the terrifying reality that it was for front-line soldiers. Praise for The First Day on the Somme “The soldiers receive the best service a historian can provide: their story is told in their own words.” —The Guardian (UK)

Download or read book Witnesses To War written by Fay Anderson and published by Melbourne Univ. Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witnesses to War is a landmark history of Australian war journalism covering the regional conflicts of the nineteenth century to the major conflicts of the twentieth: World War I, World War II, Vietnam and Bosnia through to recent and ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fay Anderson and Richard Trembath look at how journalists reported the horrors and politics of war, the rise of the celebrity journalist, issues of censorship and the ethics of ‘embedding’. Interviews with over 40 leading journalists and photographers reveal the challenges of covering wars and the impact of the violence they witness, the fear and exhilaration, the regrets and successes, the private costs and personal dangers. Witnesses to War examines issues with continued and contemporary relevance, including the genesis of the Anzac ideal and its continued use; the representation of enemy and race and how technology has changed the nature of conflict reporting.

Download or read book Somme written by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-15 with total page 680 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion of battles as the irreducible building blocks of war demands a single verdict of each campaign—victory, defeat, stalemate. But this kind of accounting leaves no room to record the nuances and twists of actual conflict. In Somme: Into the Breach, the noted military historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore shows that by turning our focus to stories of the front line—to acts of heroism and moments of both terror and triumph—we can counter, and even change, familiar narratives. Planned as a decisive strike but fought as a bloody battle of attrition, the Battle of the Somme claimed over a million dead or wounded in months of fighting that have long epitomized the tragedy and folly of World War I. Yet by focusing on the first-hand experiences and personal stories of both Allied and enemy soldiers, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore defies the customary framing of incompetent generals and senseless slaughter. In its place, eyewitness accounts relive scenes of extraordinary courage and sacrifice, as soldiers ordered “over the top” ventured into No Man’s Land and enemy trenches, where they met a hail of machine-gun fire, thickets of barbed wire, and exploding shells. Rescuing from history the many forgotten heroes whose bravery has been overlooked, and giving voice to their bereaved relatives at home, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore reveals the Somme campaign in all its glory as well as its misery, helping us to realize that there are many meaningful ways to define a battle when seen through the eyes of those who lived it.

Download or read book Somme written by Lyn MacDonald and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 1993-06-24 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No Marketing Blurb

Download or read book Gettysburg written by Frank Haskell and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2010-11-24 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unique series the Civil War comes vividly to life. Here an eyewitness accounts--many available for the first time in decades--by generals, journalist, and ordinary foot soldiers, both blue and gray, who relive the conflict in all its terrible glory. Each volume brings you a human perspective on the war--its most decisive battles, its most remarkable personalities. Gettysburg: Two Eyewitness Accounts is American history at its finest--and a reading experience you will never forget. In some ways it epitomized the entire war: three hot days in July filled with missed opportunities, great courage, inconsistent leadership, and horrific, relentless carnage. In rare volume we see the battle from both sides, as experienced by two very different combatants, one Union and the other Confederate. From Little Round Top to Devil's Den to Pickett's Charge, Lt. Frank A. Haskell and Col. William C. Oates, one in a meticulous hindsight and the other still feverish with war, re-create three days that changed American history. Here are the momentous decisions of Lee, Longstreet, and Meade. Here are the fatal maneuverings of the forces in the field. And here, in descriptions unmatched in Civil War literature, is all the heartbreak and triumph of Gettysburg.

Download or read book Reporting the First World War in the Liminal Zone written by Sara Prieto and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with an aspect of the Great War that has been largely overlooked: the war reportage written based on British and American authors’ experiences at the Western Front. It focuses on how the liminal experience of the First World War was portrayed in a series of works of literary journalism at different stages of the conflict, from the summer of 1914 to the Armistice in November 1918. Sara Prieto explores a number of representative texts written by a series of civilian eyewitness who have been passed over in earlier studies of literature and journalism in the Great War. The texts under discussion are situated in the ‘liminal zone’, as they were written in the middle of a transitional period, half-way between two radically different literary styles: the romantic and idealising ante bellum tradition, and the cynical and disillusioned modernist school of writing. They are also the product of the various stages of a physical and moral journey which took several authors into the fantastic albeit nightmarish world of the Western Front, where their understanding of reality was transformed beyond anything they could have anticipated.

Download or read book Walking Into Hell written by Edward G. D. Liveing and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-07-28 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1st July 1916 was the blackest day in the history of the British Army when 60,000 unsuspecting men of the British 4th Army advanced into the teeth of a hurricane of German fire. This well-illustrated anthology examines the events of that terrible day from two very different perspectives. The vivid eyewitness account of the battle from the soldier's point of view is provided by Edward Liveing of the London Regiment. After joining the London Regiment in 1914, Liveing was deployed to both Palestine and to France, where he was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. This book describes his war on the front line up until his injury on the Somme.Also on the field that day and engaged in filming the battle for posterity was cameraman Lieut. Geoffrey Malins, who produced the famous documentary film of the battle. At the outbreak of war in 1914, Malins, aged 28, traveled to the Western Front where he acted as a freelance war correspondent, filming newsreels in Belgium and France. 1915 brought a fateful change of direction for Malins when he was recruited by the British Kinematograph Manufacturers Association to make a film of the preparations and the execution of a battle on the Western Front. This proved to be a dangerous business and by the end of the first year Malins, now with the rank of Lieutenant, had found himself deafened, gassed and twice wounded in the line of duty. Malins continued his work as a wartime cameraman before he was discharged from the army in 1918, having suffered bad health for sometime previously.These two contrasting accounts provide a remarkable insight into the chaotic events as they unfolded on the battlefield and provide the reader with two very different views of the battle as well as the visual records as produced by Malins, and the other photographers and artists at work on the Somme that day.

Download or read book Tank Battles of World War I written by Bryan Cooper and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-02-23 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Failure to exploit the potential of an original idea is a recurring phenomenon in our national history. Few failures, however, can have been so costly in human life as that of our military commanders early in 1916 to appreciate that the tank was a war winning weapon. The slaughter of the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres salient had to be endured before accepted 'conventional' methods were abandoned and the tank given a chance. Bryan Cooper describes the early tank actions in vivid detail, with many eye-witness accounts. He tells of the courage and endurance of the crews not just in battle but in the appalling conditions in which they had to drive and fight their primitive vehicles. Scalded, scorched and poisoned with exhaust fumes, constantly threatened with being burned to death, these crews eventually laid the foundation for the Allied Victory in World War I. The book is well illustrated with many original photographs which give the present day reader a glimpse of the infancy of a dominant weapon of modern war.

Download or read book Fighting Irish written by Gavin Hughes and published by Merrion Press. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fighting Irish is a meticulous and engaging account of the First World War from the perspective of the men of the Irish Regiments of the British Army, revealing the extent of the Irish military commitment to the Great War effort from 1914-1918. Startling and sympathetic matters, from campaign strategy to the soldiers’ intimate war experiences, are addressed with fascinating documentary evidence and poignant eye-witness accounts. Persisting humour and unexpected trials; mounting reputations and the mundane drudgery of routine military life – all is touched upon in the lives of these men, and undercut by the pervasive loss of life. Whether fighting at Ypres, the Somme, Gallipoli, Kostorino or Nablus, the story of the Irish Regiments is compelling and evocative, with reasons for enlistment as varied as the men themselves. Though entrenched in warfare, many minds were set on the increasing unrest at home, swaying their interests and shaping the communications they left to posterity. Fighting Irish defines the diverse backgrounds of all those who served with the Irish regiments in these years, recounting their deeds through exacting historical research within a gripping and affecting narrative.

Download or read book Verdun written by John Mosier and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alongside Waterloo and Gettysburg, the Battle of Verdun during the First World War stands as one of history’s greatest clashes. Perfect for military history buffs, this compelling account of one of World War I’s most important battles explains why it is also the most complex and misunderstood. Although British historians have always seen Verdun as a one-year battle designed by the German chief of staff to bleed France white, historian John Mosier’s careful analysis of the German plans reveals a much more abstract and theoretical approach. From the very beginning of the war until the armistice in 1918, no fewer than eight distinct battles were waged there. These conflicts are largely unknown, even in France, owing to the obsessive secrecy of the French high command. Our understanding of Verdun has long been mired in myths, false assumptions, propaganda, and distortions. Now, using numerous accounts of military analysts, serving officers, and eyewitnesses, including French sources that have never been translated, Mosier offers a compelling reassessment of the Great War’s most important battle.