Download or read book The Fifteenth Scottish Division 1914 1919 written by John Stewart and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fifteenth Scottish Division 1914 1919 written by J. Stewart and published by . This book was released on 2003-06 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The senior of Kitchener s Second New Army Divisions, the 15th (Scottish) was raised at Aldershot in September 1914 with a nucleus of men surplus to the requirements of the 9th (Scottish) Division and brought up to strength with drafts sent down from Scotland. It arrived in France in July 1915 and its first major battle was at Loos in which it captured its objectives, Loos itself and Hill 70, at a cost of 6, 404 casualties. All five VCs the division was to be awarded were won during the battle, four of them in twenty-four hours at Hill 70. The division remained in this sector till July 1916 when it moved down to the Somme where it achieved a notable success in capturing Martinpuich on 15th September. It took part in the Arras offensive in April 1917 and three months later it was fighting in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge during Third Ypres. It was back in the Arras sector when the German March 1918 offensive was launched and where the division held the enemy drive on Arras. For a short spell in July/August the division was under French command and took part in the capture of Buzancy and neighbouring villages. Total casualties throughout the war amounted to 45,542. This is an excellent history, well set out and with very good maps to support the interesting and well-written account of the division s record. A most useful innovation is the provision of marginal notes which highlight events described in the accompanying text, and the top of each page is dated, a most welcome feature in a fast-moving narrative. A remarkable feature is the number of appendices which take up 192 pages and provide a wealth of detail: Order of Battle; Commanders and Staff both divisional and brigade with all changes; chronology of moves and events; casualties by battalions/units by dates with officers named and other ranks tabulated; complete list of recipients of Honours and Awards, by battalions/units. Of special interest are the operation orders for the Battle of Loos and the translation of a German report on the battle.

Download or read book The History of the 9th Scottish Division 1914 1919 written by John Ewing and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Royal Scots 1914 1919 written by John Ewing and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Royal Scots 1914 1919 written by John Ewing and published by . This book was released on 2002-09-01 with total page 825 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), 1st Foot, is a Lowland regiment, the oldest regiment of the line in the British Army, and as if to emphasize that fact its nickname is Pontius Pilate s Bodyguard . In 1914 it consisted of two regular, one reserve and seven territorial battalions; during the course of the war a further twenty-four battalions were formed, twenty-five according to this History, which includes a 4th Reserve Bn, made up by amalgamating the existing third line TF battalions and redesignating them 4th Reserve Bn. In all some 100,000 passed through the Regiment, seventeen battalions (including the 19th Labour and the 1st Garrison Battalions) went on active service, 583 officers and 10,579 men lost their lives and more than 40,000 were wounded. Seven VCs were won (one while serving in the MG Corps) and 71 battle honours awarded. With 825pp, including a solid 33-page index, this is an impressive history by the author of The History of the 9th (Scottish) Division, also an impressive piece of work. The first chapter in the book is by way of an introduction to all the battalions which constituted the Regiment, the locations of the existing battalions and the creation of all the wartime battalions. In an appendix there is a brief account of all the battalions that remained in the UK, and another deals with the 19th Labour and 1st Garrison Battalion. This leaves the rest of the book devoted to the fifteen front line battalions which, between them, saw service in France and Flanders, Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine and Macedonia. The book is arranged on a chronological basis with each chapter covering a specific period of time whether on the Western Front any other front where the Regiment fought (for example there are three chapters on Gallipoli covering that campaign from start to finish), and the fortunes of every battalion involved in that particular period are described. There is no Roll of Honour nor list of Honours and Awards though citations for the seven VC winners form a separate appendix. And at the end there are group photos of officers of twelve of the active battalions. Incidentally, the 8th Battalion was not the first of the Scottish Territorial units to be employed on active service (page 83); they were preceded by the London Scottish (the first Territorial infantry battalion to join the BEF) and 5th Black Watch

Download or read book Victoria Crosses on the Western Front April 1915 June 1916 written by Paul Oldfield and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 595 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During visits to the First World War battlefields the author often wondered where various Victoria Cross actions took place; he resolved to find out. Research commenced in 1988 and numerous sources have been consulted in the meantime. The book is designed for the battlefield visitor as much as the armchair reader. A detailed account of each VC action is set within the wider strategic and tactical context. Detailed sketch maps show the area today, together with the battle-lines and movements of the combatants. It allows visitors to stand upon the spot, or very close, where the VC actions took place and understand what happened and where. Photographs of the battle sites illustrate the accounts. There is also a comprehensive biography for each recipient covering every aspect of their lives 'warts and all' - parents and siblings, education, civilian employment, military career, wife and children, death and burial/commemoration. There is also a host of other information, much of it published for the first time. Some fascinating characters emerge, with numerous links to many famous people and events.

Download or read book Kitchener s Army written by Peter Simkins and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numbering over five million men, Britain's army in the First World War was the biggest in the country's history. Remarkably, nearly half those men who served in it were volunteers. 2,466,719 men enlisted between August 1914 and December 1915, many in response to the appeals of the Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. How did Britain succeed in creating a mass army, almost from scratch, in the middle of a major war ? What compelled so many men to volunteer ' and what happened to them once they had taken the King's shilling ? Peter Simkins describes how Kitchener's New Armies were raised and reviews the main political, economic and social effects of the recruiting campaign. He examines the experiences and impressions of the officers and men who made up the New Armies. As well as analysing their motives for enlisting, he explores how they were fed, housed, equipped and trained before they set off for active service abroad. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, ranging from government papers to the diaries and letters of individual soldiers, he questions long-held assumptions about the 'rush to the colours' and the nature of patriotism in 1914. The book will be of interest not only to those studying social, political and economic history, but also to general readers who wish to know more about the story of Britain's citizen soldiers in the Great War.

Download or read book The Battle Book of Ypres written by and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Royal Scots written by Trevor Royle and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-09-02 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Royal Scots are Scotland's oldest infantry regiment, with a tradition that stretches back to 1633. This first concise history of the regiment is based largely on the recollections of several generations of Royal Scots - men like Private McBane, who carried his three-year-old son into battle at Malplaquet, and Private Begbie, the youngest soldier to serve in the First World War. These first-hand accounts take the reader through the great wars of the eighteenth century, when Britain was a rising global power, through the setbacks and the triumphs of the Napoleonic Wars and on to the glorious years of the nineteenth century. The two world wars of the twentieth century saw the Royals expand in size, and there are full accounts of its meritorious service on all the main battle fronts. More recently, the regiment has been involved in operations in the Balkans and Iraq. In 2006, in one of the most radical changes in the country's defence policy, the Royal Scots will be amalgamated into the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. Royal Scots is, therefore, a timely celebration of the British Army's most venerable regiment, right of the line and second to none.

Download or read book A History of the 9th Highlanders Royal Scots written by Neill Gilhooley and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2020-02-19 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This regimental history chronicles the Dandy Ninth Battalion Royal Scots from its first forays in the Boer War through the brutal fighting of WWI. After suffering the disastrous Black Week of the Second Boer War, the British Army formed a new Highland battalion, the kilted 9th Royal Scots, which became affectionately known as the Dandy Ninth. It sent volunteers to South Africa and established itself as Edinburgh’s kilted battalion, part of the Territorial Force of part-time soldiers. Mobilized in 1914 as part of the Lothian Brigade, the Dandy Ninth defended Edinburgh from the threat of invasion, and constructed part of the landward defenses around Liberton Tower. They were part-time soldiers and new recruits, drawn from the breadth of society, from lawyers to rugby players and artists, such as the Scottish Colorist F.C.B. Cadell, and William Geissler of the Edinburgh School. In the Great War they mobilized to France and Flanders and served in many of the major actions: in Ypres and on the Somme; at Arras and Cambrai in 1917; and during the 1918 German Spring Offensive at St Quentin. In the Advance to Victory, they were with the 15th (Scottish) Division.

Download or read book Loos 1915 written by Nick Lloyd and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The battle of Loos was one of the most hard-fought battles that the British Expeditionary Force waged during the First World War. This work presents an interpretation of Loos, placing it not only within its political and strategic context, but also discussing command and control and the tactical realities of war on the Western Front during 1915.

Download or read book McCrae s Battalion written by Jack Alexander and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-03-18 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: McCrae's Own was the 'Heart of Midlothian Battalion' mentioned all too briefly in Martin Middlebrook's classic book The First Day on the Somme. Raised in Edinburgh shortly after the start of the Great War, it was perhaps the finest unit in Lord Kitchener's volunteer army - a brotherhood of sportsmen, bound together by their extraordinary colonel and their loyalty to a quaintly named Association Football club, the famous Gorgie 'Hearts'. McCrae's were blooded in the Battle of the Somme, losing three-quarters of their strength on the first day alone. The Colonel himself was invalided home. In time the battalion recovered. It came of age at Arras, endured the muddy horror of Passchendaele, and held the line unbroken in the face of furious German attacks on the Lys in 1918. For almost a century their story remained untold. It was all but lost forever. Now, after 12 years of exacting historical detective work, Jack Alexander has reclaimed the 16th Royal Scots for posterity. In this stirring book he draws upon interviews with veterans and a unique archive of letters, diaries and photographs, assembled from the families of more than 1,000 of Sir George McCrae's men.

Download or read book 1915 The Death of Innocence written by Lyn Macdonald and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 939 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lyn Macdonald's 1915: The Death of Innocence is a uniquely compelling blend of military history and poignant memories of the fighters who survived the ordeal. By Christmas 1915, the wild wave of enthusiasm that had sent men flocking to join up a few months earlier had begun to tail off, and though the Regulars of the original Expeditionary Force had suffered 90 percent casualties, most, particularly the soldiers themselves, still believed that 1915 would see the breaking of the deadlock. Their hopes were shattered on the bloody battlefields at Neuve Chapelle, at Ypres, at Loos, and far away on the shores of Gallipoli. Generals failed to understand the importance of heavy howitzers and machine guns, convinced that wars were won by the cavalry. They could not imagine a war in which hundreds of advancing troops could be wiped out in minutes by machine-gun fire. As disillusionment began to set in and grim resolve replaced easy optimism, innocence was among the casualties in the trenches that ran through the Flanders swamps. The story of 1915 is stark, brutal, frank, sometimes painfully funny, always human. Above all, it is history from the ground up, told from the point of view of the men themselves. Never before has any writer collected so many firsthand accounts of the experiences of ordinary soldiers, through diaries, letters, and interviews with survivors--and it is the dogged heroism and sardonic humor of the soldiers that shine through the pages of Lyn Macdonald's epic narrative.

Download or read book The Somme written by Robin Prior and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in a new edition on the centenary of the seismic battle, this book provides the definitive account of the Somme and assigns responsibility to military and political leaders for its catastrophic outcome. “A magisterial piece of scholarship. . . . It is a model of historical research and should do much to further our understanding of the Great War and how it was fought.”—Contemporary Review “Revisionist history at its best.”—Library Journal (starred review) “A major addition to the literature on the military history of the Great War.”—Jay Winter

Download or read book From Normandy to the Baltic written by Advocate and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-28 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the 44th Lowland Infantry Brigade of the 15th Scottish Division from D Day until the surrender of the German armies in May 1945. The story is written by one who had the very great honour to be a member of the Brigade HQ staff of the Lowland Brigade throughout the whole period. The writer had also been previously in the Brigade during the greater part of the war, while in the United Kingdom. The story is a catalogue of events as seen and experienced by one man; the indulgence of those who took part in the events described is, therefore, craved for the many inaccuracies which will no doubt be apparent. At the same time, Brigade HQ was probably the best place for getting a bird’s-eye view of operations as a whole, and the account may perhaps be found to be more objective than if the writer had been in one of the battalions. Use has been made of the records of Brigade HQ to check the facts, but not those of the battalions, and the writer has also had the benefit of the help and advice of many officers of the Brigade, to whom his thanks are due.

Download or read book The Flowers of the Forest written by Trevor Royle and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2011-08-12 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the brink of the First World War, Scotland was regarded throughout the British Isles as 'the workshop of the Empire'. Not only were Clyde-built ships known the world over, Scotland produced half of Britain's total production of railway equipment, and the cotton and jute industries flourished in Paisley and Dundee. In addition, Scots were a hugely important source of manpower for the colonies. Yet after the war, Scotland became an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties, a result of huge numbers of volunteers and the use of Scottish battalions as shock troops in the fighting on the Western Front and Gallipoli - young men whom the novelist Ian Hay called 'the vanished generation'. In this book, Trevor Royle provides the first full account of how the war changed Scotland irrevocably by exploring a wide range of themes - the overwhelming response to the call for volunteers; the performance of Scottish military formations in 1915 and 1916; the militarization of the Scottish homeland; the resistance to war in Glasgow and the west of Scotland; and the boom in the heavy industries and the strengthening of women's role in society following on from wartime employment.

Download or read book Passchendaele written by Robin Prior and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No conflict of the Great War excites stronger emotions than the war in Flanders in the autumn of 1917, and no name better encapsulates the horror and apparent futility of the Western Front than Passchendaele. By its end there had been 275,000 Allied and 200,000 German casualties. Yet the territorial gains made by the Allies in four desperate months were won back by Germany in only three days the following March. The devastation at Passchendaele, the authors argue, was neither inevitable nor inescapable; perhaps it was not necessary at all. Using a substantial archive of official and private records, much of which has never been previously consulted, Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior provide the fullest account of the campaign ever published. The book examines the political dimension at a level which has hitherto been absent from accounts of "Third Ypres." It establishes what did occur, the options for alternative action, and the fundamental responsibility for the carnage. Prior and Wilson consider the shifting ambitions and stratagems of the high command, examine the logistics of war, and assess what the available manpower, weaponry, technology, and intelligence could realistically have hoped to achieve. And, most powerfully of all, they explore the experience of the soldiers in the light—whether they knew it or not—of what would never be accomplished.