Download or read book Somme Gunners written by Frank Baldwin and published by Battleground Somme. This book was released on 2024-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part history book and part travel guide, Somme Gunners is aimed at anyone interested in the artillery on the first day of the Somme, as it fills a gap in the story of one of the most famous and bloodiest dates in British military history. Much has been written about the first day of the Somme. The focus has understandably been on the experience of the infantry, Kitchener's new Army and the stories of the locally recruited pals battalions and their fate on 1 July. Much less, however, has been written about the artillerymen who fired the barrage and whose effectiveness determined whether the attacks succeeded or failed. A quarter of the British Army were artillerymen. This book contains a collection of much-neglected stories about these brave men who carried out the preliminary bombardment and gives an insight into the problems they faced. It is the only book to give the locations of the artillery batteries, which supported the attack on the first day of the Somme, and the details of the barrage fired on that momentous day. This is key information for anyone seeking to discover more about their family members who witnessed the Somme. The book also aims to help those seeking to understand where their relatives fought by providing walking and driving tours, to help visitors understand the gunners' experience and contribution to the battle.

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 When the Somme Ran Red written by Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Gunner s Great War All Artilleryman s Experience from the Somme to the Subcontinent Large Print 16pt written by Ian Ronayne and published by ReadHowYouWant. This book was released on 2014-10-13 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the First World War had not happened when it did, Channel Islander Clarence Ahier would almost certainly have led a mostly unremarkable life. But it did, and in October 1915, aged just 23 - years - old, Clarence left his home and volunteered to join the British Army. He would spend the next two and half years serving as an artilleryman on the Western Front.Now this in itself is not remarkable - millions of other young men did the same thing. But Clarence Ahier did do something remarkable, and it was something to set him out from almost all his contemporaries. From the very beginning of his time at the front, he wrote a graphic and moving account of his experiences of war.Clarence's ultimate plans for his meticulously written journal are unknown. But having lain unnoticed for years, it was recently discovered in a collection of dusty ephemera handed to a local history society.The complete journal consists of around 25,000 words, with a focus on Clarence's experience during the Battle of the Somme, in the fighting around Ypres, and, after he was wounded for the second time, the journey to India and his time there as a member of the garrison. This will be supported by additional explanatory text.

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 The Somme written by Peter Hart and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-03-15 with total page 957 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the bloodiest battles in world history—a military tragedy that would come to define a generation. On July 1, 1916, the British Army launched the “Big Push” that was supposed to bring an end to the horrific stalemate on the Western Front between British, French, and German forces. What resulted was one of the greatest single human catastrophes in twentieth century warfare. Scrambling out of trenches in the face of German machine guns and artillery fire, the Allied Powers lost over twenty thousand soldiers that first day. This “battle” would drag on for another four bloody months, resulting in over one million causalities among the three powers. As the oral historian at the Imperial War Museum in London, Peter Hart has brought to light new material never before seen or heard. The Somme is an unparalleled evocation of World War I’s iconic contest—the definitive account of one of the major tragedies of the twentieth century.

Download or read book The Battle of the Somme written by Alan Axelrod and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fought during 1916, the Battle of the Somme was conceived by the French and British as a great offensive to be waged against Germany even as France poured incredible numbers of men into the slaughterhouse that was the desperate defense of Verdun. The French general-in-chief, Joseph “Papa” Joffre, was especially anxious to go on the offensive. For the French high command cherished the belief, born in the era of Napoleon, that the success of French arms depended on attack and that defense was anathema to what the nationalistic philosopher Henri Bergson called the “élan vital” of the French people, a quality, he argued, that set the Gallic race apart from the rest of the world. After more than five months, the British eked out a penetration of some six miles into German territory. The cost had been 420,000 Britons killed or wounded (70,000 men per mile gained)—and most of these were from “Kitchener’s Army,” so-called Pals Battalions, working- and middle-class volunteers promised that they could fight alongside their friends, co-workers, and neighbors. This meant that the Somme, more than any other battle before or since, devastated the young male population of entire British towns, villages, and neighborhoods. French losses were just under 200,000. The Germans lost at least 650,000. Just as the French refused to give up ground at Verdun, the Germans held on stubbornly at the Somme—so stubbornly that General Ludendorff actually complained that his men “fought too doggedly, clinging too resolutely to the mere holding of ground, with the result that the losses were heavy.” The only thing “conclusive” about the Somme was the ineluctable fact of death. No battle ever fought in any conflict provided a stronger incentive for all sides to reach a negotiated peace—the “peace without victory” that Woodrow Wilson, still standing on the sidelines, urged the combatants to agree upon. Instead, the Kaiser, appalled both by Verdun and the Somme, relieved Falkenhayn and replaced him with Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who had achieved great success on the Eastern Front. The new commanders created two new defensive lines, both well behind the Somme front. On the one hand, it was a retreat. On the other, it was a commitment to draw the French and British farther east and invite them to sacrifice more of their soldiery. The modest advance the British made was but the prelude to additional slaughter.

Download or read book The Battles of the Somme written by Philip Gibbs and published by McClelland, Goodchild, and Stewart. This book was released on 1917 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Somme Great War 100 Years written by Nigel Cave and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication, SOMME THE BATTLE 100 YEARS ON, has been published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd, with the purpose of creating an awareness and an interest in theSomme battles of 1916. For nearly thirty years, Pen & Sword Books Ltd has published numerous titles covering various Pals battalions formed for the Big Push. They have also been fore-runners in setting up the Battleground Series guides, which are packed with then and now illustrations, using battle maps from the time and road maps of the sites today. They are all specifically designed to take the tourer safely through these now historic sites. Many more books have been written and published by Pen & Sword on the other battles of the First World War. Only a small portion relating to 1 July 1916 has been taken from each book appearing in this publication. Much more information can been gleaned from reading about the events of the Somme battles and the awful aftermath of the day through reading the books mentioned at the end of each extract.These publications would not have been possible without the skill and dedication of our authors who have painstakingly researched and written about the subjects that bring to light these historic events.

Download or read book Gunner on the Somme written by W. R. Price and published by History Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gunner of the Somme is a remarkable memoir detailing the life of a gunner on the Western Front as observed by a gentleman scientist who served in the ranks.William Price was a Cambridge botanist who worked at Kew Gardens but a speech impediment made him feel unable to serve as an officer. He enrolled in the ranks and left this incredible description of how the brigade operated, how men worked on the guns and his experiences as a gunner.His account runs from the outbreak of war until he was wounded in late 1917, and there is a moving postscript written in 1958 when he returned to the battlefields around Ypres. In addition to his descriptions of the fighting at the Somme and Passchendaele, he includes fine detail - such as food and swearing in the ranks - that is hard to find elsewhere.

Download or read book The Somme written by A.H. Farrar-Hockley and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1964, this is a critically acclaimed classic history of the military engagements of the Somme that raged from July to November 1916. It tells of bloody battles interspersed with trench actions of dreadful intensity. In addition to the key confrontations, Farrar-Hockley provides a detailed background to the Somme planning and why it failed with dreadful casualties. In its entirety, the conflict along the Somme scarred the minds of a whole generation, becoming recorded by historians as the graveyard of the 'flower of British manhood'.With a new introduction by Charles Messenger, and a touching foreword by the author's son, Dair Farrar-Hockley, this new edition of The Somme is a testament to those who gave their lives on this famous battlefield.

Download or read book The French Army on the Somme 1916 written by Ian Sumner and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So much has been written about the 1916 Battle of the Somme that it might appear that every aspect of the four-month struggle has been described and analyzed in exhaustive detail. Yet perhaps one aspect has not received the attention it deserves the French sector in the south of the battlefield which is often overshadowed by events in the British sector further north. That is why Ian Sumner's photographic history of the French army on the Somme is so interesting and valuable.Using a selection of over 200 wartime photographs, many of which have not been published before, he follows the entire course of the battle from the French point of view. The photographs show the build-up to the Somme offensive, the logistics involved, the key commanders, the soldiers as they prepared to go into action and the landscape over which the battle took place. Equally close coverage is given to the fighting during each phase of the offensive the initial French advances, the mounting German resistance and the terrible casualties the French incurred.The photographs are especially important in that they record the equipment and weapons that were used, the clothing the men wore and the conditions in which they fought, and they provide us with a visual insight into the realities of battle over a hundred years ago. They also document some of the most famous sites on the battlefield before they were destroyed in the course of the fighting, including villages like Gommecourt, Pozires, La Boiselle and Thiepval.

Download or read book Machine Gunner 1914 18 written by C. E. Crutchley and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-11-28 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1914 there were only two machine guns supporting a British infantry battalion of 800 men, and in the light of the effectiveness of German and French machine guns the Machine Gun Corps was formed in October 1915. This remarkable book, compiled and edited by C E Crutchley, is a collection of the personal accounts of officers and men who served in the front lines with their machine guns in one of the most ghastly wars, spread over three continents. The strength of the book lies in the fact that these are the actual words of the soldiers themselves, complete with characteristic modes of expression and oddities of emphasis and spelling. All theatres of war are covered from the defence of the Suez Canal, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia in the east to France and Flanders, the German offensive of March 1918 and the final act on the Western Front that brought the war to an end. October 2006 is the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Machine Gun Corps.

Download or read book The Somme written by Gary Sheffield and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 1 July 1916, after a stupendous seven-day artillery preparation, the British Army finally launched its attack on the German line around the River Somme. Over the next four and half months they continued to attack, with little or no gain, and with horrendous losses to both sides. This book, written by the world's foremost expert in the subject, describes in chilling detail everything from the grand strategy to the experience of the men on the ground. Illustrated throughout, it is a stunning and absorbing depiction of the horror that was the Somme in 1916.

Download or read book The German Army on the Somme 1914 1916 written by Jack Sheldon and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2005-10-19 with total page 888 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking WWI history presents a detailed narrative of German Army operations from the start of the war to the 1st Battle of the Somme. A renowned expert on the German Army during the First World War, historian Jack Sheldon draws on his extensive research into German sources to shed new light on the famous battleground. In an account filled with graphic descriptions of life and death in the trenches, Sheldon demonstrates that the dreadful losses of July 1st, 1916, were a direct consequence of meticulous German planning and preparation. Although the Battle of the Somme was a close-run affair, poor Allied co-ordination played into the hands of the German commanders. The German Army was able to maintain the overall integrity of its defenses and continue its delaying of battle until winter ultimately neutralized the considerable Allied superiority in men and material.

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 West Country Regiments on the Somme written by Tim Saunders and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previous works have concentrated on the 'Pal' in Britain's northern towns and cities. This book seeks to explore the little appreciated part in the Battle of the Somme played by the Regular and Volunteer Service battalions of two small West Country regiments; the Devonshire Regiment and the Dorset Regiment. These two regiments had five battalions in action on the first day of the battle and were represented in most of the significant attacks during the three and half months of the 1916. The reader will be able to form a clear picture of the battle's development as a whole through the eyes of Westcountry soldiers who fought on the Somme.