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Haig's Medical Officer: The papers of Colonel Eugene 'Micky' Ryan CMG DSO RAMC
by Eugene RyanDespite countless conflicting assessments, Field Marshal Douglas Haig remains one of the most controversial and fascinating characters in British military history. To some he was a mindless butcher, to others a true patriot who masterminded Allied victory in the First World War under the most trying circumstances.The papers of Colonel Eugene 'Micky' Ryan, Haig's long serving doctor and confidant, are a significant find as they throw fresh and invaluable light on the life and character of this enigmatic man. Ryan studied medicine at Cork and Edinburgh. He was commissioned into the RAMC in 1901 and saw active service in South Africa. He first met Haig in 1912 and became Medical Officer to Haig's HQ 1st Corps in 1914 and moved with him to 1st Army that December. Ryan saw service commanding two Casualty Clearing Stations before being appointed Medical Officer to the C in C (Haig) in September 1916.Haig's and Ryan's relationship, while primarily professional, blossomed into a friendship of mutual respect and trust which lasted until Haig's death in 1928. Ryan delivered the Haigs' long awaited heir, Dawyck, in 1918 and advised during Dorothy Haig's illness in 1926.Fortunately Ryan kept meticulous diaries which, written from such a unique viewpoint and with constant reference to Haig and his family, are of historical importance: the Foreword, written by Professor Gary Sheffield a leading authority on Haig's life and work, attests to their significance.As seen in Britain at War Magazine, January 2014
The Military Strategy of the Soviet Union: A History (Soviet (Russian) Military Theory and Practice #No. 6)
by David M. GlantzArmed revolution and civil war gave birth to the Soviet Union, world War II propelled it to global pre-eminence, and the Cold War contributed to the Soviet Union's demise. Given Marxism-Leninism's idological preoccupation with war and threats of war, it is understandable that the spectre of war should play a vital role in the life and fate of the Soviet state.This study of Soviet military strategy is based upon the twin pillars of Soviet political-military actions and Soviet writings on the subject of military strategy. Thanks to the policy of glasnost, it incorporates Soviet materials hitherto unavailable in the West. It aims to be not simply a retrospective account of what was, but to form part of the context for what will be in the future.
Monash: As Military Commander
by Dr. Peter PedersenDr Peter Pedersen&’s scholarly study of Sir John Monash remains the finest analysis of Australia&’s best known military leader. In 1918 the Australian Corps under Monash&’s command played a leading role in the Allied advance to victory on the Western Front. Its successes in the battles of Hamel and Amiens, the taking of Mont St Quentin and Péronne and the breaching of the Hindenburg Line are among the most prominent landmarks in Australia&’s military history. Monash was central to these pivotal achievements. This book traces Monash&’s development as a commander from his pre-war militia service to his wartime experience at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. It examines in detail how each stage of his military career influenced his approach to command and the tactical problems he faced as the wartime commander of an infantry brigade and division and, ultimately, the Australian Corps. The influence of his education and civilian training are also examined in this meticulous study. What emerges from this nuanced and sophisticated assessment of Monash as a soldier is a superb portrayal of how a commander works and what he could achieve under conditions so inimical to the exercise of command as those that prevailed on the Western Front. Along the way, Dr Pedersen establishes Monash&’s place among his contemporaries, British and Australian, and provides the definitive answer to the question &‘Just how good was Monash?&’ Published for the centenary of the great victories of 1918, this new and updated edition of Dr Pedersen&’s classic work is a timely study of Australia&’s finest general.
Mutiny at Koje Island
by Hal VetterThis absolutely authentic, horrifying account of treachery, intrigue and ruthless brutality among 150,000 Communist POWs herded together on the small rugged island of Koje-do in Korea, tells of their holding the American commander as hostage and of their ultimate vicious mutiny, armed with thousands of improvised spears, gasoline grenades, and knives, and with countless barbed-wire flails.This is a now-it-can-be-told book that no American can read without becoming shocked and fighting mad. On the other hand no American can read the transcripts of the proceedings at Panmunjom without a deep feeling of respect and admiration for the distinguished military leaders of the United Nations to whom our national honor was entrusted. Their dignity, patience, and forbearance in the performance of a bleak, unrewarding task deserve the commendation of each and every citizen of the free world community.
Mutiny at Koje Island
by Hal VetterThis absolutely authentic, horrifying account of treachery, intrigue and ruthless brutality among 150,000 Communist POWs herded together on the small rugged island of Koje-do in Korea, tells of their holding the American commander as hostage and of their ultimate vicious mutiny, armed with thousands of improvised spears, gasoline grenades, and knives, and with countless barbed-wire flails.This is a now-it-can-be-told book that no American can read without becoming shocked and fighting mad. On the other hand no American can read the transcripts of the proceedings at Panmunjom without a deep feeling of respect and admiration for the distinguished military leaders of the United Nations to whom our national honor was entrusted. Their dignity, patience, and forbearance in the performance of a bleak, unrewarding task deserve the commendation of each and every citizen of the free world community.
Nine Divisions in Champagne: The Second Battle of Marne
by Patrick TakleThe book explains how the Allies, after a series of swingeing defeats, sank their differences and came together to turn the tide against the German Army in the Summer of 1918. Although it is a detailed history of the fighting by British divisions, it also highlights the growing presence of American forces and their huge contribution to victory, too often understated in earlier works. The book deliberately binds together the genesis, size and equipment of the British and American divisions and seeks to inter-mingle the American and British campaigns of 1918.By blocking the Third German Offensive on the Chemins des Dames and then arriving in time to turn the Kaiser's army out of the Marne salient, the Allied divisions cleared the way for the decisive counter offensive at Amiens. Exhausted and demoralized, the German Army collapsed and the outcome of The Great War was decided.
Out of Time's Abyss: Land That Time Forgot Book 3
by Edgar Rice BurroughsThe third book in Burrough's Caspak series-which also includes The Land That Time Forgot and The People That Time Forgot-Out of Time's Abyss is fully enjoyable as a standalone tale. Here, Bradley, survivor of an earlier expedition to the lost continent of Caspak, near Antarctica, has been sheltered at Fort Dinosaur, and now decides to brave the dangers of the land's barbarian men and brutal dinosaurs in an attempt to get home to England.
The People That Time Forgot: Land That Time Forgot Book 2
by Edgar Rice BurroughsIn uncharted Caprona, a continent lost from the map of Earth, where Time had stopped and all the primeval creatures of long-gone ages still prowled, Bowen Tyler was lost.Strange mysteries awaited the expedition that went in search of Tyler. A barbaric, warring civilization hid there, trapped between the impassable jungle on one side and an unknown menace on the other.
SAS Trooper: Charlie Radford's Operations in Enemy-Occupied France and Italy
by Francis MackayA prewar Sapper, Charlie Radford served in North Africa until he returned to the UK for parachute training. He volunteered and joined 2 SAS in Scotland. His first operation was in France (Op RUPERT) cutting railway lines, and he then took park in Operation LOYTON, now in armed jeeps. His next assignment (Operation ZOMBIE) involved parachuting into the Italian Dolomites to disrupt the vital German link north of Verona between Italy and Austria.This operation ended in failure due to foolhardy leadership, inadequate manning and poor preparation. His OC was captured, tortured and executed but Charlie escaped to live with the partisans before being repatriated to the UK. After the war he returned to France to help with the exhumation and reburial of SAS men executed in the Vosges mountains. Postwar he served in Kenya and Somaliland and briefly recounts his experiences.
Touring the Italian Front, 1917–1919 (Battleground Europe)
by Francis MackayThe guide describes the ground and operations covered by the British, French and US Expeditionary Forces deployed from France to the area North of Venice between November 1917 and Spring 1919. These Forces supported the Italians after their disastrous defeat at Caporetto and helped stem the Austrian and German onslaught.This is the first guide to the Allied contribution and the Piave Defence line. It also covers the rear areas - supply and repair services, training and recreation, and describes the movement to Italy and subsequent service and care of the 16,000 British and 20,000 French horses and mules. The US contribution has never been adequately described before.
Tracing Your Prisoner of War Ancestors: The First World War (Tracing Your Ancestors)
by Sarah PatersonThe experience of civilian internees and British prisoners of war in German and Turkish hands during the First World War is one of the least well-known and least researched aspects of the history of the conflict. The same applies to prisoners of war and internees held in the UK. Yet, as Sarah Paterson shows in this authoritative handbook, a wide-range of detailed and revealing information is available if you know where to look for it.Briefly she outlines the course of the campaigns in which British servicemen were captured, and she describes how they were treated and the conditions they endured. She locates the camps they were taken to and explains how they were run. She also shows how this emotive and neglected subject can be researched - how archives and records can be used to track down individual prisoners and uncover something of the lives they led in captivity.Her work will be an essential introduction for readers who are keen to get an insight into the experience of a POW or an internee during the First World War, and it will be an invaluable guide for anyone who is trying to trace an ancestor who was captured.
Fighting the Kaiser's War: The Saxons in Flanders, 1914/1918
by Andrew Lucas Jürgen SchmieschekPersonal accounts of the Great War experiences of British soldiers are well known and plentiful, but similar accounts from the German side of no man's land are rare. This highly original book vividly describes the wartime lives and ultimate fates of ten Saxon soldiers facing the British in Flanders, revealed through their intimate diaries and correspondence. The stories of these men, from front-line trench fighters to a brigade commander, are in turn used to illustrate the wider story of thousands more who fought and died in Flanders 'for King and Country, Kaiser and Reich' with the Royal Saxon Army. This ground-breaking work is illustrated with over 300 mostly unseen wartime photographs and other images, recording the German experience of the war in human detail and giving a rounded picture of how the Saxons lived and died in Flanders.
Marine Flyer In France — The Diary Of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, November 1917 - January 1918
by Captain Alfred Austell CunninghamDuring November and December 1917, Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, the first Marine Corps aviator, travelling under orders from Major General Commandant George Barnett, toured the battlefronts and flying fields of France to observe Allied air operations and training.The diary, kept in tiny, neat handwriting in a small pocket notebook, begins on 3 November 1917 with Cunningham's sailing from New York on board the S. S. St. Paul. After a description of a rough winter passage through the North Atlantic U-boat zone, the entries record the confusion, inconveniences, and hardships of wartime London and Paris and contain repeated expressions of homesickness, along with sometimes acid comment on the French people and culture. His tour of British and French airfields culminated with his flying a number of the different aircraft then in service, even flying himself with French airmen on combat missions in December 1917.
The Oakdale Affair
by Edgar Rice BurroughsThe beautiful young daughter of a wealthy family is robbed of her money and jewels, and she herself disappears soon after... A young man fleeing a band of murderous hobos becomes the target of a lynch mob... Frozen to silent rigidity, they sat straining every faculty to catch the minutest sound from the black void where the dead man lay. As they listened there came up to them, mingled with inexplicable footsteps, a hollow reverberation from the dank cellar - a hideous dragging of chains behind the nameless horror which had haunted them through the interminable eons of the ghastly night. Up, up it came toward the room at the head of the stairs where they huddled fearfully. They could now hear quite clearly what might have been the slow and ponderous footsteps of a heavy man dragging painfully across the rough floor. It stopped in front of their hideout and all was silent. Suddenly their rang out against the silence of the awful night a piercing shriek, and a great The Oakdale Affair force began to bend the flimsy door...
Preparing For Battle: Learning Lessons In The US Army During World War I
by Lieutenant Commander Glen T. CullenThis thesis examines how well the United States Army of World War I prepared for battle by learning the lessons of modern combat from other nations engaged in war. Armies prepare for war during peace. However, the true validation of doctrine weapons, organization, and training developed in peacetime is war. Hostilities between the Allied and Central Powers raged for three years before the Unites States declared war. This period provided the US Army a unique opportunity to observe how technologies and techniques were effectively employed by French, British, and German commanders.The question this thesis attempts to answer is: How well did the United States Army apply the experiences of the belligerent nations from 1914 to 1917 in preparing the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) for combat in the European Theater? The thesis starts with a discussion of pre-war Army developments from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 through the last US military action before the declaration of war, the Punitive Expedition to Mexico. The evolution of warfare through French, British, and German experience is described followed by a discussion of the observations of modern warfare by military professionals and how US Army doctrinal publications and operations planning reflected these changes. The thesis then analyses US battlefield performance and influences upon the formation of US doctrine.
Secrecy and the Media: The Official History of the United Kingdom's D-Notice System (Government Official History Series)
by Nicholas John WilkinsonSecrecy and the Media is the first book to examine the development of the D-Notice system, which regulates the UK media's publication of British national security secrets. It is based on official documents, many of which have not previously been available to a general audience, as well as on media sources. From Victorian times, British governments have consistently seen the need, in the public interest, to prevent the media publishing secret information which would endanger national security. The UK media have meanwhile continuously resisted official attempts to impose any form of censorship, arguing that a free press is in the public interest. Both sides have normally seen the pitfalls of attempting to resolve this sometimes acrimonious conflict of interests by litigation, and have together evolved a system of editorial self-regulation, assisted by day-to-day independent expert advice, known colloquially as the D-Notice System. The book traces the development of this system from nineteenth-century colonial campaigns, through two world wars, to modern operations and counter-terrorism in the post-Cold War era, up to the beginning of the Labour government in 1997. Examples are drawn from media, political and official sources (some not yet open), and cover not only defence issues (including Special Forces), but also the activities of the secret intelligence services MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. These cases relate principally to the UK, but also to American and other allies' interests. The story of how this sometimes controversial institution now operates in the modern world will be essential reading for those in the media and government departments, and for academics and students in the fields of security, defence and intelligence, as well as being an accessible exposé for the general reader. Nicholas Wilkinson served in the Royal Navy 1959-98, and from 1999 to 2004 he ran the independent Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee. He was a Press Complaints Commissioner from 2005 to 2008, and is a Cabinet Office Historian.
Tanks of the USSR, 1917–1945
by Alexander LudekeThe Soviet Union had already begun building an armored industry as early as the 1920s. Although initially limited to reconstructing and developing Western European armored vehicles, an independent line of powerful and easy-to-produce models had been established by 1939. Even after the Second World War, the USSR expanded its armament force considerably, even planning to cross western Europe in a massive armoured wave in the event of any conflict with NATO. In this book, Alexander Ldeke looks at all the important Soviet tanks that were built from 1917 up until the end of the Second World War
1916 in Global Context: An anti-Imperial moment (Routledge Studies in Modern European History)
by Enrico Dal Lago Róisín Healy Gearóid BarryThe year 1916 has recently been identified as "a tipping point for the intensification of protests, riots, uprisings and even revolutions." Many of these constituted a challenge to the international pre-war order of empires, and thus collectively represent a global anti-imperial moment, which was the revolutionary counterpart to the later diplomatic attempt to construct a new world order in the so-called Wilsonian moment. Chief among such events was the Easter Rising in Ireland, an occurrence that took on worldwide significance as a challenge to the established order. This is the first collection of specialist studies that aims at interpreting the global significance of the year 1916 in the decline of empires.
Captured at Kut, Prisoner of the Turks: The Great War Diaries of Colonel W C Spackman
by Colonel R A SpackmanThis edited diary is Colonel Bill Spackmans extraordinary personal record of his experiences as the Medical Officer of an Indian Infantry battalion during the Mesopotamian Campaign 1914 1916. In particular he describes the harrowing events of the five month siege of Kut and, after the surrender of the 10,000 strong garrison in April 1916, the hardships of the 1,000 mile forced march to Anatolia in Turkey. As a doctor he witnessed at first hand suffering the and deaths of many POWs, both British and Indian.The book goes on the record life in Turkish captivity which was relatively relaxed and fortunately, in sharp contrast to their earlier experiences.Written with humorous understatement and infinite good sense Captured at Kut : Prisoner of the Turks is a gripping read and will appeal strongly not just to Great War enthusiasts but all who enjoy reading of the triumph of men over extreme adversity.
Civilians in a World at War, 1914-1918
by Tammy M. ProctorWorld War I heralded a new global era of warfare, consolidating and expanding changes that had been building throughout the previous century, while also instituting new notions of war. The 1914-18 conflict witnessed the first aerial bombing of civilian populations, the first widespread concentration camps for the internment of enemy alien civilians, and an unprecedented use of civilian labor and resources for the war effort. Humanitarian relief programs for civilians became a common feature of modern society, while food became as significant as weaponry in the fight to win.Tammy M. Proctor argues that it was World War I--the first modern, global war--that witnessed the invention of both the modern "civilian" and the "home front," where a totalizing war strategy pitted industrial nations and their citizenries against each other. Civilians in a World at War, 1914-1918, explores the different ways civilians work and function in a war situation, and broadens our understanding of the civilian to encompass munitions workers, nurses, laundresses, refugees, aid workers, and children who lived and worked in occupied zones, on home and battle fronts, and in the spaces in between. Comprehensive and global in scope, spanning the Eastern, Western, Italian, East African, and Mediterranean fronts, Proctor examines in lucid and evocative detail the role of experts in the war, the use of forced labor, and the experiences of children in the combatant countries.As in many wars, civilians on both sides of WWI were affected, and vast displacements of the populations shaped the contemporary world in countless ways, redrawing boundaries and creating or reviving lines of ethnic conflict. Exploring primary source materials and secondary studies of combatant and neutral nations, while synthesizing French, German, Dutch, and English language sources, Proctor transcends the artificial boundaries of national histories and the exclusive focus on soldiers. Instead she tells the fascinating and long-buried story of the civilian in the Great War, allowing voices from the period to speak for themselves.
A French Soldier's War Diary 1914–1918
by Henri DesagneauxA classic up-close memoir of fighting in the chaos of World War I. Today, we may have an orderly historical picture of the Great War. But for a soldier like Henri Desagneaux, there was no pattern to be seen from the trenches, where he executed orders ensuring that dozens of men had to die attempting to achieve impossible objectives worked out at a headquarters in the rear. His diary, one of the classic French accounts of the conflict, gives a vivid insight into what it was like to execute those orders, and to live in the trenches with increasingly demoralized, unruly, and mutinous men. In terse, unflinching prose he records their experiences as they confronted the acute dangers of the front line. The appalling conditions in which they fought—and the sheer intensity of the shellfire and the close-quarter combat—have rarely been conveyed with such immediacy.
Great Push: The Battle of the Somme, 1916 (Images of War)
by William LangfordIn 1916, Sir Douglas Haig, commanding the BEF, began his great offensive to drive the invaders off the ground they had been occupying for over a year and a half. The Great Push, as the offensive was advertised to the nation, began 1 July 1916. A glossy picture magazine was produced to inform the British public of the progress of the offensive. Over a four month period until the Battle of the Somme faded away in November the magazine appeared with the following advertising blurb:Sir Douglas Haigs Great Push; The Battle of the Somme; A popular, pictorial and authoritative work on one of the Greatest Battles in History, illustrated by about 700 wonderful Official Photographs and Cinematograph Films; By Arrangement With the War Office; beautifully printed on the Best English Art Paper. As is well known, the Great Push turned out to be little more than a nudge, but, for the sake of national morale, the British public had to be encouraged to believe that all was going well; especially in view of the horrific casualties wrecking the lives of families throughout the land.The Great Push, in the form of Images of War, helps capture the propaganda thrust of the times and presents once more the illustrations of those bewildering days.
In the Trenches: A Russian Woman Soldier's Story of World War I
by Tatiana L. DubinskayaTatiana L. Dubinskaya&’s autobiographical novel of life in the Russian army marked the first major work published by a female World War I soldier in the Soviet Union. Often compared to All Quiet on the Western Front, Dubinskaya&’s stark and unsparing story presents a rare look at women in combat and one of the few works of fiction set on the eastern front. Zinaida, a Russian schoolgirl, runs away from home to join the army. Sent to the front, she endures the horrors of trench warfare and the hardships of military life. Undercurrents of revolutionary thinking filter into the ranks as morale begins to crumble. Zinaida must come to grips with the havoc unleashed by the czar&’s overthrow and the new socialist government&’s attempts to impose revolutionary reforms on the army. Destabilization and desertion follow, and her regiment joins the chaotic mass retreat of the Russian army in the summer of 1917. In addition to Dubinskaya&’s original novel, this edition includes selections from her 1936 autobiographical work, Machine Gunner, which she rewrote to satisfy Stalinist censors.
Last Man Standing: The Memiors of a Seaforth Highlander During the Great War
by Norman CollinsA first-hand account of World War I by a nineteen-year-old Englishman who led a platoon into the carnage of the Battle of the Somme. While researching his excellent earlier book: Veterans of World War I, author Richard Van Emden encountered a fascinating personality of that long-ago conflict. After witnessing German naval attacks on British civilians, Norman Collins enlisted in the Seaforth Highlanders of the 51st Highland Division, even though he was under age. Collins fought at the battles of Beaumont Hamel, Arras, and Passchendaele, and was wounded several times. Collins lived to be 100 and had an unusually detailed collection of letters, documents, illustrations and photographs. Richard Van Emden has written a moving biography of a unique personality at war, and his long life after the dramatic events of his youth.&“This is a harrowing tale of battle, loss and the horrors of war.&” —Scotland Magazine&“His collection of letters, photographs and the record of interviews as an old man are a treasure trove of information on Western Front fighting.&” —British Army Review/Soldier Magazine&“Enthralling memoir. These letters form the freshest part of this book, full of detail about kit and food that obsessed soldiers but which do not find a place in the history books.&” —Who Do You Think You Are?&“This is one of the last great first-person memoirs of the Great War. Extraordinary diary, letter collection and photos.&” —Scottish Legion News