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Author: John Sheen
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783460091
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 567
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Book Description
A history of four battalions of the Durham Light Infantry raised in the Country during the First World War. The 18th (Pals) were the first troops of Kitcheners new army to come under fire, when the Germans bombarded Hartlepool in December 1914. The 19th were raised as Bantams and the 20th (Wearside) were raised by the Sunderland Recruiting Committee. The 22nd, the last raised became a pioneer Battalion but fought as infantry through much of 1918. The book covers raising, training and active service of the Battalions. The 18th were in action on 1 July 1916 when they supported the Leeds and Bradford Pals. After fighting at Messines in June 1917 the 20th went to the Italian front. After losing its Bantams in 1917, the 19th Battalion fought on and distinguished itself in the advance in Flanders in the latter months of 1918. The 22nd Battalion had such a hard time in March and April 1918 that it was rebuilt and again practically wiped out before being disbanded in June 1918.
Author: John Sheen
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783460091
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 567
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Book Description
A history of four battalions of the Durham Light Infantry raised in the Country during the First World War. The 18th (Pals) were the first troops of Kitcheners new army to come under fire, when the Germans bombarded Hartlepool in December 1914. The 19th were raised as Bantams and the 20th (Wearside) were raised by the Sunderland Recruiting Committee. The 22nd, the last raised became a pioneer Battalion but fought as infantry through much of 1918. The book covers raising, training and active service of the Battalions. The 18th were in action on 1 July 1916 when they supported the Leeds and Bradford Pals. After fighting at Messines in June 1917 the 20th went to the Italian front. After losing its Bantams in 1917, the 19th Battalion fought on and distinguished itself in the advance in Flanders in the latter months of 1918. The 22nd Battalion had such a hard time in March and April 1918 that it was rebuilt and again practically wiped out before being disbanded in June 1918.
Author: Laurie Milner
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473815916
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 759
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Book Description
The British Army’s losses on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme - 1 July 1916 - amounted to some 57,000 men killed, wounded or missing. Few units, however, suffered as terribly as the famous ‘Pals’ battalions, raised from volunteers who had flocked to answer Lord Kitchener’s ‘Call to Arms’. In the North of England particularly, whole cities and towns went into mourning as news of that awful first day’s casualties came through. What is less well-known is that some of these battalions were brought up to strength with reinforcements - often from the cities in which they had been raised - and sent back into action again and again This is the story of one such battalion, the Leeds Pals, which by the war’s end in 1918, was described as having been ‘four times wiped out but fighting to the end’. It is a story which traces, in great and fascinating detail, the raising and training of the battalion in and around Leeds, their service in Egypt before being sent to France in December 1915, their heavy losses in their baptism of fire on the Somme, 1916, in the Battle of Arras a year later, and during the German offensives of March and April 1918. Based upon the accounts of survivors, private diaries, letters and papers, official archives, contemporary newspaper accounts, and a wealth of unpublished photographs, it is a story of patriotism, enthusiasm, humor, and great courage. Ultimately, however, it is a tale of great tragedy, for though the Leeds Pals took part in the final advance to victory, their three years in France had cost them 733 men killed, 1,861 wounded and 776 missing or captured.
Author: Leeds Pals Volunteer Researchers
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750990171
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295
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Book Description
Many men and boys from Leeds enlisted as volunteer soldiers at the outset of the First World War as part of the national phenomenon of 'Pals' that sprang up across the Britain. The Leeds Pals, who made up the 15th Battalion (Prince of Wales's Own) West Yorkshire Regiment (the City Battalion), trained in rugged Colsterdale and at Ripon, guarded the Suez Canal and were changed irrevocably by their experiences during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 when, on the first day, the battalion was devastated. Who were these men? How did their experiences resonate in Leeds? What impact did they have on the city itself? Using unpublished archive sources and original research, this book adds to our knowledge of the Leeds Pals through case studies and historical overview, revealing how the city treated this one battalion at the expense of others.
Author: Peter Hughes
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473825563
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
Like Ypres, Arras was a front line town throughout the Great War. From March 1916 it became home to the British Army and it remained so until the Advance to Victory was well under way. In 1917 the Battle of Arras came and went. It occupied barely half a season, but was then largely forgotten; the periods before and after it have been virtually ignored, and yet the Arras sector was always important and holding it was never easy or without incident; death, of course, was never far away. The area around Arras is as rich in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries as anywhere else on the Western Front, including the Somme and Ypres, and yet these quiet redoubts with their headstones proudly on parade still remain largely unvisited. This book is the story of the men who fell and who are now buried in those cemeteries; and the telling of their story is the telling of what it was like to be a soldier on the Western Front. ??'Arras-North' is the first of three books by the same author. This volume contains in depth coverage of almost sixty Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and is a veritable 'Who's Who' of officers and other ranks who fell on this part of the Western Front. It provides comprehensive details of gallantry awards and citations and describes many minor operations, raids and other actions, as well as the events that took place in April and May 1917. It is the story of warfare on the Western Front as illustrated through the lives of those who fought and died on the battlefields of Arras.??There are many unsung heroes and personal tragedies, including a young man who went out into no man's land to rescue his brother, an uncle and nephew killed by the same shell, a suicide in the trenches and a young soldier killed by a random shell whilst celebrating his birthday with his comrades. There is an unexpected connection to Ulster dating back to the days of Oliver Cromwell and William of Orange, a link to Sinn Fein and an assassination, a descendant of Sir Isaac Newton, as well as a conjuror, a friend of P.G. Wodehouse, a young officer said to have been 'thrilled' to lead his platoon into the trenches for the first time, only to be killed three hours later, and a man whose headstone still awaits the addition of his Military Medal after almost a century, despite having been involved in one of the most daring rescues of the war. This is a superb reference guide for anyone visiting Arras and its battlefields.
Author: Walter Stephen
Publisher: Luath Press Ltd
ISBN: 1910324582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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Book Description
Walter Stephen provides an uninhibited look at the misery and toil of World War I through a collection of twelve stories. Providing a Scottish perspective, he takes a look at reports from home and abroad with scepticism, delving deeper to unveil the unencumbered truth. Recalling Siegfried Sassoon's words, Stephen reveals the failures of those in command as the Great War became known as A Dirty Swindle. The varied accounts chronicle the progress of troops from recruitment to training to the frontline, as well as revealing a side of Field Marshal Haig never seen before.
Author: Andrew Roberts
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1784080004
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347
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Book Description
On 1 July 1916, after a five-day bombardment, 11 British and 5 French divisions launched their long-awaited 'Big Push' on German positions on high ground above the Rivers Ancre and Somme on the Western Front. Some ground was gained, but at a terrible cost. In killing-grounds whose names are indelibly imprinted on 20th-century memory, German machine-guns – manned by troops who had sat out the storm of shellfire in deep dugouts – inflicted terrible losses on the British infantry. The British Fourth Army lost 57,470 casualties, the French Sixth Army suffered 1,590 casualties and the German 2nd Army 10,000. And this was but the prelude to 141 days of slaughter that would witness the deaths of between 750,000 and 1 million troops. Andrew Roberts evokes the pity and the horror of the blackest day in the history of the British army – a summer's day-turned-hell-on-earth by modern military technology – in the words of casualties, survivors, and the bereaved.
Author: Roni Wilkinson
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1783409460
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 437
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Book Description
Pals on the Somme covers the history of all the Pals Battalions who fought on the Somme during the First World War. The book looks at the events which led to the war and how the Pals phenomenon was born.It considers the attitude and social conditions in Britain at the time. It covers the training and equipping of the Battalions, the preparations for the Big Push, 1st July 1916, and going over the top, and how each battalion fared, failed or succeeded. It looks at how they Battalions had to undergo a change after the 1st July, due to the heavy casualties, and the final victory in 1918, and how the battalions were eventually amalgamated. The final chapter examines how each area coped in the aftermath of losing their men in the three year slaughter. It covers the organizations and visits to the Battlefields as they are today.
Author: Thomas Scotland
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 191029490X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278
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Book Description
This is a guidebook with a difference. It is not a list of memorials and cemeteries. Its aim is to provide the reader with an understanding of the Battle of the Somme. There were some partial successes; there were many disastrous failures. In 17 concise chapters dealing with different areas of the battlefield and various aspects of strategy, this book explains what happened in each location and why. Each chapter is accompanied by color photographs, taken by the authors in the course of many visits to the Somme, which will illustrate, illuminate and allow the reader to understand important points made in the text. It doesn`t matter whether you are in your armchair, on foot, on a bicycle, or in a car, this book will effortlessly transport you to the battlefield and will sweep you round the front line of 1 July 1916. From Montauban in the south, to Serre in the north, it will lead you to the night attack of 14 July and to the first use of tanks on 15 September. It will take you to the Pozières Ridge and to Mouquet Farm, and to the heights above the Ancre. You will visit the famous Sunken Lane near Beaumont Hamel, where the text will transport you in time to stand with men from the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers waiting to go over the top on 1 July 1916. You will look towards Hawthorn Mine Crater and almost feel the earth tremble beneath your feet as though you were there at 07.20 hrs. on 1 July 1916. You will go into Beaumont Hamel with the 51st (Highland) Division and climb up Wagon Road. You will look across to where Frankfurt Trench once was, and where men from the 16th Highland Light Infantry from Glasgow fought a last ditch battle, having become marooned in the trench, in what was the last action to take place before the Somme finally petered out in the mud in late November 1916. With its focus on informing and illuminating the events of 1916 on the Somme, and illustrated throughout by carefully annotated color photographs showing the sites today, this book will prove equally essential to the battlefield visitor or the 'virtual visitor' in their armchair.
Author: Brian Elliott
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473834651
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 219
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Book Description
“A meticulous mixture of social and family history . . . Whether or not you have mining connections, this is an interesting socio-economic read.” —Your Family Tree In the 1920s there were over a million coalminers working in over 3000 collieries across Great Britain, and the industry was one of the most important and powerful in British history. It dominated the lives of generations of individuals, their families, and communities, and its legacy is still with us today—many of us have a coalmining ancestor. Yet family historians often have problems in researching their mining forebears. Locating the relevant records, finding the sites of the pits, and understanding the work involved and its historical background can be perplexing. That is why Brian Elliott’s concise, authoritative and practical handbook will be so useful, for it guides researchers through these obstacles and opens up the broad range of sources they can go to in order to get a vivid insight into the lives and experiences of coalminers in the past. His overview of the coalmining history—and the case studies and research tips he provides—will make his book rewarding reading for anyone looking for a general introduction to this major aspect of Britain’s industrial heritage. His directory of regional and national sources and his commentary on them will make this guide an essential tool for family historians searching for an ancestor who worked in coalmining underground, on the pit top or just lived in a mining community. As featured in Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine and the Barnsley Chronicle.
Author: Martin Middlebrook
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473814243
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
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)
