British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War

British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War PDF Author: Sanders Marble
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351954709
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
In the popular imagination, the battle fields of the Western Front were dominated by the machine gun. Yet soldiers at the time were clear that artillery - not machine guns - dictated the nature, tactics and strategy of the conflict. Only in the last months of the war when the Allies had amassed sufficient numbers of artillery and learned how to use it in an integrated and coherent manner was the stalemate broken and war ended. In this lucid and prize-winning study, the steady development of artillery, and the growing realisation of its primacy within the British Expeditionary Force is charted and analysed. Through an examination of British and Dominion forces operating on the Western Front, the book looks at how tactical and operational changes affected the overall strategy. Chapters cover the role of artillery in supporting infantry attacks, counter-battery work, artillery in defence, training and command and staff arrangements. In line with the 'learning curve' thesis, the work concludes that despite many setbacks and missed opportunities, by 1918 the Royal Artillery had developed effective and coordinated tactics to overcome the defensive advantages of trench warfare that had mired the Western Front in bloody stalemate for the previous three years.

British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War

British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War PDF Author: Sanders Marble
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351954709
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 489

Get Book

Book Description
In the popular imagination, the battle fields of the Western Front were dominated by the machine gun. Yet soldiers at the time were clear that artillery - not machine guns - dictated the nature, tactics and strategy of the conflict. Only in the last months of the war when the Allies had amassed sufficient numbers of artillery and learned how to use it in an integrated and coherent manner was the stalemate broken and war ended. In this lucid and prize-winning study, the steady development of artillery, and the growing realisation of its primacy within the British Expeditionary Force is charted and analysed. Through an examination of British and Dominion forces operating on the Western Front, the book looks at how tactical and operational changes affected the overall strategy. Chapters cover the role of artillery in supporting infantry attacks, counter-battery work, artillery in defence, training and command and staff arrangements. In line with the 'learning curve' thesis, the work concludes that despite many setbacks and missed opportunities, by 1918 the Royal Artillery had developed effective and coordinated tactics to overcome the defensive advantages of trench warfare that had mired the Western Front in bloody stalemate for the previous three years.

King of Battle: Artillery in World War I

King of Battle: Artillery in World War I PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004307281
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
In King of Battle: Artillery in World War I a distinguished array of authors examines the centrepiece of battle in the Great War, artillery. Going beyond tables of calibres and ranges, they look at organization, training, personnel, doctrine, and technologies.

History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Western front, 1914-18

History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Western front, 1914-18 PDF Author: Sir Martin Farndale
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description


Battle Tactics of the Western Front

Battle Tactics of the Western Front PDF Author: Paddy Griffith
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300066630
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Historians have portrayed British participation in World War I as a series of tragic debacles, with lines of men mown down by machine guns, with untried new military technology, and incompetent generals who threw their troops into improvised and unsuccessful attacks. In this book a renowned military historian studies the evolution of British infantry tactics during the war and challenges this interpretation, showing that while the British army's plans and technologies failed persistently during the improvised first half of the war, the army gradually improved its technique, technology, and, eventually, its' self-assurance. By the time of its successful sustained offensive in the fall of 1918, says Paddy Griffith, the British army was demonstrating a battlefield skill and mobility that would rarely be surpassed even during World War II. Evaluating the great gap that exists between theory and practice, between textbook and bullet-swept mudfield, Griffith argues that many battles were carefully planned to exploit advanced tactics and to avoid casualties, but that breakthrough was simply impossible under the conditions of the time. According to Griffith, the British were already masters of "storm troop tactics" by the end of 1916, and in several important respects were further ahead than the Germans would be even in 1918. In fields such as the timing and orchestration of all-arms assaults, predicted artillery fire, "Commando-style" trench raiding, the use of light machine guns, or the barrage fire of heavy machine guns, the British led the world. Although British generals were not military geniuses, says Griffith, they should at least be credited for effectively inventing much of the twentieth-century's art of war.

From Boer War to World War

From Boer War to World War PDF Author: Spencer Jones
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806189614
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
The British Expeditionary Force at the start of World War I was tiny by the standards of the other belligerent powers. Yet, when deployed to France in 1914, it prevailed against the German army because of its professionalism and tactical skill, strengths developed through hard lessons learned a dozen years earlier. In October 1899, the British went to war against the South African Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State, expecting little resistance. A string of early defeats in the Boer War shook the military’s confidence. Historian Spencer Jones focuses on this bitter combat experience in From Boer War to World War, showing how it crucially shaped the British Army’s tactical development in the years that followed. Before the British Army faced the Boer republics, an aura of complacency had settled over the military. The Victorian era had been marked by years of easy defeats of crudely armed foes. The Boer War, however, brought the British face to face with what would become modern warfare. The sweeping, open terrain and advent of smokeless powder meant soldiers were picked off before they knew where shots had been fired from. The infantry’s standard close-order formations spelled disaster against the well-armed, entrenched Boers. Although the British Army ultimately adapted its strategy and overcame the Boers in 1902, the duration and cost of the war led to public outcry and introspection within the military. Jones draws on previously underutilized sources as he explores the key tactical lessons derived from the war, such as maximizing firepower and using natural cover, and he shows how these new ideas were incorporated in training and used to effect a thorough overhaul of the British Army. The first book to address specific connections between the Boer War and the opening months of World War I, Jones’s fresh interpretation adds to the historiography of both wars by emphasizing the continuity between them.

World War I Battlefield Artillery Tactics

World War I Battlefield Artillery Tactics PDF Author: Dale Clarke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782005919
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
As the First World War bogged down across Europe resulting in the establishment of trench systems, artillery began to grow in military importance. Never before had the use of artillery been so vital, and to this day the ferocity, duration and widespread use of artillery across the trenches of Europe has never been replicated. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork, this groundbreaking study explains and illustrates the enormous advances in the use of artillery that took place between 1914 and 1918, the central part artillery played in World War I and how it was used throughout the war, with particular emphasis on the Western Front.

Seeking Victory on the Western Front

Seeking Victory on the Western Front PDF Author: Albert Palazzo
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803287747
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Palazzo's study is convincing in demonstrating that the British military command was not, contrary to the common belief, unwilling to adapt innovations in technology for use on the battlefield."-Virginia Quarterly Review.

The British Army and the First World War

The British Army and the First World War PDF Author: Ian Beckett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107005779
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 485

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Book Description
A comprehensive new history of the shaping and performance of the British army during the First World War.

Command on the Western Front

Command on the Western Front PDF Author: Robin Prior
Publisher: Leo Cooper Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
This is a history of World War I, seen through the eyes of Sir Henry Rawlinson, a middle-ranking commander who frequently acted under General Haig. By examining Rawlinson's role in the War, the authors are able to follow the actual events of the battlefield and show how they related to the strategies of the High Command. Rawlinson kept a diary in which he recorded his views on tactics and the day-to-day events of the conflict. The authors use the content of the diary as the basis of detailed discussions on night attacks, poison gas, the introduction of the tank, hurricane bombardment and creeping barrages. Command on the Western Front is not a biography, nor is it psychohistory. Rather, it uses Rawlinson as a lens through which to study the tactics of the time - tactics that usually proved woefully inadequate in dealing with the defensive positions that characterized industrial warfare.

Eye-Deep in Hell

Eye-Deep in Hell PDF Author: John Ellis
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801839474
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
A detailed reconstruction of life and death in the trenches of World War I, describing the construction and physical and spiritual environment of the trenches and the soldiers' daily routine.