History of the 43rd and 52nd (Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) Light Infantry

History of the 43rd and 52nd (Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) Light Infantry PDF Author: Captain J. E. H. Neville
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1781499519
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Today's British soldiers serving in Iraq will know the country in which much of this unit history is set - the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known in the Great War as Mesopotamia. Unusually for such a work of record, the author lays down the background to the Great War in the Middle East in some detail - stressing such factors as the German-Turkish alliance; the building of the Berlin to Baghdad railway and Britain's interest in the Persian ( Iranian) oilfields. He also reports events with a topical resonance today - such as anti-British riots in Basra, and the declaration of a ‘JIhad’. The 43rd took part in the defeat of the Turks at Khan Baghdadi, and after the armistice in the spring of 1919 was re-deployed to Archangel in northern Russia in an effort to nip the Bolshevik revoloution in the bud. Under the command of General Sir Edmund ‘Tiny’ Ironside the 43rd battled gallantly against Bolshevik forces, although beset by flies, mosquitoes, bloodsucking ticks called clegs - and their unreliable White Russian allies. At last, partly through lack of progress and partly due to political pressure against an un popular foreign adventure - another echo of today- the unit was withdrawn in the autumn of 1919. An intriguing and unusual account of two little-known camapigns with eerily prophetic echoes of events in Iraq today.

History of the 43rd and 52nd (Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) Light Infantry

History of the 43rd and 52nd (Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) Light Infantry PDF Author: Captain J. E. H. Neville
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1781499519
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Get Book Here

Book Description
Today's British soldiers serving in Iraq will know the country in which much of this unit history is set - the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known in the Great War as Mesopotamia. Unusually for such a work of record, the author lays down the background to the Great War in the Middle East in some detail - stressing such factors as the German-Turkish alliance; the building of the Berlin to Baghdad railway and Britain's interest in the Persian ( Iranian) oilfields. He also reports events with a topical resonance today - such as anti-British riots in Basra, and the declaration of a ‘JIhad’. The 43rd took part in the defeat of the Turks at Khan Baghdadi, and after the armistice in the spring of 1919 was re-deployed to Archangel in northern Russia in an effort to nip the Bolshevik revoloution in the bud. Under the command of General Sir Edmund ‘Tiny’ Ironside the 43rd battled gallantly against Bolshevik forces, although beset by flies, mosquitoes, bloodsucking ticks called clegs - and their unreliable White Russian allies. At last, partly through lack of progress and partly due to political pressure against an un popular foreign adventure - another echo of today- the unit was withdrawn in the autumn of 1919. An intriguing and unusual account of two little-known camapigns with eerily prophetic echoes of events in Iraq today.

Loyalties Mesopotamia 1914–1917

Loyalties Mesopotamia 1914–1917 PDF Author: Arnold T. Wilson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666774049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description


1914-1917

1914-1917 PDF Author: Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description


A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army

A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army PDF Author: Arthur S. White
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 178150539X
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This is one of the most valuable books in the armoury of the serious student of British Military history. It is a new and revised edition of Arthur White's much sought-after bibliography of regimental, battalion and other histories of all regiments and Corps that have ever existed in the British Army. This new edition includes an enlarged addendum to that given in the 1988 reprint. It is, quite simply, indispensible.

Bloody Red Tabs

Bloody Red Tabs PDF Author: Frank Davies
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473812518
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Long before that ghastly and quite unnecessary slogging match in the mud which we now call the First World War had dragged to its blood-soaked conclusion the belief that most of the senior officers had spent their time in comfort and safety in chateaux far behind the lines with no idea of the conditions in which the men they commanded were fighting was firmly embedded in the public mind. As the years pass by that belief has, if anything, become more deeply held, gaining strength from plays like Oh! What a Lovely War, itself based on Alan Clark's book The Donkeys.It is the purpose of this book to show not only how the myth was born and grew but how totally at odds it is with the facts. Biographies of over 200 officers who held the rank of Brigadier-General or above who were killed or wounded during the war show how closely involved the men at the top were with the men at the front. Ironically, as the authors point out, this was more than just a waste of blood, for these were the very men whose experience was vital to the successful prosecution of the war. Had they actually stayed in their chateaux, as Lloyd George alleged, they might have done much more to hasten the end of the conflict.This is not only an invaluable work of reference but a tribute to those gallant senior officers who have been so unfairly traduced by many who should have known better.As featured in Essence Magazine.

Ypres 1914

Ypres 1914 PDF Author: Nigel Cave
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473884640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
A vivid history of how a battered British Expeditionary Force stopped the advancing Germans, against the odds and just in time. Ypres 1914: The Menin Road is part of a three-book series about the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front. Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the battle was even more chaotic than usual, and the stakes were extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their respective expertise to tell the story of the men—British, French, Indian and German—who fought over this piece of ground. The most direct route to Ypres for the advancing German columns in October 1914 was along the axis of the Menin Road. It was here that the Old Contemptibles of the British Expeditionary Force earned their legendary heroic status as they fought off increasingly desperate German assaults day after day, while place names such as Zandvoorde, Polygon Wood, and Gheluvelt were first etched into the British national consciousness. Bent and battered by the German storm, dressed in rags and short of food, equipment, and ammunition, the regiments of the old professional army stood their ground against huge odds. When, on November 11, they finally halted the Prussian Guards around Polygon Wood, virtually within sight of Ypres, they were reduced to one thin firing line. The BEF was at its last gasp—but it had inflicted a crushing defeat on the German army.

Ypres 1914: Langemarck

Ypres 1914: Langemarck PDF Author: Nigel Cave
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1781591997
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
These three Battleground Europe books on Ypres 1914 mark the centenary of the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front. Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the fighting was even more than usually chaotic and the stakes were extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their respective expertise to tell the story of the men – British, French, Indian and German - who fought over the unremarkable undulating ground that was to become firmly placed in British national conscience ever afterwards.??When, in October 1914, the newly created German Fourth Army attacked west to seize crossings over the Yser, prior to sweeping south in an attempt to surround the BEF, two things prevented it. To the north, it was the efforts of the Belgian army, reinforced by French troops, coupled with controlled flooding of the polders but, further south, the truly heroic defence of Langemarck, for three days by the BEF and then by the French army, was of decisive importance. The village stood as a bulwark against any further advance to the river or the town of Ypres. Here the German regiments bled to death in the face of resolute Allied defence and any remaining hope of forcing a decision in the west turned to dust.

The Army Quarterly

The Army Quarterly PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description


Challenge of Battle

Challenge of Battle PDF Author: Adrian Gilbert
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472808134
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Winston Churchill described the opening campaign of World War I as 'a drama never surpassed'. The titanic clash of Europe's armies in 1914 is one the great stories of 20th-century history, and one in which the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) played a notable part. Previous assessments of the BEF have held to an unshakeable belief in its exceptional performance during the battles of 1914. But closer examination of the historical record reveals a force possessing some key strengths yet undermined by other, significant failings. Within an authoritative and well-paced campaign narrative, Challenge of Battle re-evaluates the Army's leadership, organization and tactics. It describes the problems faced by commanders, grappling with the brutal realities of 20th-century warfare, and explains how the British infantry's famed marksmanship has to be set against the inexperience and tactical shortcomings of the BEF as a whole. However, it also demonstrates the progress made by the British during 1914, concluding with the successful defence of Ypres against superior enemy forces. The author examines the fateful decisions made by senior officers and how they affected the men under their command. Making full use of diaries, letters and other contemporary accounts, he builds a compelling picture of what it was like to fight in the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne and Ypres. In this timely new book, Adrian Gilbert clears away the layers of sentiment that have obscured a true historical understanding of the 1914 campaign to provide a full, unvarnished picture of the BEF at war.

Fire and Movement

Fire and Movement PDF Author: Peter Hart
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199355525
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 537

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Book Description
The dramatic opening weeks of the Great War passed into legend long before the conflict ended. The British Expeditionary Force fought a mesmerizing campaign, outnumbered and outflanked but courageous and skillful, holding the line against impossible odds, sacrificing themselves to stop the last great German offensive of 1914. A remarkable story of high hopes and crushing disappointment, the campaign contains moments of sheer horror and nerve-shattering excitement; pathos and comic relief; occasional cowardice and much selfless courage--all culminating in the climax of the First Battle of Ypres. And yet, as Peter Hart shows in this gripping and revisionary look at the war's first year, for too long the British part in the 1914 campaigns has been veiled in layers of self-congratulatory myth: a tale of poor unprepared Britain, reliant on the peerless class of her regular soldiers to bolster the rabble of the unreliable French Army and defeat the teeming hordes of German troops. But the reality of those early months is in fact far more complex--and ultimately, Hart argues, far more powerful than the standard triumphalist narrative. Fire and Movement places the British role in 1914 into a proper historical context, incorporating the personal experiences of the men who were present on the front lines. The British regulars were indeed skillful soldiers, but as Hart reveals, they also lacked practice in many of the required disciplines of modern warfare, and the inexperience of officers led to severe mistakes. Hart also provides a more accurate portrait of the German Army they faced--not the caricature of hordes of automatons, but the reality of a well-trained and superlatively equipped force that outfought the BEF in the early battles--and allows readers to come to a full appreciation of the role of the French Army, without whom the Marne never would have been won. Ultimately Fire and Movement shows the story of the 1914 campaigns to be an epic tale, and one which needs no embellishment. Through the voices and recollections of the soldiers who were there, Hart strips away the myth to offer a clear-eyed account of the remarkable early days of the Great War.