Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front

Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front PDF Author: Richard Holmes
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007383487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1203

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Book Description
Groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed, Tommy is the first history of World War I to place the British soldier who fought in the trenches centre-stage.

Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front

Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front PDF Author: Richard Holmes
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007383487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1203

Get Book

Book Description
Groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed, Tommy is the first history of World War I to place the British soldier who fought in the trenches centre-stage.

Tommy

Tommy PDF Author: Richard Holmes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Soldiers
Languages : en
Pages : 717

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Book Description
Contains primary source material.

Tommy

Tommy PDF Author: Edward Richard Holmes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 738

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Book Description


Remembering Tommy

Remembering Tommy PDF Author: Peter Doyle
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752497480
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
The British soldier of the Great War has been depicted in many books. Invariably, a pen picture paints him as stoic, joining the army in a wave of patriotic fervour, and destined to serve four years on the Western Front in some of the most costly battles in history. Yet often the picture is difficult to resolve for the reader. What was it like in the trenches? How did the soldier live, where did he sleep? What was it like to go over the top, and when he did, what did he carry with him? For many, the idea of trench life is hazy, and usually involves 'drowning in mud', in, as one writer put it, 'the pitiless misery' of Passchendaele. Recently, military historians have presented an alternative picture, a picture in which the hopelessness of the First World War is given new life and purpose. Remembering Tommy pays tribute to the real life British soldier of the Great War from the moment of joining up to their final homecoming. Using original artefacts in historic settings, the men and their words are brought to life. The uniforms they wore, the equipment they carried, the letters they wrote home, their personal possessions, mementos and photographs come together in a powerful tribute to the indomitable Tommy. Each one of these precious artefacts bears witness to the men who left them behind – allowing us to almost reach out and touch history.

Redcoat

Redcoat PDF Author: Richard Holmes
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393052114
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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Book Description
Based on the letters and diaries of the British soldiers who served as the backbone of the army from 1760 to 1860, this illuminating book is rich in the history of a fascinating era. of illustrations.

Tommy Goes to War

Tommy Goes to War PDF Author: Malcolm Brown
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1784383309
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
The image of the innocent British soldier (or Tommy) setting off with a spring in his step in 1914 to fight the Great War would not last long.Indeed that initial euphoria would soon give way to a deep-seated bitterness as these young men endured the horror of the First World War.In a new edition of this extraordinary book, the uncensored letters, diaries, documents and many photographs tell the story of the British soldier (nicknamed Tommy) in their own words.While there are flashes of their wit and humour, the overwhelming feeling is that of a generation who felt let down by their superiors and left to perish.There are visceral, terrifying insights into life in the trenches and agonising descriptions of the squalor and privations of war.This haunting account also looks at the aggressive drive to recruit more soldiers through the Pals Battalion or Chums Battalion. Friends from the same town or village; professional bodies, or work colleagues among others were encouraged to enlist en masse. They would fight together alongside their friends or colleagues. Many of them would sadly die together and leave communities wild with grief for a lost generation, robbed of a future having barely had a past.With a concise analysis of the British Army in the First World War, we are reminded of the terror of war, the fury, the fear and the frustration of what has been described by some as a war typified by the devastating assessment: lions led by donkeys.

Tommy's War

Tommy's War PDF Author: Richard van Emden
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408844362
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Shares excerpts from the personal diaries and photographs of British soldiers to depict the daily life of a Tommy in the trenches between 1914 and 1918.

Tommy French

Tommy French PDF Author: Julian Walker
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526765934
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
‘Napoo’, ‘compray’, ‘san fairy ann’, ‘toot sweet’ are anglicized French phrases that came into use on the Western Front during the First World War as British troops struggled to communicate in French. Over four years of war they created an extraordinary slang which reflects the period and brings the conflict to mind whenever it is heard today. Julian Walker, in this original and meticulously researched book, explores the subject in fascinating detail. In the process he gives us an insight into the British soldiers’ experience in France during the war and the special language they invented in order to cope with their situation. He shows how French place-names were anglicized as were words for food and drink, and he looks at what these slang terms tell us about the soldiers’ perception of France, their relationship with the French and their ideas of home. He traces the spread of ‘Tommy French’ back to the Home Front, where it was popularized in songs and on postcards, and looks at the French reaction to the anglicization of their language.

A Tommy's Life in the Trenches

A Tommy's Life in the Trenches PDF Author: Fergus Mackain
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445658305
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
A unique visual perspective of life in the trenches on the Western Front from the forgotten soldier-artist and Somme veteran Private Fergus Mackain who served in France 1916 to 1917.

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.