Vimy: letters from the front

Vimy: letters from the front PDF Author: William McNaught
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780995806702
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Get Book Here

Book Description
Letters from the front are an excellent and highly entertaining personal guide to the birth and growth of Canadian nationalism out of that victory at Vimy. Sources abounded for this project, including a memorable conversation with a group of elderly German tourists on the steps of the Vimy Monument.

Vimy: letters from the front

Vimy: letters from the front PDF Author: William McNaught
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780995806702
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Get Book Here

Book Description
Letters from the front are an excellent and highly entertaining personal guide to the birth and growth of Canadian nationalism out of that victory at Vimy. Sources abounded for this project, including a memorable conversation with a group of elderly German tourists on the steps of the Vimy Monument.

The Secret History of Soldiers

The Secret History of Soldiers PDF Author: Tim Cook
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735235279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Get Book Here

Book Description
There have been thousands of books on the Great War, but most have focused on commanders, battles, strategy, and tactics. Less attention has been paid to the daily lives of the combatants, how they endured the unimaginable conditions of industrial warfare: the rain of shells, bullets, and chemical agents. In The Secret History of Soldiers, Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian, examines how those who survived trench warfare on the Western Front found entertainment, solace, relief, and distraction from the relentless slaughter. These tales come from the soldiers themselves, mined from the letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral accounts of more than five hundred combatants. Rare examples of trench art, postcards, and even song sheets offer insight into a hidden society that was often irreverent, raunchy, and anti-authoritarian. Believing in supernatural stories was another way soldiers shielded themselves from the horror. While novels and poetry often depict the soldiers of the Great War as mere victims, this new history shows how the soldiers pushed back against the grim war, refusing to be broken in the mincing machine of the Western Front. The violence of war is always present, but Cook reveals the gallows humour the soldiers employed to get through it. Over the years, both writers and historians have overlooked this aspect of the men's lives. The fighting at the front was devastating, but behind the battle lines, another layer of life existed, one that included songs, skits, art, and soldier-produced newspapers. With his trademark narrative abilities and an unerring eye for the telling human detail, Cook has created another landmark history of Canadian military life as he reveals the secrets of how soldiers survived the carnage of the Western Front.

Letters to Vimy

Letters to Vimy PDF Author: Orland French
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1460293355
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dear Uncle Oscar… I’m going to put a note on the back of our book to explain to readers what our correspondence inside is all about. It goes like this... A hundred years ago a German shell dropped on Pte. Oscar French on Vimy Ridge and ended his adventures in the First World War. A century later author Orland French replies to Oscar’s real letters home to his mother and tells him, in his own sardonic style, how the world turned out after the horrific War to End All Wars. Letters to Vimy is an excellent and highly entertaining personal guide to the birth and growth of Canadian nationalism out of that victory at Vimy. Sources abounded for this project, including a memorable conversation with a group of elderly German tourists on the steps of the Vimy Monument. Your nephew in history, Orland French

A Fine View of the Show

A Fine View of the Show PDF Author: Hector Jackson
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 055706225X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
A first-hand glimpse into daily life on the Western Front that is riveting, informative and poignant. Hector Jackson left his family's British Columbia farm in 1915 to fight in World War I. Recounted through 130 descriptive letters, Jackson's idealistic adventure descended into the gritty reality of trench warfare when, as a newly-commissioned officer, he was catapulted into the Battle of the Somme. Against the odds, Jackson survived many of the great battles of the Western Front, to be awarded the Military Cross for gallantry under fire at Passchendaele and rise to the rank of captain. Gassed just ten days before the war ended, he joined the river of wounded flowing from the battlefield. Photographs illustrate the unique story told in these letters, from Jackson's farm life, through military training, to the grim existence of the Western Front. Andrew Jackson's introduction and historical narrative, along with helpful notes, weave these letters into a dramatic chronicle.

The Void of War

The Void of War PDF Author: Reginald Farrer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description


Laurence Attwell's Letters from the Front

Laurence Attwell's Letters from the Front PDF Author: W. A. Attwell
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 178340034X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
Lawrence Attwell was one of the lucky ones, surviving over four years of trench warfare on the Western Front. During that time he had two short periods of leave.In his extraordinary series of letters to his family he graphically recounts what life was like for the ordinary infantry soldier on active duty. We learn of the conditions, the discipline, the courage, the fear and the reactions of the writer and his fellows. Attwell was in the Prince of Wales Own, Civil Service Rifles.

From Vimy to Victory

From Vimy to Victory PDF Author: Hugh Brewster
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
ISBN: 1443124613
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 50

Get Book Here

Book Description
Hugh Brewster captures the remarkable heroism, sacrifice, and victories of Canadian soldiers during the Great War. All was not quiet on the Western Front during the last years of WWI. Soldiers faced mud, trench foot, bombardments, barbed wire, snipers, and poison gas. Despite dreadful odds, the Canadian Corps moved forward, reaching deep inside enemy-occupied Belgium. The war cost Canada 60,661 of its finest citizens and thousands more who were wounded in body and mind. After their hard-won victory at Vimy Ridge, Canadians earned the admiration of the world -- and a reputation as soldiers who could get the job done. From that moment in 1917, Canadian soldiers proved themselves again and again on the bloody battlefields of Passchendaele, Lens, Hill 70, and Amiens, during the Hundred Day's offensive. From Vimy to Victory is presented in an engaging and accessible scrapbook style, with facts and details accompanied by first-person accounts, letters describing life at the Front, wartime diaries, and numerous images, maps, and diagrams that bring World War I to vivid life.

Letters from the Trenches

Letters from the Trenches PDF Author: Jacqueline Wadsworth
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1781592845
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
A history of the First World War told through the letters exchanged by ordinary British soldiers and their families.??Letters from the Trenches reveals how people really thought and felt during the conflict and covers all social classes and groups Ð from officers to conscripts and women at home to conscientious objectors.??Voices within the book include Sergeant John Adams, 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers, who wrote in May 1917:'For the day we get our letter from home is a red Letter day in the history of the soldier out here. It is the only way we can hear what is going on. The slender thread between us and the homeland.'??Private Stanley Goodhead, who served with one of the Manchester Pals battalion, wrote home in 1916: 'I came out of the trenches last night after being in 4 days. You have no idea what 4 days in the trenches means...The whole time I was in I had only about 2 hours sleep and that was in snatches on the firing step. What dugouts there are, are flooded with mud and water up to the knees and the rats hold swimming galas in them...We are literally caked with brown mud and it is in all?our food, tea etc.'??Jacqueline Wadsworth skilfully uses these letters to tell the human story of the First World War Ð what mattered to Britain's servicemen and their feelings about the war; how the conflict changed people; and how life continued on the Home Front.

Letters from the Front

Letters from the Front PDF Author: Andrew Roberts
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781472803344
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Similar to Letters From Iwo Jima and All Quiet On The Western Front, this book tells the story of young men from many nations thrown into the crucible of war, fighting not just to survive, but to understand what was happening to them and their comrades. It tells it in the words of the soldiers themselves, in their letters home. A legacy of an empire and a nation at war, Love, Tommy, is a collection of letters housed at Imperial War Museums sent by British and Commonwealth troops from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa from the front line of war to their loved ones at home. Poignant expressions of love, hope and fear sit alongside amusing anecdotes, grumbles about rations and thoughtful reflections, eloquently revealing how, despite the passage of time, many experiences of the fighting man are shared in countless wars and battles. From the muddy trenches of the Somme to frozen ground of the Falklands to the heat and dust of Iraq, these letters are the ordinary soldier's testament to life on the front line.

Vimy

Vimy PDF Author: Tim Cook
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735233179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER Winner of the 2018 JW Dafoe Book Prize Longlisted for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction 2018 Runner-up for the 2018 Templer Medal Book Prize Finalist for the 2018 Ottawa Book Awards A bold new telling of the defining battle of the Great War, and how it came to signify and solidify Canada’s national identity Why does Vimy matter? How did a four-day battle at the midpoint of the Great War, a clash that had little strategic impact on the larger Allied war effort, become elevated to a national symbol of Canadian identity? Tim Cook, Canada’s foremost military historian and a Charles Taylor Prize winner, examines the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the way the memory of it has evolved over 100 years. The operation that began April 9, 1917, was the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together. More than 10,000 Canadian soldiers were killed or injured over four days—twice the casualty rate of the Dieppe Raid in August 1942. The Corps’ victory solidified its reputation among allies and opponents as an elite fighting force. In the wars’ aftermath, Vimy was chosen as the site for the country’s strikingly beautiful monument to mark Canadian sacrifice and service. Over time, the legend of Vimy took on new meaning, with some calling it the “birth of the nation.” The remarkable story of Vimy is a layered skein of facts, myths, wishful thinking, and conflicting narratives. Award-winning writer Tim Cook explores why the battle continues to resonate with Canadians a century later. He has uncovered fresh material and photographs from official archives and private collections across Canada and from around the world. On the 100th anniversary of the event, and as Canada celebrates 150 years as a country, Vimy is a fitting tribute to those who fought the country’s defining battle. It is also a stirring account of Canadian identity and memory, told by a masterful storyteller.