Author: Graham Seton Hutchison
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Author: Harold Carmichael Wylly
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Author: John Garth
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0544263723
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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How the First World War influenced the author of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: “Very much the best book about J.R.R. Tolkien that has yet been written.” —A. N. Wilson As Europe plunged into World War I, J. R. R. Tolkien was a student at Oxford and part of a cohort of literary-minded friends who had wide-ranging conversations in their Tea Club and Barrovian Society. After finishing his degree, Tolkien experienced the horrors of the Great War as a signal officer in the Battle of the Somme, where two of those school friends died. All the while, he was hard at work on an original mythology that would become the basis of his literary masterpiece, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In this biographical study, drawn in part from Tolkien’s personal wartime papers, John Garth traces the development of the author’s work during this critical period. He shows how the deaths of two comrades compelled Tolkien to pursue the dream they had shared, and argues that the young man used his imagination not to escape from reality—but to transform the cataclysm of his generation. While Tolkien’s contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day. “Garth’s fine study should have a major audience among serious students of Tolkien.” —Publishers Weekly “A highly intelligent book . . . Garth displays impressive skills both as researcher and writer.” —Max Hastings, author of The Secret War “Somewhere, I think, Tolkien is nodding in appreciation.” —San Jose Mercury News “A labour of love in which journalist Garth combines a newsman’s nose for a good story with a scholar’s scrupulous attention to detail . . . Brilliantly argued.” —Daily Mail (UK) “Gripping from start to finish and offers important new insights.” —Library Journal “Insight into how a writer turned academia into art, how deeply friendship supports and wounds us, and how the death and disillusionment that characterized World War I inspired Tolkien’s lush saga.” —Detroit Free Press

Author: Patrick Takle
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1473875277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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The book explains how the Allies, after a series of swingeing defeats, sank their differences and came together to turn the tide against the German Army in the Summer of 1918. Although it is a detailed history of the fighting by British divisions, it also highlights the growing presence of American forces and their huge contribution to victory, too often understated in earlier works. The book deliberately binds together the genesis, size and equipment of the British and American divisions and seeks to inter-mingle the American and British campaigns of 1918.By blocking the Third German Offensive on the Chemins des Dames and then arriving in time to turn the Kaiser's army out of the Marne salient, the Allied divisions cleared the way for the decisive counter offensive at Amiens. Exhausted and demoralized, the German Army collapsed and the outcome of The Great War was decided.

Author: Harold Carmichael Wylly
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Author: M. Kincaid-Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781847341037
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Author: Paul Oldfield
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1473872081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 595

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During visits to the First World War battlefields the author often wondered where various Victoria Cross actions took place; he resolved to find out. Research commenced in 1988 and numerous sources have been consulted in the meantime. The book is designed for the battlefield visitor as much as the armchair reader. A detailed account of each VC action is set within the wider strategic and tactical context. Detailed sketch maps show the area today, together with the battle-lines and movements of the combatants. It allows visitors to stand upon the spot, or very close, where the VC actions took place and understand what happened and where. Photographs of the battle sites illustrate the accounts. There is also a comprehensive biography for each recipient covering every aspect of their lives 'warts and all' - parents and siblings, education, civilian employment, military career, wife and children, death and burial/commemoration. There is also a host of other information, much of it published for the first time. Some fascinating characters emerge, with numerous links to many famous people and events.

Author: Cyril Falls
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Regimental histories
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Author: Lt Col M. Kincaid-Smith
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1781504458
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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The 25th Division (74th, 75th and 76th Brigades) was formed in September 1914, one of Kitchener's Third New Army divisions, under the command of Major-General F.Ventris (late Essex), who had retired some five years earlier. He was replaced at the end of May 1915 by B.J.C Doran (late R Irish Regt), a regular, promoted from command of the 68th Brigade; prior to that he had commanded the 8th Infantry Brigade in France during the first two months of the war. The division went to France in September 1915 and a month later the 76th Brigade was transferred to the 3rd Division in exchange for the 7th Brigade. For the next six months or so the division was in the ‘Plugstreet'/Armentieres sector before moving down to Vimy Ridge in May 1916, where it was awarded the first of the six VCs it was to win by the end of the war. Command changed again in June when E.G.T Bainbridge replaced Doran who was sent back to command a district in Ireland. Thereafter the division fought on the Somme, at Messines, Third Ypres, in the German offensive of March/April 1918 and finally on the Aisne in May 1918, with IX Corps under French command. When the division was taken out of the line in mid-June it had, since February, suffered losses of some 15,500 of whom 7,500 were missing. At this point the divisional and brigade HQs and the infantry battalions were sent back to England where the division was reconstituted; it returned to France in September with another commander, J.R.E Charles, who had taken over in August. This is reflected in the divisional history which is divided into two parts, Part I is concerned with the original division, Part II with the reborn division. Kincaid-Smith’s work is unlike any other Great War divisional history in that nearly half the book is taken up with citations (over 300 of them), lists of honours and awards, tables of casualties and details of officer casualties. As he says in his introduction, he sets out to give a very brief sketch of the operations in which the 25th Division was engaged from time to time, so this is not a continuous narrative. Beginning with the Somme he devotes a chapter to each of the major operations involving the division, each chapter followed by the honours and awards gained plus selected citations; usually, such details appear in appendices. From time to time casualties suffered by the division over a given period are summarised in tables that give the figures for every unit; each of these tables (there are four of them) is followed by the names of the officer casualties (killed, wounded and missing), listed by units; individual dates are not given. By the end of the war the division’s losses amounted to 48,289 of whom 623 Officers and 12,663 Other Ranks made the supreme sacrifice.

Author: Jonathan Mallory House
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428915834
Category : Armies
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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