Bloody April

Bloody April PDF Author: Peter Hart
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 1780225717
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479

Get Book Here

Book Description
The story of the decimation of the Royal Flying Corps over Arras in 1917 As the Allies embarked upon the Battle of Arras, they desperately needed accurate aerial reconnaissance photographs. But by this point the Royal Flying Club were flying obsolete planes. The new German Albatros scouts massively outclassed them in every respect: speed, armament, ability to withstand punishment and manoeuverability. Many of the RFC's pilots were straight out of flying school - as they took to the air they were sitting targets for the experienced German aces. Over the course of 'Bloody April' the RFC suffered casualties of over a third. The average life expectancy of a new subaltern on the front line dropped to just eleven days. And yet they carried on flying, day after day, in the knowledge that, in the eyes of their commanders at least, their own lives meant nothing compared to the photographs they brought back, which could save tens of thousands of soldiers on the ground. In this book Peter Hart tells the story of the air war over Arras, using the voices of the men who were actually there.

Bloody April

Bloody April PDF Author: Peter Hart
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 1780225717
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479

Get Book Here

Book Description
The story of the decimation of the Royal Flying Corps over Arras in 1917 As the Allies embarked upon the Battle of Arras, they desperately needed accurate aerial reconnaissance photographs. But by this point the Royal Flying Club were flying obsolete planes. The new German Albatros scouts massively outclassed them in every respect: speed, armament, ability to withstand punishment and manoeuverability. Many of the RFC's pilots were straight out of flying school - as they took to the air they were sitting targets for the experienced German aces. Over the course of 'Bloody April' the RFC suffered casualties of over a third. The average life expectancy of a new subaltern on the front line dropped to just eleven days. And yet they carried on flying, day after day, in the knowledge that, in the eyes of their commanders at least, their own lives meant nothing compared to the photographs they brought back, which could save tens of thousands of soldiers on the ground. In this book Peter Hart tells the story of the air war over Arras, using the voices of the men who were actually there.

Cheerful Sacrifice

Cheerful Sacrifice PDF Author: Jonathan Nicholls
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1844687562
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
This WWI history examines the significant yet overlooked British offensive that achieved major advances on the Western Front. Fought between April 9th and May 16th of 1917, the Battle of Arras was the most lethal and costly British offensive battle of the First World War. Lasting a brutal thirty-nine days, its average casualty rate was far higher than at either the Somme or Passchendaele. It also represented the longest advance against Germany up to that point since the beginning of trench warfare. In Cheerful Sacrifice, military historian Jonathan Nicholls gives the Battle of Arras its proper place in the annals of military history, enhancing his text with a wealth of eye-witness accounts. One is left in no doubt that the survivor who described it as 'the most savage infantry battle of the war', did not exaggerate.

Arras, 1917

Arras, 1917 PDF Author: Walter Reid
Publisher: Birlinn
ISBN: 0857900552
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
Arras, 1917 is a biography of the author's uncle, Ernest Reid, who died in 1917, an officer in the Black Watch, of wounds sustained in the Battle of Arras. Born and raised in Paisley, educated at Paisley Grammar School, then Glasgow University, Ernest Reid intended to become a lawyer before he volunteered for war service. The author the climate in which he grew up, and the influences which formed him and his generation, the generation which supplied the subalterns of the Great War. As a result, although the book remains primarily a biography of its subject, it also explored the spirit in which Britain, still essentially Victorian, went to war in 1914. This is the true and poignant account of a young Scottish officer, pinned down and fatally wounded in No-man's land on the first day of the Battle of Arras, on Easter Monday 1917. The gripping narrative creates a mood of sombre inevitability. It does not simply set out the events of Captain Ernest Reid's life, but puts Ernest's life into its moral as well as its historical context and describes the cultural influences - the code of duty, an unquestioning patriotism - that moulded him and his contemporaries for service and sacrifice in the killing fields of France and Flanders. In retrospect, he and they seem almost programmed for the role they were required to play, and in this lies the pathos at the heart of this moving book.

A Battle Too Far

A Battle Too Far PDF Author: Don Farr
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781912174928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Fought in support of a French offensive intended to win the war, the Battle of Arras resulted in heavy losses for little gain after a promising start.

Vimy Ridge and Arras

Vimy Ridge and Arras PDF Author: Peter Barton
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1459711386
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this new account of the battle at Vimy Ridge, Peter Barton showcases more than 50 rediscovered British and German panoramic photographs of the battlegrounds. Vimy Ridge and Arras also includes previously unpublished testimony, letters, and memoirs from the serving regiments, along with maps, plans, and diagrams throughout.

The German Army in the Spring Offensives 1917

The German Army in the Spring Offensives 1917 PDF Author: Jack Sheldon
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473872863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 459

Get Book Here

Book Description
“A detailed and vivid account of the battles on three deadly fronts. The research is breathtaking, the assembly of the story is masterful.”—The Long, Long Trail After the great battles of 1916, the Allied Armies planned to launch massive attacks North and South of the Somme. The German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917 forced the new French CinC General Nivelle to rethink and the French embarked on a major attack in the Aisne area and along the Chemin des Dames, with the British conducting large-scale diversionary operations around Arras. The French suffered disastrously and, rendered incapable of further offensive operations, it fell to the British to step up the pressure, which they did albeit at a terrible price. This latest work by expert Jack Sheldon describes the event of Spring 1917 from the defenders’ perspective. In particular it reveals the methods the Germans used to smash the French attacks and Oberst Fritz von Lossberg’s transformation of the defenses in the Arras front. Actions described in detail are the bitter battles around Monchy Le Preun, the Roeux Chemical works and Bullecourt as well as the capture of Vimy Ridge. “This volume of Jack Sheldon’s highly detailed series of books on the German Army in the Great War follows his usual effective model—employing the clear writing and knowledge learned from dogged, detailed research . . . It would be impossible to offer other than the highest recommendation for this book.”—Stand To! The Western Front Association “Incredibly moving and powerful.”—Pennant

The Battle of the Ridges

The Battle of the Ridges PDF Author: Frank Fox
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 134

Get Book Here

Book Description


1917

1917 PDF Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book Here

Book Description


The 1917 Spring Offensives

The 1917 Spring Offensives PDF Author: Yves Buffetaut
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781597641821
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is devoted to the crucial World War I battles of the spring of 1917. It covers the successful defence of Verdun, and the complete failure of the French offensives of April 1917 which resulted in plummeting morale founded on the hopes of a quick victory.

The Battle

The Battle PDF Author: Frédéric Logez
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782916992235
Category : Arras, Bataille d' (1917)
Languages : en
Pages : 79

Get Book Here

Book Description