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Author: Tim Cook
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735235279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452
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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.
Author: Tim Cook
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735235279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452
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.
Author: James Charles Risk
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
Author: Andrew Swift
Publisher: Akeman Press
ISBN: 9780954613839
Category : Bath (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 512
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Book Description
Interweaving letters from men at the front with stories of life at home, this book describes the Great War's impact on the city of Bath. It is a story of grief, suffering and anger - but also features laughter. With minor variations, it could be the story of almost any town or city in the country at that time.
Author: Derek Tait
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1473873142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 38
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Book Description
When news of the war broke out in 1914, nothing could prepare the citizens of Gloucester for the changes that would envelop their city over the next four years. The story of Gloucester in the First World War is both an interesting and intriguing one. The city played a key role in the deployment of troops to Northern Europe as well as supplying vital munitions. Local men responded keenly to recruitment drives and thousands of soldiers were billeted in the city before being sent off to fight the enemy overseas. The city also played a vital role caring for the many wounded soldiers who returned home from the front. The effect of the war on Gloucester was great. By the end of the conflict, there wasn't a family in Gloucester who hadn't lost a son, father, nephew, uncle or brother. There were tremendous celebrations in the streets as the end of the war was announced but the effects of the war lasted for years to come. This powerful account of a city that showed great courage and determination in a time of adversity ensures that Gloucester's people, who lived through the four intense years of conflict, are remembered for their immense contribution the war effort.
Author: George Wilson
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307775259
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294
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Book Description
"If you survive your first day, I'll promote you." So promised George Wilson's World War II commanding officer in the hedgerows of Normandy -- and it was to be a promise dramatically fulfilled. From July, 1944, to the closing days of the war, from the first penetration of the Siegfried Line to the Nazis' last desperate charge in the Battle of the Bulge, Wilson fought in the thickest of the action, helping take the small towns of northern France and Belgium building by building. Of all the men and officers who started out in Company F of the 4th Infantry Division with him, Wilson was the only one who finished. In the end, he felt not like a conqueror or a victor, but an exhausted survivor, left with nothing but his life -- and his emotions. If You Survive One of the great first-person accounts of the making of a combat veteran, in the last, most violent months of World War II.
Author: Frederick George Scott
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1398817651
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 381
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Book Description
'May the eyes of Canada never be blind to that glorious light which shines upon our young national life from the deeds of those "who counted not their lives dear unto themselves"'. When World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, the Canadian chaplain Frederick George Scott volunteered for service despite his fears. He spent four long years in the trenches on the western front, where he developed close bonds with his fellow soldiers and sought to maintain his faith while the world around him collapsed into chaos. In evocative language befitting his background as a poet, Scott lays bare the horrors of modern warfare. Filled with heart-wrenching descriptions and tragic detail, The Great War as I Saw It is a powerful meditation on the Canadian experience during World War I and an important look into the life of the ordinary soldier.
Author: Stephen Liddell
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781500490119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128
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Book Description
The First World War was a catastrophe that engulfed not just the continent, but the rest of the world as well. It cost millions of lives, and changed the course of the century. 'Lest We Forget' provides an accessible overview of that titanic struggle, which was the foundation for the modern world and modern Britain, covering both life in the trenches and also life on the Home Front. It draws out the key events and themes that occurred throughout the conflict. The book provides both narrative and argument and will appeal to military historians and also students and soldiers interested in the Great War. It is split into 28 easy to read sections, including the following: The Road to War The Race to the Sea Life in the Trenches War Literature and Poetry The Battle of the Somme The War at Sea The Home Front Women and the War War in the Air Gallipoli The War around the World The Russian Revolution Armistice Stephen Liddell is a writer and historian and when not writing runs Ye Olde England Tours. He writes regularly for various publications as well as his own website www.stephenliddell.co.uk. His other works include 'Planes, Trains and Sinking Boats', 'How to Get Rich Using Airbnb', as well as the historical fiction trilogy 'The Promise', 'The Messenger' and 'Forever and Until'.
Author: Constance M. Spender
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bath (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
Author: Christine Friesel
Publisher: Charley Brother, LLC
ISBN: 9781736208700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432
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Book Description
When poet Fannie Toyne talked about her father, Charles Brother, which was hardly ever, she said her earliest memory was being thrown out a window. When Civil War Marine Charles Brother talked about "the boys," which was often, he talked of the pursuit of that prize ship and the Battle of Mobile Bay when Admiral Farragut reportedly cried out, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Drenched in history and sea salt, The Boys of Bath is a saga of sacrifice and loyalty, exhibiting the few and proud men of rare, high spirit: the first to go in, not flinching for canon, shipwreck, or mines. Charles Brother wrote of life in Bath, New York, and in the barracks in Boston and Brooklyn, the New York Draft Riots, gunnery, targets, storms, and drilling with terrific shipmates-men who were agile and ready to fly in the ropes and through life-his fraternity. His story is about the bloody correction of the nineteenth century, made by grandsons of slave owners, a story relevant only to those who know well this business of being wrong about all of it-the true cost of sin against a race and the exit strategy, the unspoken promise to be silent, the pursuit of a prize, and the torpedo mines primed to give way to that switch, even those only in your head.
Author: Andrea Hetherington
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526748002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 283
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Book Description
The story of First World War deserters who were shot at dawn, then pardoned nearly a century later has often been told, but these 306 soldiers represent a tiny proportion of deserters. More than 80,000 cases of desertion and absence were tried at courts martial on the home front but these soldiers have been ignored. Andrea Hetherington, in this thought-provoking and meticulously researched account, sets the record straight by describing the deserters who disappeared from camps and barracks within Great Britain at an alarming rate. She reveals how they employed a range of survival strategies, some ridding themselves of all connection with the military while others hid in plain sight. Their reasons for desertion varied. Some were already living a life of crime whilst others were conscientious objectors who refused to respond to their call-up papers. Boredom, protest, troubles at home or physical and mental disabilities all played their part in men deciding to go on the run. Andrea Hetherington’s timely book gives us a vivid insight into a hitherto overlooked aspect of the First World War.
