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In a series of concise, thought-provoking chapters the authors summarize and make accessible the latest scholarship on the middle years of the Great War 1915 and 1916 and cover fundamental issues that are rarely explored outside the specialist journals. Their work is an important contribution to advancing understanding of Britains role in the war, and it will be essential reading for anyone who is keen to keep up with the fresh research and original interpretation that is transforming our insight into the impact of the global conflict. The principal battles and campaigns are reconsidered from a new perspective, but so are more general topics such as military leadership, the discord between Britains politicians and generals, conscientious objection and the part played by the Indian Army. The longer-term effects of the war are also considered facial reconstruction, developments in communication, female support for men on active service, grief and bereavement, the challenge to religious belief, battlefield art, and the surviving vestiges of the war. Peter Liddle and his fellow contributors have compiled a volume that will come to be seen as a landmark in the field. Contributors: Andrew BamjiClive BarrettNick BosanquetJames CookeEmily GlassGraeme GoodayAdrian GregoryAndrea HetheringtonRobert JohnsonSpencer JonesPeter LiddleJuliet MacdonaldJessica MeyerDavid MillichopeNS NashWilliam PhilpottJames PughDuncan RedfordNicholas SaundersGary SheffieldJack SheldonJohn SpencerKapil Subramanian
Twenty-four years after the publication of his classic study of the Somme, Peter Liddle reconsiders the battle in the light of recent scholarship. The battle still gives rise to fierce debate and, with Passchendaele, it is often seen as the epitome of the tragic folly of the First World War. But is this a reasoned judgement? Peter Liddle, in this authoritative study, re-examines the concept and planning of the operation and follows the course of the action through the entire four and a half months of the fighting. His narrative is based on the graphic testimony of the men engaged in the struggle, not just concentrating on the front-line infantryman but also the gunner, sapper, medical man, airman and yes, the nurse, playing her crucial role behind the line of battle. The reader is privileged in getting a direct insight into how those who were there coped with the extraordinary, often prolonged, stress of the experience and maintained to a remarkable degree a level of morale adequate for what had to be endured.
How can we begin to make sense of the Great War now that over 100 years have passed since it ended with the defeat of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman empire and Bulgaria, and the collapse of Tsarist Russia? The conflict had such a profound influence on world history that is it difficult to reconcile the different perspectives and draw clear conclusions. That is why this thought-provoking collection of original essays on the outcome of the war and its aftermath is of such value.It completes the trilogy of ground-breaking volumes conceived and edited by Peter Liddle which presents the latest scholarly thinking about the Great War from an international perspective. The first two volumes Britain Goes to War and Britain and the Widening War made this stimulating new writing accessible to a broad readership and this final volume has the same aim.A group of over twenty expert contributors reconsider the military reasons for the outcome of the fighting and look at the consequences for the principal nations involved. They explore the way the war and the peace settlement shaped the twentieth century and had an enduring impact within Europe and beyond.
Religion did much to shape contemporary British opinion and behaviour during the First and Second World Wars, but it featured rather less in the initial historiography of either conflict. The situation has changed considerably in the past half-century, with a steadily increasing number of academic and popular outputs on the religious aspects of the wars. As key milestones, in connection with the centenary of the First World War and the eightieth anniversary of the Second World War, have occurred or approach, it seems an appropriate time to take bibliographical stock. This volume is the first to offer an in-depth listing of modern literature, in English and other European languages, on British religion and the First and Second World Wars, both on the home front and in combat zones. Coverage extends to Judaism and alternative religion, as well as Christianity. More than 1,200 items are included, comprising monographs, book chapters, journal articles, and postgraduate theses. They are arranged by subjects, in separate sections on each war, with cross-references and a cumulative index of personal names. Carefully compiled over several years by an accomplished religious historian and bibliographer, the work will be an indispensable reference tool to those embarking on investigations into the religious landscape of Britain during the World Wars, and those who wish to discover what has been written about their chosen field to date. It will also help identify gaps in scholarship and encourage researchers to try and fill them.
By the middle of 1918 the British Army had successfully mastered the concept of ’all arms’ warfare on the Western Front. This doctrine, integrating infantry, artillery, armoured vehicles and - crucially - air power, was to prove highly effective and formed the basis of major military operations for the next hundred years. Yet, whilst much has been written on the utilisation of ground forces, the air element still tends to be studied in isolation from the army as a whole. In order to move beyond the usual 'aircraft and aces' approach, this book explores the conceptual origins of the control of the air and the role of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) within the British army. In so doing it addresses four key themes. First, it explores and defines the most fundamental air power concept - the control of the air - by examining its conceptual origins before and during the First World War. Second, it moves beyond the popular history of air power during the First World War to reveal the complexity of the topic. Third, it reintegrates the study of air power during the First World War, specifically that of the RFC, into the strategic, operational, organisational, and intellectual contexts of the era, as well as embedding the study within the respective scholarly literatures of these contexts. Fourth, the book reinvigorates an entrenched historiography by challenging the usually critical interpretation of the RFC’s approach to the control of the air, providing new perspectives on air power during the First World War. This includes an exploration of the creation of the RAF and its impact on the development of air power concepts.
It is very hard to endure the bombs, Father. It will be difficult for anyone to survive and come back safe and sound from the war. The son who is very lucky will see his father and mother... (Extract from a letter by an Indian soldier serving in France, written on 14 January 1915 to his father) The Great War, as the First World War was referred to, saw the service of over 1.3 million Indians, of whom 74,000 never made it back home. For their families, the War was something they could not fully fathom. Soldiers from the Indian subcontinent won over 12,908 awards for bravery, including 11 Victoria Crosses. Yet this unprecedented show of valour by Indian soldiers remains largely unsung and unrecognised-particularly in India. Commemorating hundred years of the end of the First World War, this volume brings together diverse voices-Rabindranath Tagore, Mulk Raj Anand, Sarojini Naidu, Mohamed Ali, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri and many more-that reflect a variety of attitudes among Indians towards the War. Included too are Rakhshanda Jalil's original translations of the works of Urdu poets of the time capturing their responses to the War. This volume of writings, originally written in Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and English, attempts to recognise and remember the contribution of the unknown soldiers to the Great War.
William Orpen (1878-1931) was in 1917 appointed as an official war artist in France. He not only saw the Great War as a call to paint serious subject-matter—enabling him to break away from the constraints of society portraiture in London—but also as an opportunity to write. Orpen was commissioned, along with artists such as Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer and Wyndham Lewis, to paint for the Department of Information. He was the only war artist to keep a written record of his wartime experience, published in 1921 as An Onlooker in France. In his Preface, Orpen rather too modestly states: “This book must not be considered as a serious work on life in France behind the lines, it is merely an attempt to record some certain little incidents that occurred in my own life there.” This art-historical study is a companion to this “attempt”. It examines, within the context of the global crisis that WWI was, and from various theoretical, philosophical and literary angles, his singular and at times provocative work. Orpen set out to provide a textual and visual record of life on the Western Front, as well as behind the lines—of what was supposed to be the “War to End all Wars”. For want of being a “fighting man”, the non-combatant artist-writer determined to fight with his own arms, his pens and brushes.
Using much previously-unpublished photographic, art and manuscript material from the Liddle Collection in the Library of the University of Leeds, this book aims to bring readers closer to the British soldiers, sailors and airmen of World War I. Contemporary evidence has captured much individual experience of the battlefield, and changes in attitude and culture as the war moved people from their familiar daily round to hugely-changed surroundings, through prolonged months, then years, of challenge. Civilian life is reflected too, from the industrial scene and rationing to conscientious objectors. The topics covered include pre-war society, the call the arms, war in the air, the Dardenelles, the maritime challenge, soldiering in distant parts, the Home Front, soldier and civilian captivity, soldiering on the Western Front, and the Armistice and beyond. Peter Liddle has written 12 previous World War I books, and the Channel 4 television series, "The 1916 Battle of the Somme", was based on his work.
While the main emphasis of the Great War was on the Western Front of France and Belgium, the British Army also took part in what was a lesser known conflict, but one of equal intensity and drama. This was at Gallipoli, on the shores of Turkey, between April 1915 and January 1916. By December 1914, the war on the Western Front had ground to a halt in a stalemate of trench warfare, and Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, proposed a strategy to take Turkey, a German ally, out of the war. This could force Germany to fight on two fronts and could free up the Dardanelles waterway at Gallipoli. While the concept was sound, its execution was not, as it was hastily planned, and inadequately resourced. The 2nd Battalion the South Wales Borderers was present throughout the whole campaign and was the only Welsh battalion to take part in the amphibious assault on 25 April 1915. Other historians give little credence to the success of the battalion on that day and this book sets out to redress the balance. The 4th Battalion landed at Gallipoli a few months later, to take part in the second main offensive, at Suvla Bay, in August 1915. This campaign took part amidst the most appalling conditions, such as the unrelenting heat of a mediterranean summer, a lack of water, poor food, inadequate equipment and without proper sanitation. Sickness and disease were rife, and at the height of the war there were up to 5,000 cases of dysentery a week. Both battalions of this famous Welsh regiment endured the privations of the campaign with great stoicism, courage and dignity and were amongst the last soldiers to leave the peninsula during the final evacuation in January 1916. By a clever weave of official records and personal anecdotes, most of which have never been published before, the reader is taken on a journey of highs and lows, depicting the reality of life on active service. Meticulously researched and written, this is a personal account of the South Wales Borderers during the Gallipoli campaign which adds an important social dimension to the traditional style of books already written on one of the most dramatic campaigns in British military history. Some of the best, toughest and most generous soldiers in the British army come from Wales. This book serves as a tribute to those magnificent soldiers.