Download Free The Volunteer Force And The Volunteer Training Corps During The Great War Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Volunteer Force And The Volunteer Training Corps During The Great War and write the review.

As U.S. military forces appear overcommitted and some ponder a possible return to the draft, the timing is ideal for a review of how the American military transformed itself over the past five decades, from a poorly disciplined force of conscripts and draft-motivated "volunteers" to a force of professionals revered throughout the world. Starting in the early 1960s, this account runs through the current war in Iraq, with alternating chapters on the history of the all-volunteer force and the analytic background that supported decisionmaking. The author participated as an analyst and government policymaker in many of the events covered in this book. His insider status and access offer a behind-the-scenes look at decisionmaking within the Pentagon and White House. The book includes a foreword by former Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird. The accompanying DVD contains more than 1,700 primary-source documents-government memoranda, Presidential memos and letters, staff papers, and reports-linked directly from citations in the electronic version of the book. This unique technology presents a treasure trove of materials for specialists, researchers, and students of military history, public administration, and government affairs to draw upon.
The Great War was the first conflict to draw men and women into uniform on a massive scale. From a small regular force of barely 250,000, the British Army rapidly expanded into a national force of over five million. A Nation in Arms brings together original research into the impact of the war on the army as an institution, gives a revealing account of those who served in it and offers fascinating insights into its social history during one of the bloodiest wars.
Situated on the south coast of England, geographically and strategically, Dover more than played its part in the First World War. It was from its harbor that the many vessels of the Dover Patrol set about preventing German ships from using the English Channel. It was undoubtedly one of the most important Royal Naval units that Britain had during the First World War.Because of its important defensive roll, Dover was identified as a legitimate and relevant target by the German authorities. As a result, German Zeppelin's and Gotha aircraft subjected Dover to 113 aerial attacks, dropping 185 bombs in the process. The first of these raids took place on Christmas Eve, 1914; this was also the first time a German bomb had been dropped on British soil. The last raid was on 24 August 1918, in which twenty adults and three children were killed.The local residents who, for whatever reason, were unable to enlist in the military during the war, but who still felt the desire and obligation to serve their King and country, were able to do so in organizations such as the Dover Volunteer Training Corps. Most towns had similar units, and their members carried out some sterling work on the Home Front.By the end of the war, Dover and its people had sustained through testing and difficult times. Like every community throughout the nation, they had paid a heavy price. They had been as close to the war as it was possible to be, without actually being on the Front Line. Ships had sailed from its harbour to engage the enemy, and wounded soldiers had returned to the same harbour. Its men had gone of to fight in the war and, sadly, 721 of them never came back.
In August 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, there was enormous pressure on men to enlist in Kitchener's New Armies, supplementing the tiny regular army and Territorial Force. This pressure was intense, and posters, the entreaties of local worthies, and an apparently indiscriminate scattering of white feathers, all exacerbated masculine sensitivity. We are all familiar, if only through BBC TV's 'Dad's Army', with the Home Guard of the Second World War. Far less is known of their First World War equivalent: the Volunteer Training Corps (VTC). Like their counter-parts in WW2, the VTC comprised those who were too old, too young, too unfit or too indispensable to serve in the regular forces. They fought for the right to be armed, uniformed and trained; to be employed on meaningful duties; and at first, to exist at all. This book explores the origins, development and structure of the VTC, along with those who belonged to the many supporting medical, transport, police and youth organisations who kept the home fires burning or, in some cases, tried to put them out. The VTC arose from the need of those men who were forced to stay at home to be seen to be doing their bit. They saw the removal of the bulk of both the regular army and the Territorial Force to the Western Front as their opportunity to prepare to resist the expected German invasion of Britain, and as a way of countering accusations of shirking, or even cowardice.
Defending Albion is the first published study of Britain's response to the threat of invasion from across the North Sea in the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. It examines the emergency schemes designed to confront an enemy landing and the problems associated with raising and maintaining the often derided Territorial Force. It also explores the long-neglected military and political difficulties posed by the spontaneous and largely unwanted appearance of the 'Dad's Army' of the Great War, the Volunteer Force.
This is a major new history of the British army during the Great War written by three leading military historians. Ian Beckett, Timothy Bowman and Mark Connelly survey operations on the Western Front and throughout the rest of the world as well as the army's social history, pre-war and wartime planning and strategy, the maintenance of discipline and morale and the lasting legacy of the First World War on the army's development. They assess the strengths and weaknesses of the army between 1914 and 1918, engaging with key debates around the adequacy of British generalship and whether or not there was a significant 'learning curve' in terms of the development of operational art during the course of the war. Their findings show how, despite limitations of initiative and innovation amongst the high command, the British army did succeed in developing the effective combined arms warfare necessary for victory in 1918.