This book sets out the true role of British Corps (and their commanders) and crucially their control of artillery, which led to their becoming the principal operational level of command on the Western Front in the BEF. At the start of the Great War, the corps functioned as a postbox, there to help GHQ manage its divisions. From early 1916 onwards, corps took control of both heavy artillery and divisional artillery and, vitally, the counter-battery role. In 1917, building on the lessons of the Somme via the SS series of pamphlets, and especially SS135, corps increasingly became the level of command which organized attacks and orchestrated the artillery effort and divisions' infantry plans. In 1918, learning lessons in open warfare, the BEF was sufficiently flexible for corps to coordinate only when a set piece was required, and devolve command forward to divisions if circumstances permitted it. This book also examines the decision making process in the BEF and concludes that at the Army and corps level it was neither "umpiring" nor unduly authoritarian. This is the first book ever to carry out an examination of how Great War British generals actually carried out their role--how corps commanders commanded their corps on a day-to-day basis.
Blending political and military history, and moving from capital to capital and between the cabinet chamber and the battle front, the book highlights the often tumultuous debates through which leaders entered and escalated the war, and the ...
. . The whole book is a superb piece of work, highly recommended.”—Destructive Music “Particularly atmospheric . . . This is an unusual and welcome selection of illustrations.”—Military Illustrated
53 IWM DOCS: W.Kerr, Transcriptaccount, pp.108–9 54 INTERNET SOURCE: K. W. Foster, Typescriptmemoir, Canadian Letters & Images Project, www.canadianletters.ca/ letters.php?etterid=4502&warid=3 &docid=5&collectionid=274 55 IWM DOCS: W.
Examines the many regime changes that took place in occupied Ukraine during World War I.
A historical reference book that provides a discussion of interpretations and controversies about the British Expeditionary Force in 1914-15 and an annotated bibliography of more than 1,000 sources concerning the subject.
Known as the Great War, World War One was one of history's greatest tragedies. It eventually dragged most of Europe and the world into its bloody quagmire, inflicting more than...
The Dance of Death: Medallic Art of the First World War
"War, Women, and Poetry examines the experience of European women, especially British and German women, in World Wars I and II and the literature they wrote in reaction to those...
The National Archives' celebrated First World War holdings include personal files of officers and other ranks, campaign medals, gallantry and meritorious service awards, courts martial and casualty lists. Its remarkable...
A Short History of the World is a period-piece non-fictional historic work by English author H. G. Wells first published by Cassell & Co, Ltd Publishing in 1922. It was...