The Battle of Loos
The Battle of Loos

Author: Philip Warner

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 9781840222296

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"On 25th September 1915, and for a few days afterward, the small town of Loos, between Lens and La Bass?e in Northern France, became the centre of one of the most intense and bloody battles of the First World War ... Philip Warner's narrative is vividly brought to life through the words of survivors from all parts of the line: the infantry, the gunners, the officers, and including extracts from the letters and diaries of Sir John French ... Through their accounts and diaries of the time, they reveal one of the most horrific tales of war yet told as well as the heroism and determination that in the end tipped the scales to victory"--Page 4 of cover.

The Great Push
The Great Push

Author: Patrick MacGill

Publisher: Birlinn Publishers

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Patrick MacGill enlisted with the London Irish Rifles in 1915 and The Great Push is the resultant work, written during the Battle of Loos. This story recounts the fear, resilience, humour, and fatalism of those who fought at the raw edge of one of the most terrifying wars ever to have been waged.

British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War
British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War

Author: Sanders Marble

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 1351954709

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the popular imagination, the battle fields of the Western Front were dominated by the machine gun. Yet soldiers at the time were clear that artillery - not machine guns - dictated the nature, tactics and strategy of the conflict. Only in the last months of the war when the Allies had amassed sufficient numbers of artillery and learned how to use it in an integrated and coherent manner was the stalemate broken and war ended. In this lucid and prize-winning study, the steady development of artillery, and the growing realisation of its primacy within the British Expeditionary Force is charted and analysed. Through an examination of British and Dominion forces operating on the Western Front, the book looks at how tactical and operational changes affected the overall strategy. Chapters cover the role of artillery in supporting infantry attacks, counter-battery work, artillery in defence, training and command and staff arrangements. In line with the 'learning curve' thesis, the work concludes that despite many setbacks and missed opportunities, by 1918 the Royal Artillery had developed effective and coordinated tactics to overcome the defensive advantages of trench warfare that had mired the Western Front in bloody stalemate for the previous three years.

The Footballer of Loos
The Footballer of Loos

Author: Ed Harris

Publisher: History Press Limited

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Germans fighting on two fronts were concentrating in the east where the Russians were weakening. In the west, the Allied effort was met with well prepared German defences, and efforts to open a new front on the Gallipoli Peninsula had foundered. Decisive action to break the deadlock on the Western Front saw a mighty attack of six British divisions planned for the autumn of 1915 in the vicinity of the small mining community of Loos en Gohelle where 'The Big Push' would begin. The bitter recriminations that followed the perceived failure reduced the Battle of Loos to a footnote in the history of the Great War for many decades. Entirely lost in translation has been the Boys' Own tale of the Tommy who kicked a football ahead of the charge. That soldier was identified as Rifleman Frank Edwards, and through his original research, Ed Harris clearly establishes for the first time that the first great attack by the British army was begun when Edwards kicked a football towards the German lines. Harris sheds light on what it was like to be a part of this crucial battle and questions the largely held view that Loos was a failure, using material sourced from a wide variety of sources form the Imperial War Museum to the National Football Museum.

The Donkeys
The Donkeys

Author: Alan Clark

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-09-30

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1448104025

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The landmark exposé of incompetent leadership on the Western Front - why the British troops were lions led by donkeys On 26 September 1915, twelve British battalions – a strength of almost 10,000 men – were ordered to attack German positions in France. In the three-and-a-half hours of the battle, they sustained 8,246 casualties. The Germans suffered no casualties at all. Why did the British Army fail so spectacularly? What can be said of the leadership of generals? And most importantly, could it have all been prevented? In The Donkeys, eminent military historian Alan Clark scrutinises the major battles of that fateful year and casts a steady and revealing light on those in High Command - French, Rawlinson, Watson and Haig among them - whose orders resulted in the virtual destruction of the old professional British Army. Clark paints a vivid and convincing picture of how brave soldiers, the lions, were essentially sent to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent officers – the donkeys. ‘An eloquent and painful book... Clark leaves the impression that vanity and stupidity were the main ingredients of the massacres of 1915. He writes searingly and unforgettably’ Evening Standard

Memory, Narrative and the Great War
Memory, Narrative and the Great War

Author: David Taylor

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1846318718

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Memory, Narrative and the Great War examines the varied and complex war writings of Patrick MacGill within a contemporary framework. David Taylor tracks how MacGill shifted from heroic wartime narratives in his autobiographical writings to the pessimistic, guiltridden characters in his postwar novel, Fear!, and play, Suspense. Using these texts to show how MacGill remembered and reremembered his wartime experiences, Taylor analyzes MacGill's writings with implications for a broader interpretation of Great War literature, highlighting wartime memory and narrative as an ever-changing kaleidoscope in which pieces of memory take on different—but equally valid—shapes with the passing of time.