The Catastrophe of 8 August 1918
The Catastrophe of 8 August 1918

Author: Thilo von Bose

Publisher:

Published: 2019-08-26

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9781922265043

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Thilo von Bose's 1930 book The Catastrophe of 8 August 1918 was the 36th and last volume in a series of popular semi-official German histories of the First World War. It documents in great detail the 'black day of the German Army' at the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, a turning point that set the Allies on the road to victory just 100 days later. With considerable moral courage, Bose describes the causes and catastrophic nature of the defeat inflicted by a combined force of Australian, Canadian, French and British troops. Alongside his powerful critique of the failure of German command, Bose tells the human story of German soldiers as individuals rather than an anonymous field-grey mass. This new edition of his important book presents the original German text in parallel with the first ever English translation. The introduction, appendices, maps and photographs explain and illustrate the historical and military context, allowing the reader to navigate an easy path through Bose's account. This unique combination of content makes the book a key source in introducing a new audience to scholarship on the First World War and will also assist those keen to research the German side of the conflict in more depth.

Corporal Hitler and the Great War 1914-1918
Corporal Hitler and the Great War 1914-1918

Author: John F Williams

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-07-05

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1134244479

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Adolf Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian Army in august 1914 as a war volunteer. Fanatically devoted to the German cause, between 1914 and 1918 Hitler served with distinction and sometimes reckless bravery, winning both classes of Iron Cross. Using memoirs, military records, regimental, divisional and official war histories as well as (wherever possible) Hitler's own words, this book seeks to reconstruct a period in his life that has been neglected in the literature. It is also the story of a German regiment (16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry, or List Regiment), which fought in all the main battles on the Western Front. As a frontline soldier Hitler began his 'study' of the black art of propaganda; and, as he himself maintained, the List Regiment provided him with his 'university of life'. This is not only an account of the fighting, however. Some of the most profound influences on Hitler occurred on home leave or as a result of official wartime propaganda, which he devoured uncritically. His conversion from passive pathological anti-Semitism began while invalided in Germany in 1916-17. The language of anti-Bolshevik 'Jewish virus' propaganda became Hitler's language, confirmed, as he saw it, by the 'infected' recruits to the List Regiment in 1918. Hitler is here presented less as the product of high-cultural forces than as an avid reader and gullible consumer of state propaganda, which fed his prejudices. He was a 'good soldier' but also a 'true believer' in fact and practice. It is no exaggeration to say that every military decision made by Hitler between 1939 and 1945 was in some way influenced or coloured by his experiences with the List Regiment between 1914 and 1918.

The Torch We Throw: The Dundurn WWI Historical Library
The Torch We Throw: The Dundurn WWI Historical Library

Author: Brereton Greenhous

Publisher: Dundurn

Published: 2014-07-23

Total Pages: 1125

ISBN-13: 1459730305

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The giant conflagration of the First World War created the world we live in today, and its history is replete with stirring battles, mind-boggling strategies, and geopolitical manoeuvring. However, the real story was lived in the trenches of Europe and the lonely households of those left behind. The stories of this period are full of tragedy, anger, and loss but also inspirational courage. This special five-book bundle presents some of these stories, from brave Canadian contributions to the battlefields at Ypres and Amiens, to the specific untold story of Canada’s unheralded 58th Division, to an analysis of the myth and legend of air ace Billy Bishop, to the voice of one single soldier, Deward Barnes, told through his diary. These books provide new and enlightening perspectives on the war. Amiens Hell in Flanders Fields It Made you Think of Home The Making of Billy Bishop Second to None

Amiens
Amiens

Author: James L. McWilliams

Publisher: Dundurn

Published: 2001-09

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 155002342X

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For the Allies, it was the "dawn of victory," the battle that paved the way for the Armistice 100 days later.

Haig's Enemy
Haig's Enemy

Author: Jonathan Boff

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0199670463

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During the First World War, the British army's most consistent German opponent was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Commanding more than a million men as a General, and then Field Marshal, in the Imperial German Army, he held off the attacks of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French and then Sir Douglas Haig for four long years. But Rupprecht was to lose not only the war, but his son and his throne. In Haig's Enemy, Jonathan Boff explores the tragic tale of Rupprecht's war--the story of a man caught under the wheels of modern industrial warfare. Providing a fresh viewpoint on the history of the Western Front, Boff draws on extensive research in the German archives to offer a history of the First World War from the other side of the barbed wire. He revises conventional explanations of why the Germans lost with an in-depth analysis of the nature of command, and of the institutional development of the British, French, and German armies as modern warfare was born. Using Rupprecht's own diaries and letters, many of them never before published, Haig's Enemy views the Great War through the eyes of one of Germany's leading generals, shedding new light on many of the controversies of the Western Front. The picture which emerges is far removed from the sterile stalemate of myth. Instead, Boff re-draws the Western Front as a highly dynamic battlespace, both physical and intellectual, where three armies struggled not only to out-fight, but also to out-think, their enemy. The consequences of falling behind in the race to adapt would be more terrible than ever imagined.

Amiens 1918
Amiens 1918

Author: James McWilliams

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2016-07-11

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 075097902X

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On 8 August 1918, the Allied forces launched the surprise attack that heralded the end of the First World War. With skill and daring, 21 divisions of men breached the German lines, supported by 500 tanks and 1,000 aircraft. This book considers the successes and failures of both sides in this conflict.

The Battle of Megiddo
The Battle of Megiddo

Author: Eric W. Osborne

Publisher: Helion and Company

Published: 2023-08-21

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1804515051

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The Battle of Megiddo was not only the last large cavalry offensive in world history, but also a tribute to combined arms operations fostered over the course of the First World War. Fought between 19-25 September 1918, it was the final Allied offensive of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The contending forces were the British Empire’s EEF (Egyptian Expeditionary Force) of three infantry and one mounted corps pitted against the Ottoman-German Yildirim Army Group which numbered three weak armies with the approximate total strength of a single enemy corps. Comparable to what General Erich von Ludendorff called the ‘Black Day’ of the German Army (opening of the Battle of Amiens, 8 August 1918) on the Western Front, the complete Ottoman defeat would have been impossible without the application of superior logistics. Whilst Megiddo did not determine the outcome of the war in the Middle East, the ramifications of the victory decisively shaped the post-war world in the region.