This book illustrates the relationship between British military policy and the development of British war aims during the opening years of the First World War. Basing his work on a wide range of unpublished documentary sources, David French reassesses for the benefit of students and scholars alike what was meant by ‘a war of attrition’.
This book explores how British Army learnt from the pyrrhic victories of 1915-17 and developed the new tactics, leadership and doctrine of combined arms to overcome the tactical stalemate hitherto bedevilling Allied offensives to defeat the
A vivid biography in cinematic snapshots of David Lloyd George, one of the world's greatest statesmen. Brought up in rural North Wales, David Lloyd George attended neither a grand school nor ancient university. He was very much an outsider. And yet he rose through the ranks with charisma, fierce intelligence and fighting spirit to become, as Churchill put it in his tribute, a man who 'stood, when at his zenith, without a rival'. But his rise was not without its hardships, and in Rivals in the Storm, experienced MP and author Damian Collins focuses on the impact of Lloyd George's personality on other leading politicians, in driving progressive reforms through government, changing the course of the First World War to lead the Allies to victory, and cementing Britain's alliance with America. Covering Lloyd George's emergence as the dominating political personality in Great Britain to the aftermath of his resignation, this fascinating biography takes you inside the rooms where the important decisions happened, and shows the bitter struggles as well as the triumphs of this great man of his or any other age, who nonetheless fell short of his own high expectations.
Numbering over five million men, Britain's army in the First World War was the biggest in the country's history. Remarkably, nearly half those men who served in it were volunteers. 2,466,719 men enlisted between August 1914 and December 1915, many in response to the appeals of the Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. How did Britain succeed in creating a mass army, almost from scratch, in the middle of a major war ? What compelled so many men to volunteer ' and what happened to them once they had taken the King's shilling ? Peter Simkins describes how Kitchener's New Armies were raised and reviews the main political, economic and social effects of the recruiting campaign. He examines the experiences and impressions of the officers and men who made up the New Armies. As well as analysing their motives for enlisting, he explores how they were fed, housed, equipped and trained before they set off for active service abroad. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, ranging from government papers to the diaries and letters of individual soldiers, he questions long-held assumptions about the 'rush to the colours' and the nature of patriotism in 1914. The book will be of interest not only to those studying social, political and economic history, but also to general readers who wish to know more about the story of Britain's citizen soldiers in the Great War.
On the brink of the First World War, Scotland was regarded throughout the British Isles as 'the workshop of the Empire'. Not only were Clyde-built ships known the world over, Scotland produced half of Britain's total production of railway equipment, and the cotton and jute industries flourished in Paisley and Dundee. In addition, Scots were a hugely important source of manpower for the colonies. Yet after the war, Scotland became an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties, a result of huge numbers of volunteers and the use of Scottish battalions as shock troops in the fighting on the Western Front and Gallipoli - young men whom the novelist Ian Hay called 'the vanished generation'. In this book, Trevor Royle provides the first full account of how the war changed Scotland irrevocably by exploring a wide range of themes - the overwhelming response to the call for volunteers; the performance of Scottish military formations in 1915 and 1916; the militarization of the Scottish homeland; the resistance to war in Glasgow and the west of Scotland; and the boom in the heavy industries and the strengthening of women's role in society following on from wartime employment.
This book, originally published in 1975 and authored by an ex-Naval officer, assesses the performance and management of the Royal Navy in the twentieth century. It examines the nature and tasks of the twentieth century Navy, by tracing the fortunes of it under successive First Sea Lords. It examines how the higher echelons of the service have altered and how and why naval policy has changed. Among other issues the book discusses the actions of Beresford and Fisher, Beaty and Jellifcoe, Chatfield, Pound and Mountbatten. It appraises Churchill, the Invergordon Mutiny and the strains fo the 1930s; discusses the Navy’s role in two World Wars and post-war disarmament.
