Raised in Birkenhead in 1914 the Bantams were unique as the average height of the volunteers was a mere five foot! Previously denied the opportunity to serve, these men seized this chance to join up. As a result the battalions comprised working class men from all over Britain - Welsh miners, sturdy London dockers, Lancashire mill workers and Merseyside laborers. As part of 35th (Bantam) Division, the Bantams fought on the Somme. The Bantams' casualties were so severe that by early 1917 the Division effectively ceased to exist. Thereafter reinforcements came from the General Pool. They suffered heavily again at Houlthust Forest. The 35th Division played a key part in stopping the German 1918 offensive. Some 900 members of these Battalions lost their lives in The Great War.
Raised in Birkenhead in 1914 the Bantams were unique as the average height of the volunteers was a mere five foot! Previously denied the opportunity to serve, these men seized this chance to join up. As a result the battalions comprised working class men from all over Britain Welsh miners, sturdy London dockers, Lancashire mill workers and Merseyside laborers.As part of 35th (Bantam) Division, the Bantams fought on the Somme. The Bantams casualties were so severe that by early 1917 the Division effectively ceased to exist. Thereafter reinforcements came from the General Pool. They suffered heavily again at Houlthust Forest. The 35th Division played a key part in stopping the German 1918 offensive. Some 900 members of these Battalions lost their lives in The Great War.
From the dawn of organized conflict, sub-standard men--the inverse of the elites that get the lion's share of our attention-- have served their countries. This is their untold history.
At the dawn of the twentieth century Liverpool had 8 miles of docks thronged with cargo ships loading or discharging goods. When Britain declared war on Germany in the summer of 1914, Liverpool's geographical position demanded it be one of the chief home bases for wartime operations. It was a challenge the city accepted with relish and went on to become one of the most significant home-front contributors to the Allied victory. Justifiable, the city cenotaph proudly declares 'out of the north parts came a great company and a mighty army', but there is a forgotten army of patriotic civilians whose endeavours played a key role in the Allied victory. Despite an acute shortage of skilled labour, Liverpool led the way in the construction of munition factories and developed the required skills to 'feed the guns'. Inititally, men who were too old for military service produced shells, but a local factory became the first in the country to introduce women shell-makers, and this initiative was replicated throughout the nation As the men made the transition from street to trench, Liverpool and district developed into a vast arsenal employing approximately 30,000 women and producing a million shells a month. Civilians were also actively involved in tending the wounded, fund-raising for hospital equipment and ambulances and the provisions of home comforts for those at the front. When the German submarine onslaught almost severed Britain's maritime trade routes food rationing was introduced. Damaged ships limped into Liverpool were ploughed up as the nation 'dug for victory'. The city was also a portal through which thousands of American troops passed; they stayed briefly at Springfield Park Rest Camp before entraining south. This is the fascinating but largely forgotten story of how Liverpool provided the sinews of war.
Leedss Military Legacy is the first fully illustrated book to give a comprehensive description of the military history of Leeds from Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman times to the present as home to various garrisons and military museums, not least the renowned Leeds Armouries Museum. Along the way it describes Royalist Leeds and the Civil War, the formation of various regiments in the city between the seventeenth and twenty-first centuries, the impact of two World Wars and how the city rose to the challenges of recruitment, defense and industrial war effort. The battle honors of each of the Leeds regiments are detailed as are the VCs. The book also covers the work of the Leeds military hospitals, the Barnbow Munitions disaster, RAF Yeadon (LeedsBradford Airport), the blitz of 1941, 609 Squadron, Yeadon Lancaster factory, Leeds as a garrison city and current military research in Leeds.
This is a comprehensive account of how the British Army coped with and adapted to the enormous challenges and pressures of the First World War -- the first major continental war that the army had had to fight for almost a hundred years. Following the course of the War, both on the Western Front and in other theatres, Charles Messenger tells how the British Army managed the challenges of command, training, technology and new weapons of war. He examines officer selection, medicine, discipline, the manpower crisis of 1918, the integration of women into the forces and many other topics. Based on years of original research, this will become the standard work of reference on the organization and administration of the biggest army Britain has ever put into the field.
