A reassessment of Churchill’s role in the conception, planning and execution of the Dardanelles fiasco, as well as an examination of the subsequent inquiry and the long-standing controversy over the operation. Bell previously wrote Churchill and Sea Power, and is an expert on the great man’s relationship with the Royal Navy. His account draws on a mass of archival material, and provides a more nuanced view of the people and politics that contributed to the decision-making process.
Len's Summary: A guide to 600 years of warfare in northwestern France and Flanders; from Crecy to Bastogne. Order from sales@frenchbattlefields.com or fax (224) 735-4378.
Len's Summary: The story of Britain’s controversial effort to sink German submarines by deploying heavily-armed merchant vessels with RN crews. The author has also written on the Zeebrugge Raid under the pseudonym of David Lomas.
Len's Summary: Describes the design history, development and operational careers of 22 legendary military and civil aircraft starting with the WWI era.
Len's Summary: Biography of General Foch’s chief of Staff in WWI who inherited command of a defeated French army in 1940. See also: Maxime Weygand and Civil-Military Relations in Modern France, Philip Charles et al, Harvard, 1997, 445 pages, ISBN 978 0674 4557 017, $33.50 from Barnes & Nobel; less from used booksellers.
Len's Summary: The long-awaited history of the Marines in WWI by a former Marine Corps Historian. Completed following Simmons’ death by Joe Alexander. Recounts action by the Fourth Marine Brigade of the 2nd Division at Belleau Wood, Soissons, Blanc Mont, St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne.
Len's Summary: Traces the key events of the tumultuous first post war year such as the emergence of Hitler and Mussolini, the Bolshevik victory in Russia, the treaty of Versailles and the political upheavals in Germany. Available from www.casematepublishing.com.
Len's Summary: The experience of the first complete all-Black division to go into combat. See also American Foreign Legion, Frank E. Roberts, Naval Institute, 2004.
Len's Summary: A replowing of familiar and well-tilled fields by a former Nixon speech writer, presidential candidate and perennial right wing TV talk show bloviator. Buchanan is best at setting up straw men and then knocking them down.
Len's Summary: The winner of the 1931 Nobel Prize and author of The Forsyte Saga writes about the care of soldiers disabled by war wounds both physical and psychological. Available in the US in 2010, or immediately from Amazon.co.uk.
Len's Summary: Motivated by fears than America’s multi-ethnic population would not support the war effort, President Wilson launched the federal government’s first concerted public information campaign headed by journalist George Creel.
Len's Summary: Fredrick Zinn’s efforts to recover missing airman from two world wars and finding 200 of them. Recommended by WW1Historical Association/WFA President Steve Suddaby.
Len's Summary: Novelist Edith Wharton, Mrs. W K. Vanderbilt and other American expatriate socialites, adventurers as well as diplomats, soldiers, journalists, and relief workers among others write of their experiences on both sides of the lines. A different slant on the war by two new members of WWHA.
Len's Summary: Beginning with Zeppelin and Gotha raids in 1915 -1918, the author traces the civilian response to bombing in two wars and government attempts to cope with the threat to civilian morale.
Len's Summary: Designed and built specifically to provide heavy, shore bombardment particularly along the Flanders coast, these ships were also employed in WWII. A revision and update of a 1978 work. // The Royal Navy designed the first of these unusual vessels in late 1914 to bombard German coastal emplacements in Flanders. The earliest models mounted Bethlehem Steel 14-inch inch guns and turrets.
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Avoiding Armageddon: From the Great War to the Fall of France, 1918-40 by Jeremy Black ISBN: 9781441157133 Published byA&C Black on July 5th 2012 Genres:History, Military, World War II Pages: 304
Len's Summary: The First World War spawned any number of new limited wars, civil wars and insurrections all of which are summarized here with analysis of evolving weapons and tactics, as well as great power politics. He author finds the 1920s and 30s presented geo-political-strategic conundrums very similar to those we grapple with today.
Len's Summary: Professor Lengel won the 2007 Tomlinson Book Prize for his monograph To Conquer Hell on the Meuse-Argonne, America’s bloodiest battle. As the title suggests, this book features analytical essays on French and German involvement by premier scholars from France, Australia, Germany, the US and the UK. Way too expensive. Get it from your local library.
Len's Summary: Winner of the Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History, this is a carefully researched, but densely drafted volume establishing that stories of German atrocities in Belgium and France were not just Entente propaganda. Winner of the 2002 Tomlinson Prize.
Len's Summary: Before the war, the Admiralty conceived an economic warfare campaign deploying Britain’s virtual monopolies in banking, communications and merchant shipping as additional weapons against Germany. These weapons proved decisive. This book received the World War One Historical Association's annual Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr., prize for the best work of history in English on World War One (1914-1918) for 2013. Professor Lambert is a Visiting Affiliate Professor at the University of Maryland. His book, 'Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution' (1999) won the Tomlinson 2000 prize.
We are changing the WW1HA’s newsletter’s publication schedule to monthly. Publishing “Here and There with the WW1HA” twice a year provides too few opportunities to interact effectively with the membership! So, we’re going to go with shorter, monthly publications via our Constant Contact mailing list. My goal is that each issue will contain a brief comment from the President / Officers, a quick summary of WW1-related news, and a focus on a member and his/her research in each issue. What else should it include? You tell me: lavarennes@meuse-argonne.com.
Membership was very low at the beginning of the year, so we have formed a Membership Committee. The first action taken was to contact 2020-22 members who had not renewed in 2023. That was the low-hanging fruit. The second action will be to increase year-end renewal reminders and touch points with the membership—also low-hanging fruit. The third action will be to explore ways to reach beyond our current customers.
On 11 March we held our first quarterly Fireside Chat—with 27 participants—using Zoom. Again, this provided interaction with our members. We will be doing these quarterly and will be announcing the next one shortly. The top two responses of how/why members got excited about WW1 were 1) family involvement in the war and 2) aviation. How do we use this information to grow membership?
A small group of us are actively posting in the World War One Historical Association’s Facebook Group. Join us there.
Ed Klekowski is itching to do a Summer (third) issue of World War One Illustrated. He is working on the first Summer issue as we speak.
I have not made major changes to the website yet, because of the above-mentioned initiatives. That said, I did modernize the Chapters/Events Page to reflect our current activities.
I hope these efforts breathe new life into the Association, and I want to encourage you to do your bit. If you have a good idea, tell me about it. Better yet, step up and be willing to take a more active role.