Walking Verdun: A Guide to the Battlefield by Christina Holstein ISBN: 1844158675
on July 2009
Pages: 176
Len's Summary: A new guide book from one of the most knowledgeable Western Front historians and guides. // A New work by long-time battlefield guide and WFA member who also wrote an earlier Pen & Sword book on Ft. Douaumont.
The Patriot’s Progress
The Patriot's Progress by Henry Williamson ISBN: 9780750936408
Published by History Press Limited on May 25th 2004
Genres: Fiction, War & Military
Pages: 288
Len's Summary: Story of a young British Tommy, who went on to be a noted nature writer. // One of two autobiographical novels describing the author’s experiences as an infantryman in WWI which turned him into a Pacifist. First published in 1930. Williamson is best known for his prize-winning 1927 novel Tarka the Otter.
The Secret Battle: A Tragedy of the First World War
The Secret Battle: A Tragedy of the First World War by A.P. Herbert, Winston S. Churchill, Malcolm Brown ISBN: 1848325215
Published by Frontline Books on April 1st 2009
Genres: History, Military, General
Pages: 216
Len's Summary: The fictionalized story of an idealistic young British officer first published in 1919. // First published by Methuen in 1919 and in print virtually ever since, this semi-autobiographical novel follows the career of a young man who left Oxford to enlist later taking a commission and serving at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. This was the first book to freely discuss executions for desertion in the British forces.
The Somme Stations
The Somme Stations by Andrew Martin ISBN: 0571249647
Published by Faber & Faber on February 1st 2012
Pages: 336
Len's Summary: Number seven in the Jim Stringer Steam Detective series finds Jim investigating a murder in a British railway pioneer battalion on the Western Front. // Enlisted British Army railwayman Jim Stronger finds himself falsely accused of murder during the 1916 Somme Campaign. Winner of the British Dagger Award for Best Historical Mystery.
Paths of Glory
Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb, James H. Meredith, David Simon ISBN: 0143106112
Published by Penguin Classics on June 29th 2010
Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literary, War & Military
Pages: 190
Len's Summary: First published in 1935, this provocative novel was made into a 1957 motion picture directed by Stanley Kubrick. Kurt Douglas was nominated for an Academy Award for his leading role as a French infantry colonel ordered to take an impregnable hill. Cobb was war correspondent in France and Belgium and a witness to the German invasion. // Written in the 1930s, this classic WWI novel of the French Army was authored by an American veteran of the Canadian forces. The 1957 movie version directed by Stanley Kubrick and still available on VHS and DVD earned Kurt Douglas an academy award nomination.
Wielding the Dagger: The MarineKorps Flandern and the German War Effort, 1914-1918
Wielding the Dagger: The MarineKorps Flandern and the German War Effort, 1914-1918 by Mark D. Karau ISBN: 9780313324758
Published by Praeger on October 30th 2003
Genres: History, Europe, General, Germany, Military, World War I
Pages: 268
Len's Summary: Two divisions made up of naval reservists were formed and deployed as infantry and artillerymen on the Flanders coast in 1914. Many of them and their officers are buried at Vladslo and other German cemeteries in Belgium which we visited on our April 2003 tour of the Ypres Salient. // The little known story of a two-division-sized German submarine-destroyer and naval infantry-artillery group operating in Belgian Flanders.
The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914-1918
The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914-1918 by Kees van Dijk ISBN: 9067183083
Published by Kitlv Press on March 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Asia, Southeast Asia
Len's Summary: By 1917, the Dutch East Indies was facing a radical nationalist movement, as well as economic an pinch caused by loss of exports, wartime trade restrictions, the war at sea and shortages of shipping. // How severe trade restrictions imposed by the British impacted colonial economy and society, threatening Dutch rule in the Indies. See also Hubert van Tuyll The Netherlands and World War I (Brill, 2001) for a broader diplomatic and political-economic study of armed Netherlands neutrality.
The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire
The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire by Jan Rüger ISBN: 0521114616
Published by Cambridge University Press on June 25th 2009
Pages: 354
Len's Summary: An analysis of the Anglo-German naval race. // Anglo-German antagonism fanned by popular pro-naval sentiments.
Pals on the Somme, 1916
Pals on the Somme, 1916 by Roni Wilkinson ISBN: 1844157652
Published by Pen & Sword Books on June 1st 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I
Pages: 224
Len's Summary: History of creation the British Pals Battalions made up of men from the same town or craft. // Looks at the participation of the Pals battalions which fought on the Somme in 1916 and how the Pals phenomenon was born.
Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War
Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War by Polly A. Mohs ISBN: 9780415493314
Published by Routledge on November 1st 2008
Genres: History, Europe, General, Middle East, Military, World War I
Pages: 256
Len's Summary: His book goes far beyond Lawrence of Arabia. It examines the imaginative exploitation of intelligence in formulating an effective British strategy for supporting the Arab Revolt again the Ottomans during the First World War. For more on this subject see: War by Revolution: Germany & Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I, Donald McKale, Kent State, 2008. // The creation and ascendancy of the Foreign Office’s Arab Bureau created specifically to coordinate imperial operations in Arab lands. The hard, often dirty work behind the glamour behind Lawrence of Arabia.
Stanley Spencer’s Great War Diary, 1915-1918
Stanley Spencer's Great War Diary, 1915-1918 by Stanley Spencer, Arthur Littlewood ISBN: 9781844157785
Published by Pen & Sword Military on 2008
Genres: Biography & Autobiography, General, History, Military, World War I
Pages: 176
Len's Summary: The editor provides a commentary for these recently-discovered letters from a VC winner. // Diaries of a British veteran. // Written by a veteran of the Royal Fusiliers and West Yorkshire regiments who served from 1915 on the Somme, at Moutaubon and Vimy.
A Part of History: Aspects of the British Experience of the First World War
A Part of History: Aspects of the British Experience of the First World War by Michael Howard ISBN: 9780826498137
Published by Continuum on August 20th 2008
Genres: History, General, Europe, Great Britain, Historiography, Military, World War I
Pages: 229
Len's Summary: A scholarly examination of revisionism and traditionalism in studies of The Great War by British historians. // A series of brief essays written by British historians (Gary Sheffield, Julian Putkowski, Terry Castle, Malcom Brown among others) who engage in much critical comment on present and past historians and histories of The Great War. Labeled by Hew Strachan in a review for the Times Literary Supplement as a rehash of old, insular arguments.
The German Infantryman, 1914-1918
The German Infantryman 1914-1918 by Jean-Claude Laparra ISBN: 2352500710
Published by Histoire & Collections on July 1st 2008
Pages: 66
Len's Summary: A view of the war as experienced by a typical German infantryman based on memorabilia and notes left by an unidentified infanterist found in a Berlin flea market. // Explores the life of the German infantryman. In French.
Mons, 1914-1918: The Beginning and the End
Mons, 1914-1918: The Beginning and the End by Don Farr ISBN: 9781906033286
Published by Helion & Company on December 23rd 2008
Pages: 233
Len's Summary: A four-year catastrophe in and around a Flemish cloth town. // Describes the catastrophic events that took place at Mons in 1914 and again in 1918.
1917: Tactics, Training and Technology
1917: Tactics, Training and Technology by Jeffrey Grey, Peter Dennis ISBN: 978 0 9803 7967 9
Published by Loftus Australia on February 2008
Len's Summary: Collection of 11 essays based on papers presented at the 2007 Australian Chief of Army’s Military History Conference in 2007. Contributors include Robin Prior, Gary Sheffield, Dan Todman, Tim Cook and Andrew Wiest, Robert Doughty and Michael Neiberg. // An anthology focusing mainly but not exclusively on the BEF. Favorably reviewed by Bruce Gudmundsson in The Journal of Military History.
A Shattered Peace: Versailles and the Peace We Pay Today
A Shattered Peace: Versailles and the Peace We Pay Today by David A. Andelman, Henry Kissinger ISBN: 1620459914
Published by Wiley on July 1st 2014
Pages: 336
Len's Summary: One of a recent series of popular pot boiler journalistic-style histories blaming most of world’s troubles on the Versailles Treaty. // An analysis linking current day international political woes to the Versailles treaty.
Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East
Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East by Priya Satia ISBN: 0199734801
Published by Oxford University Press on November 1st 2009
Genres: Political Science, General, Middle East, Great Britain, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
Pages: 458
Len's Summary: Beyond Lawrence of Arabia: The interaction between culture and imperialism. // Scholarly critique of British imperialism as a paranoid and brutal arm of military policy with its roots in Edwardian England; questions the liberal underpinnings of imperial ideology. A cultural history of the interwar British imperial state.
The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War
The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War by James Carl Nelson ISBN: 9780312650414
Published by Macmillan on September 28th 2010
Genres: History, Military, World War I, United States, 20th Century
Pages: 400
Len's Summary: A tale of battle and the search for the legacy of the author’s Doughboy grandfather. Available in November 2009. // Follows the members of Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, First Division from enlistment to combat at Cantigny, St. Mihiel and The Meuse-Argonne.
The Day We Won the War: Turning Point at Amiens 8th August 1918
The Day We Won the War: Turning Point at Amiens 8th August 1918 by Charles Messenger ISBN: 0297852817
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on March 3rd 2009
Pages: 288
Len's Summary: The fateful day Ludendorff became convinced the German army was beaten. // Ninetieth anniversary analysis of the August 1918 break- through at Amiens which opened the victorious “100 days” ending World War I. The mixed arms attack of the British 4th Army also included troops from Australia, Canada and America.
The War on Hospital Ships, 1914-1918
The War on Hospital Ships, 1914-1918 by Stephen McGreal ISBN: 1844158586
Published by Pen & Sword Books on April 1st 2009
Pages: 272
Len's Summary: German submarine sinkings of unarmed hospital ships outraged the American, British and French publics and caused the UK to paint hospital ships in drab colors, defensively arm and sail them in protected convoys. // German sinkings of Entente hospital ships detailed.
Black Fokker Leader: The First World War’s Last Airfighter Knight
Black Fokker Leader: The First World War’s Last Airfighter Knight by Peter Kilduff ISBN: 9781906502287
Published by Casemate Publishers on May 1st 2009
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Aviation
Pages: 256
Len's Summary: Wartime exploits of an all-but-forgotten German ace; Kilduff’s 13th book on WWI aviation. // The story of German ace Carl Degelow and his squadron of mostly Fokker D-VII recounted by a premier aviation historian.
Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War
Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War by Anton Kaes ISBN: 9780691008509
Published by Princeton University Press on October 2nd 2011
Genres: Art, Film & Video, History, Europe, General, Germany, Performing Arts, Social Science
Pages: 328
Len's Summary: Weimar Republic culture and the wounds of war. // Interpretative history of Weimar-era German cinema and how it reflected the memory of The Great War.
Untold War: New Perspectives in First World War Studies
Untold War: New Perspectives in First World War Studies by Heather Jones, Jennifer O'brien, Christoph Schmidt-supprian ISBN: 9004166599
Published by Brill Academic Publishers on June 4th 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Europe, General, Essays
Pages: 452
Len's Summary: Scholarly essays re-examining the global civil and military impact of the conflict; how the war changed societies. Contributors include prize-winning historians Alan Kramer and Dan Todman, with an introduction by John Horne. (I will be reviewing this for Stand To!) //Essays covering diverse themes such as combat, occupation, civil identity, juvenile delinquency, chaplains, art and remembrance across several countries: Germany, France, Britain, colonial Africa, Belgium and Romania. Fourth in the series of edited proceedings from conferences sponsored by the International Society for First World War Studies. Other titles are Uncovered Fields, Warfare and Belligerence, and Untold War.
Letters from Verdun: Frontline Experiences of an American Volunteer in World War I France
Letters from Verdun: Frontline Experiences of an American Volunteer in World War I France by William C. Harvey, Avery Wolfe ISBN: 1932033947
Published by Casemate Publishers on December 2009
Pages: 240
Len's Summary: The diary and letters of Avery Royce Wolfe recounting his service as a volunteer ambulance driver with the American Field Service near Verdun and with French occupation forces in the Rhineland from June 1917 to April 1919. Excellent photos taken by Avery Wolfe illustrate this volume. // Letters of a volunteer ambulance driver in the French army at Verdun and during the Ludendorff offensives of 1918. // Letters of an American volunteer ambulance driver in the French Army.
Cambrai 1917: The Myth of the First Great Tank Battle
Cambrai 1917: The Myth of the First Great Tank Battle by Bryn Hammond ISBN: 9780297845539
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on November 4th 2008
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Great Britain
Pages: 500
Len's Summary: The author asserts that that innovative artillery tactics, not tanks (400 of them), were responsible for short-lived British successes at Cambrai. // The author sees the battle as a draw, but a nonetheless useful lesson leading toward more mobile warfare.
The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War
The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War by Adrian Gregory ISBN: 9780521728836
Published by Cambridge University Press on October 16th 2008
Genres: History, Europe, Great Britain, Modern, 20th Century, Military, General, World War I, Social History
Pages: 362
Len's Summary: A new social history. // A ground-breaking new cultural and social history of the British home front.
We Hope to Get Word Tomorrow: The Garvin Family Letters, 1914-1916
We Hope to Get Word Tomorrow: The Garvin Family Letters, 1914-1916 by Mark Pottle, John Ledingham ISBN: 9781848325456
Published by Casemate Publishers on 2009
Genres: History, Europe, Great Britain, Military, World War I, Veterans, Personal Accounts
Pages: 280
Len's Summary: Collection of letters from a young British subaltern to his mother and father at home. // Exchanges of letters between a young subaltern and his family in England.
Survivors of a Kind: Memoirs of the Western Front
Survivors of a Kind: Memoirs of the Western Front by Brian Bond ISBN: 9781847250049
Published by A&C Black on December 20th 2008
Genres: History, General, Military, World War I, Modern, Personal Memoirs
Pages: 192
Len's Summary: An introduction to WWI memoirs as being of both literary and historical value. // An analysis of Western Front memoirs published by a range of British luminaries including Anthony Eden, Harold McMillan, General F. P. Crozier and several war poets including Edmund Blunden.
The Railway Operating Division on the Western Front: The Royal Engineers in France and Belgium 1915-1919
The Railway Operating Division on the Western Front: The Royal Engineers in France and Belgium 1915-1919 by William A.T. Aves ISBN: 9781900289993
Published by Shaun Tyas on December 1st 2009
Pages: 208
Len's Summary: A history of the integrated Royal Engineer rail system that supported the BEF under the overall command of Sir Eric Geddes. // The BEF’s rail operation expanded mightily into an integrated rail, road and waterway system based on Channel supply depots all under command of a civilian, Sir Eric Geddes. Order from Amazon.co.uk.
Famous, 1914-1918
Famous, 1914-1918 by Richard Van Emden, Vic Piuk ISBN: 1848841973
on March 1st 2010
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Great Britain
Pages: 350
Len's Summary: The stories of 20 of Britain’s most respected, best known and notorious celebrities in action on WWI. // Tells the stories of British celebrities and literati such as Basil Rathbone, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Toiken who served in WWI.
All the Tsar’s Men: Russia’s General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914
All the Tsar's Men: Russia's General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914 by John W. Steinberg ISBN: 9780801895456
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press on March 18th 2010
Genres: History, Europe, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, General
Pages: 408
Len's Summary: A study in the institutional reforms that failed to prevent defeat in either the Russo-Japanese War or WWI. // The author ties the fate of empire to only partially successful efforts to create a truly professional officer corps in Russia in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War debacle.
The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War
The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War by Juliet Nicolson ISBN: 9781552788134
Published by McArthur & Company on November 12th 2009
Genres: History, General, Great Britain, Social History
Pages: 302
Len's Summary: An entertaining view of life in England from the Armistice in 1918 to the 1920 burial of the Unknown Soldier. Ms. Nicholson also wrote The Perfect Summer: Dancing into the Shadows in 1911 (Murray, 2007) an examination of English society three years before war erupted. // A social history of post-war Britain. Totally unprepared for peace following an expansion of the franchise and the ‘khaki election’ of 1918, the Lloyd George government was unable meet to expectations raised by its promise to create “a land fit for heroes” for returning trench veterans. By the same author: The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadows, 1911, 304 pages, John Murray, 2007, ISBN 0 7195 6243 0. £5.55 from Amazon.co.uk. A glimpse of British society at the end of the Edwardian Era on the brink of The Great War.
Mons, Anzac and Kut by an MP
Mons, Anzac and Kut by an MP by Edward Melotte ISBN: 9781848841758
on January 19th 2010
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Great Britain, Personal Memoirs
Pages: 217
Len's Summary: Memoirs of a BEF intelligence officer on several fronts. // The WWI experiences of a British soldier, diplomat and adventurer.
Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead: REF Pilots Out-Performed and Out-Gunned Over the Western Front
Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead: REF Pilots Out-Performed and Out-Gunned Over the Western Front by Peter McManus ISBN: 9781906502003
Published by Casemate Publishers on December 1st 2008
Genres: History, Military, Aviation, World War I
Pages: 224
Len's Summary: A mediocre work on a familiar subject. // RFC 40 Squadron takes on a technically superior Flying Circus.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Guttman ISBN: 9781594160837
Published by Westholme on July 29th 2009
Genres: History, Military, Weapons, World War I, Aviation
Pages: 294
Len's Summary: Technical information, personalities, and battle accounts tell the story of early fighter aircraft and how they became integral part of battlefield weaponry. // A new history of the First Air War and the early evolution of air power, by one of the masters of aviation history.
The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I
The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I by Mark Ethan Grotelueschen ISBN: 0521169097
Published by Cambridge University Press on October 4th 2010
Pages: 387
Len's Summary: First published in 2006, this work offers a new look at the development of AEF combat tactics by a premier American historian of the war. // An analysis of how AEF commanders devised improved tactics to meet unforeseen conditions on the Western Front written by an Assistant Professor of History at the USAF Academy. A welcome professional reexamination of the AEF’s combat record.
The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914
The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914 by Philipp Blom ISBN: 9780465020294
Published by Basic Books on November 2nd 2010
Genres: History, General
Pages: 488
Len's Summary: Europe between the death of Queen Victoria and the eruption of WWI in the throes of massive change. The continent was riddled with militarism, experiencing wide- spread political, economic and cultural upheaval, as well as astounding medical and technical advances. See also: The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman (1966), a lively, informative and well-crafted narrative history by the author of The Guns of August and The Zimmermann Telegram reprinted by Library of America in 2012. // The author contends that growing self-doubt among European elites led then to glorify war and welcome the cataclysm as the only way to cleanse their cultures of its sickness. Foretastes of disaster include Britain near-defeat in the Anglo-Borer War, Russia’s humiliation in the Russo-Japanese War and America’s 1907 Wall Street crash
Broken Men: Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in England, 1914-1930
Broken Men: Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in England, 1914-1930 by Fiona Reid ISBN: 9781441148858
Published by A&C Black on September 29th 2011
Genres: History, Military, World War I, Psychology, Neuropsychology, Great Britain
Pages: 224
Len's Summary: Support and treatment for shell shock victims by the RMC and The Ex-Servicemen Welfare Society.
Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921
Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921 by James Wood ISBN: 9780774817660
on January 28th 2011
Genres: History, Canada, Post-Confederation (1867-), Military, World War I
Pages: 350
Len's Summary: A social and military history of popular Canadian military culture. // For all its faults, Canada’s militia system arguably made Canada better prepared for WWI than either America or England.
German Soldiers in the Great War: Letters and Eyewitness Accounts
German Soldiers in the Great War: Letters and Eyewitness Accounts by Bernd Ulrich, Benjamin Ziemann ISBN: 1848841418
on March 1st 2011
Genres: History, Europe, Germany, Military, World War I, Veterans
Pages: 212
Len's Summary: Primary source material on the perceptions of German front line soldiers. // A look at the lives of German front-line soldiers based on their own writings.
President’s Quarterly Update—April 2024
Dear Members and Friends,
I’m extremely pleased with the level of WW1HA’s activities, some of which may be unseen by you.
Our Journal, “World War One Illustrated,” is now published three times a year with an average length of 48 pages. Each issue is filled with high-quality articles covering a variety of topics, including the popular “My Kin in the Great War” series.
Our electronic newsletter, “Here and There with the WW1HA” is published monthly, with an assortment of Association events and articles covering WW1 topics.
Sal Compagno’s San Francisco Bay Area Chapter continues to hold monthly meetings via Zoom, while Mark Benbow’s Eastern Chapter is holding quarterly meetings.
As President, I am also hosting a quarterly “Fireside Chat” online. The last one emphasized WW1 poetry. The next one will emphasize WW1-era music.
If you’re already a member, I thank you for your membership and encourage you to take part in these activities. If you’re not a member, I ask you to join and participate in these activities. Participate in the events and consider submitting an article for the journal or newsletter.
Reach out to me with your comments: lavarennes@meuse-argonne.com.
Regards,
Randy Gaulke
