Alan Seymour Posted 4 July , 2003 Share Posted 4 July , 2003 Only just published 'Mud Blood and Poppycock' by Gordon Corrigan (author of 'Sepoys in the Trenches') published by Cassell. "This will overturn everything you thought you knew about Britain and The First World War" This book just from its bibliography is a very well researched, just reading the 16 page introduction has laid the cards on the table. This is a book I'm going to enjoy reading and learning from. Alan Seymour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted 4 July , 2003 Share Posted 4 July , 2003 Only one thing to say about 'Mud, Blood and Poppycock': BUY THIS BOOK NOW !!!!!!! This is the best book I've read about the war for many years. Anyone who has read Gary Sheffield's work or heard Dr John Bourne's talks and found themselves nodding subcontiously in agreement will be at home with this book. As a former Regular and sometime lecturer at the Joint Services Command Staff College, Mr Corrigan is more than qualified to voice opinions that contradict much of what is taken for granted today. I must disclose an interest as I am a bookseller by trade. I've recommended this to every customer who has asked about Great War titles in the few weeks since it was published and have been particularly pleased to see 'A' Level students adding this work to their purchases instead of the usual collection of 'butchers, bunglers and poets' titles. At the risk of repeating myself, BUY THIS BOOK NOW !!!!!!! (and for those cynics amongst the 'pals', no - I'm not Mr Corrigan's Mother, nor am I on commission !!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Lines Posted 4 July , 2003 Share Posted 4 July , 2003 Forgotten Victory by Gary Sheffield. Half way through and starting to shown some promise after wading through the first forty or so pages that seemed to concentrate mostly on rubbishing people with different opinions to his own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armourersergeant Posted 4 July , 2003 Author Share Posted 4 July , 2003 just back of me hols in cornwall and whislt away i read 'With a machine gun to Cambrai'..george coppard.. very good easy read... also why i was away found a book called 'the great war generals on the western front 1914-1918' by robin neillands. i have only read the frist hundred pages so far but i am impressed by the easy way it reads and the balanced (so far) view it is giving of the commanders during the war. great to be back...i missed all my pals. Arm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Bowbrick Posted 4 July , 2003 Share Posted 4 July , 2003 George Coppard was a neighbour of ours when I was a kid - shame I never got my copy signed! Nice fella. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 5 July , 2003 Share Posted 5 July , 2003 Re. "Mud , Blood and Poopycock" , Amazon states it is out on 10th July but it seems this is not the case. Sounds one to look for . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 5 July , 2003 Share Posted 5 July , 2003 Jean Moorcroft Wilson's second book of her fine biography of Sassoon is finally available. I do not think much of his post war poetry but that really does not matter, a very interesting man and a pretty good answer to those who feel homosexuals are unfit for service. And did he ever spend a lot of money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 5 July , 2003 Share Posted 5 July , 2003 I have Corrigan's book on the Indians and heard him speak at NAM, really look forward to this and he's a nice fellow too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Birch Posted 5 July , 2003 Share Posted 5 July , 2003 "Allenby". Biography by Gen Wavell pub 1940. An interesting study of a contraversial Great War General. Allenby was known as "The Bull". With ref to the thread on abreviations if anyone comes across a message sent during 1917 or 1918 in the Middle East prefixed by "BL" it is code for "Bull Loose" and was used by friendly Staff Officers to warn units in the field that Allenby had set out on one of his notorious unannounced flying inspections - woe betide any field commander who was not following his orders to the letter! He was particularly obsessed with the question of chin straps which had to be worn under the chin. As a cavalry man he had seen too many officers and men fall out after a charge to go back and retrieve lost hats, or those who had retained them only doing so by using their sword hand to steady their hats! (A bit like using a mobile phone whilst trying to cope with heavy traffic on a busy roundabout!) Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jock Bruce Posted 5 July , 2003 Share Posted 5 July , 2003 Bought Corrigan's 'Mud, Blood & Poppycock' in the PRO today. A counterblast to the 'lions led by donkeys' / 'butchers and bunglers' school of thought - most excellent ! Jock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garde Grenadier Posted 5 July , 2003 Share Posted 5 July , 2003 Worthwhile reading: Lyn Macdonald: Somme. Penguin Books 1993. Daniel Rembering victims of the Great War buried at Sissonne and Langemark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted 6 July , 2003 Share Posted 6 July , 2003 Ian W. We've had this book in stock for three weeks now, so Amazon are a bit behind !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 9 July , 2003 Share Posted 9 July , 2003 Incidentally did the AIF allocate batman to their officer ranks? I cannot say I have seen a reference to AIF batman deployment before. Regards Frank East Frank, I don't know how typical of the AIF Gen Monash was, but in his letters from Gallipoli he refers to "my batman Dawson" and he seems to have got on particularly well with him, helped by their shared interest in horticulture. My own reading at the moment is 'The Straits of War - Gallipoli Remembered' the texts of 16 lectures organised by the Gallipoli Memorial Lectures Trust and delivered before the memorial service at Holy Trinity Church, Eltham between 1985 and 2000. A wide range of writers: navy, army, church, a royal, diplomats, politicians and academics from UK, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, France and Germany. Interesting insights and only one disappointment so far (Ted Heath). Worthy of quote: Prof. Robert O'Neal, A.O. (ex-Australian Army 1955-68, MiD in Vietnam) speaking on 26th April 1990, his lecture entitled "For Want of Critics.... The Tragedy of Gallipoli" "After a service in the mid-1970s the newly arrived Austrian ambassador remarked to me that he found the seating arrangements notable. He had been placed, as was the custom, together with his German and Turkish colleagues, at one side of the seating for the diplomatic corps. He observed with a broad smile of satisfaction: 'In the course of a long diplomatic career I have had to attend many war commemoration services but as I looked at the three of us sitting here I thought this one is unique - it commemorates the only one which we won.'" Regards Michael D.R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon Bull Posted 9 July , 2003 Share Posted 9 July , 2003 Just read Gary Sheffield's "Forgotten Victory". Thought that it was very disappointing and rather uninteresting. Not at all convinced by his arguments either. Simon Bull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffsyeoman Posted 9 July , 2003 Share Posted 9 July , 2003 Knowing Gordon Corrigan reasonably well, I hooted at the Introduction, as I could imagine him declaiming the views expressed over a pint, especially: The British Army's skill at arms manual of the 1970s, "Shoot to Kill" attracting the displeasure of the libertarians. "It seemed to suggest aggression. Quite. Perhaps the Army should have called it "Shoot to Miss"?" Hope it's a runaway bestseller! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter johnson Posted 9 July , 2003 Share Posted 9 July , 2003 Just started "The Big Push" by Patrick Macgill. The book is about the battle of Loos, which the auther took part in. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 Some of you won't like it...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 Eeew. I don't think I like it, and I'm American . . . I'm reading Wendy Holden's Shell Shock at the moment. Interesting stuff! Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Birch Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 Egbert On the face of it looks very contraversial, but never judge a book by it's cover! Let us know how you get on, and how it affects your opinion? Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john w. Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 seems like a blueprint for the 20th century John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mordac Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 seems like a blueprint for the 20th century Incoming... egbert: once you get past the publisher's hype on the dust jacket, what's actually in the book? Garth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 I am 2/3 through; it's one of the books I read with concentration; I would say it gives an astonishing insight into complete different scope , objectives, execution of WWI warfare Germans-Allies. There are new details on complete diverging German-Allied tactics when it comes to attacking/defending with large quantities of artillery and infantry (you would say today "combined arms/ joint forces"). Most notable is the "disrespect" towards French/British leadership: expressis verbis researching and addressing the strategic and tactical misperceptions - which by the way are not even today very common to be criticized in the English spoken world - and thus going into battle details. So far I didn't come to the ?glorifying? chapters of American participation at St. Mihiel. I'd say it is some "other " book which one should read to round up it's own mind –it is truly different from all the hundreds of other WWI research books and not so easy to take for a Brit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenwoodman Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 Hi Egbert I'd be interested in your evaluation when you've finished Mosier's book. It certainly took a pasting from the critics. Mallinson, Gregory and Strachan all doubted the thesis. All Brits though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Lines Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 It's about time a few more of these "myths" were exposed. For the best part of 60 years now a chap living not far down the road from me has been credited with being one of the men who helped crack the enigma code when he boarded U-571. Thanks to hollywood we now know it was actually an American who did it. You're right Egbert some of these things are not easy for a Brit. to take! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 11 July , 2003 Share Posted 11 July , 2003 Mosier's book is complete crap and no wonder he is not an historian. US Branch Len Shurtleff reviewed it for Stand To! and was quite critical. It's full or errors he has no idea what he's talking about. It's been a couple of years since I read it and I would not have copy in my possession so I can't give specifics but I have never read worse including Alan Clark's ridiculous Donkeys and Denis Winter's libelous Haig's Command. Save your blood pressure and do not read this junk. Unfortunately since he takes the position the US won the way many here like it and he is speaking at our national meeting this year. I am going to skip this since I know I would be unable to refrain from really letting loose on him. If WFA site ever gets articles back on line read a fine article by -blush- me on whether or not the US won WW1 militarily, in the field or email if you want I will email to you. The short answer is Germany realised it had lost the war no later than August 9, we took no truly significant action on our own until September 12 so we could not have. This is not to say our presence did not help with morale, caused Germans to leave well prepared positions which cost them badly later etc, question is narrower than that,did US make the difference on the ground through fighting andd answer is clearly no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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