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Remembered Today:

What WW1 books are you reading?


andigger

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3 hours ago, 593jones said:

 

I did try to read 'To The Last Man' some years ago but considered the first chapter so appallingly written I didn't have the heart to carry on.  Shaara really should have stuck to the American Civil War and not tried to write about the British Army in the Great War.

 

Time to turn off Grumpy Old Git mode.

I did find the first chapter or two iffy, but it has seemed to get better the more I read.

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Latest charity shop find:- 'The Aces', by Frederick Oughton published in 1961 by Neville Spearman, 390 pages.  As the title suggests if covers WW1 flyers in a series of essays, seems fairly comprehensive, with a good selection of photos and some useful appendices.  New one to me, anyone else familiar with it?

 

Mike.

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Reading at the moment "The Fair Dinkums" by Glenn McFarlane about 152 men of the 8th Reinforcements of the 7th Battalion AIF, including Bill Scurry, who invented the self firing rifle at Gallipoli. Well done how he inter-weaves each individual and letters they wrote with the big picture story.  

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Picked up another one yesterday, "The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front," by Peter Hart. Anyone else read this yet? What did you think of it?

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Having been disappointed with C.E Montague's 'Disenchantment' , I have just finished F.A Voigt's 'Combed Out' , which I quite enjoyed reading.

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   Heading for  Col. A.D.Wintle: "The Last Englishman".  Wintle has come up on the Forum recently as a grand eccentric. (Arent all Colonels, Fawlty?)  I have a casualty to research for Wanstead, killed in Sptember 1918, with 119 Siege Battery-and a look at the War Diary shows a 2LT A.D.Wintle joining that unit at the same time.

   What shocks me- even after 30  and more years as an antiquarian bookseller, is why is it so expensive secondhand???? Have a look. Is there something about the book that makes it so valuable or is it just one idiot on ABE/ Amazon being followed by others?

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3 hours ago, voltaire60 said:

   Heading for  Col. A.D.Wintle: "The Last Englishman".  Wintle has come up on the Forum recently as a grand eccentric. (Arent all Colonels, Fawlty?) 

   What shocks me- even after 30  and more years as an antiquarian bookseller, is why is it so expensive secondhand???? Have a look. Is there something about the book that makes it so valuable or is it just one idiot on ABE/ Amazon being followed by others?

<i think, YES is the answer to that. A friend of mine has a copy (paperback) and it cost him about £5.

Edited by healdav
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4 hours ago, voltaire60 said:

   Heading for  Col. A.D.Wintle: "The Last Englishman".  Wintle has come up on the Forum recently as a grand eccentric. (Arent all Colonels, Fawlty?)  I have a casualty to research for Wanstead, killed in Sptember 1918, with 119 Siege Battery-and a look at the War Diary shows a 2LT A.D.Wintle joining that unit at the same time.

   What shocks me- even after 30  and more years as an antiquarian bookseller, is why is it so expensive secondhand???? Have a look. Is there something about the book that makes it so valuable or is it just one idiot on ABE/ Amazon being followed by others?

Supply and demand I expect , although I was lucky enough to recently find a copy for £6.50 and would have loved to have kept it , I have reluctantly sold

it because I know if it's ever reprinted the price of an original copy will plummet and I would have missed the chance of making 50x what I paid for it.

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OK, well, thanks to MichaelDR's suggestion, I bought and have finished Hart's Gallipoli, and also have finished an impulse buy, Emden and Chambers on the same topic (going half-price in Blackwells!). Now I am currently working my way through another impulse buy (three for the price of one!), Prior and Wilson's Somme. Yes, I am a long way behind most of you but catching up!

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Just finished ' The front Line and beyond it : a diary of 1917-18' , an interesting account of a soldier in the 1st K.S.L.I captured in March 1918.

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2 hours ago, Black Maria said:

Just finished ' The front Line and beyond it : a diary of 1917-18' , an interesting account of a soldier in the 1st K.S.L.I captured in March 1918.

Funnily enough I've just bought a copy. I'm in Ypres at the moment but I'll read it as soon as I get home.

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14 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Funnily enough I've just bought a copy. I'm in Ypres at the moment but I'll read it as soon as I get home.

Spooky ! , I assume it wasn't in a jacket ?

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10 hours ago, Black Maria said:

Spooky ! , I assume it wasn't in a jacket ?

It'll be at the post office but I rather doubt it.

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I've just finished 'The First V.C.'s' by Mark Ryan, the story of Lt Maurice Dease and Pte Sidney Frank Godley, 4th Royal Fusiliers.  An interesting account, but I wasn't altogether enthralled by the writer's style, quite repetitive in places.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just finished 'Khaki Vignettes' by Phil J Fisher , a Methodist Chaplain ( 1/6 Liverpool ) England , France ( base hospital ) 1915 , Bethune, Arras, Somme 1916

and at Ypres up till the beginning of 1917.

 

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Reading John Lewis-Stempel's 'Where Poppies Blow: the British soldier, nature, the Great War'. I wasn't sure I was going to like it as I thought the material might be thinly stretched over 300 pages. However I'm halfway through and it hasn't run out of steam yet. The author is known for his books on nature (as well as for 'Six Weeks' his book on officers in the Great War) and his knowledge and love shines through.

 

David

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My bundle of xmas books were;

The war the infantry knew by Captain Dunn.

Epitaphs of the Great War- The Somme by Sarah Wearne. (Epitaphs of soldiers killed during the battle of the Somme).

Menin Gate South by Paul Chapman. (A directory of soldiers memorialised on the south side of the Menin Gate).

Empires of the dead by David Crane. (How one man's vision led to the creation of WW1's War Graves).

And finally The Compleat Angler by Isaac Walton. Presumably to ensure that all of my presents weren't Ww1 based.

Incidentally; anyone curious for any relevant look ups will be most welcome, except for the Walton book of course. Any secrets I find within will not be disclosed.

Edited by neverforget
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As I was in Edinburgh over Christmas I just had to buy 'McCrae's Battalion: the Story of the 16th Royal Scots' by Jack Alexander. Only flicked through it so far but it looks like a good one.

 

Cheers Martin B

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Just read 'Grandad was a Robin Hood'. Its about a soldier who served with the 7th and 17th Sherwood Foresters, from 1915 to 18. Taken POW 21/3/18 - he kept a diary whilst at Mainz - reproduced in the book. Published by relatives, written by me, trying to raise money for the Royal British Legion

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just picked up a copy of 'Fields of Death - Battle Scenes of the First World War', by Peter Slowe and Richard Woods.  This dramatically titled book was published in 1986 and features over 50 contemporary eyewitness accounts of actions and incidents, some by well known participants.  The authors visited all the locations named and have attempted to pinpoint the exact spots described with easy to follow diagrams placing them in the context of the landscape as it existed then (1986) and now doubt now exists still pretty much unchanged.  An interesting concept and a very useful guide for the visitor to the Western Front.  Areas covered are Ypres, Loos-Armentieres, Arras, The Somme and the Hindenburg Line.

 

A work I have not previously encountered.

 

Mike.

 

 

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On 30/03/2016 at 10:08, Black Maria said:

You might be interested to read this extract from my Great Uncles War Memoirs,William (Bill) Evans of Liverpool 1916-1918 No 15989 Scots Guards 2nd Battalion who served with Captain Henry Lancaster Nevill Dundas......

 

27th September 1918

 

(Tiny) Cutler from Wellington Barracks led us on the march (4 miles). As we could not walk down the road through heavy shelling going on, Tiny gave the order, man fields and ditches to the canal side.)

 

After a march of about 4 miles (the distance from Lagincourt to the trenches dug this side of the canal) we entered and took possession of these trenches as our jumping off point for the stunt. We were about 100 yards or so at the very outside, from the Germans. The canal I believe was no mans’ land. I took first turn on Sentry, on the fire step, after my hour was up I slipped down a dugout and fell fast asleep. I was awakened by a terrific bombardment by the Germans, on these trenches, old Jerry was trying to smash our attack before it had started. Our Captain (Dundas) stood at the foot of the dugout steps, and while the wounded from the trench were being carried down we made some tea.

 

I noticed the boy who I had left in my place on the fire step being carried down into our dugout, he had got rare packet, bits of shell were sticking out all over him, I don’t think he could have lived long with his wounds. I had given this boy my name and address to write home for me if I got knocked out, but he copped out first, how the shells missed our dugout opening I don’t know, but although parts of the trench blew down on us, our dugout opening remained. I can see Captain Dundas now, with his wristlet watch, keeping count of the minutes as they ticked away slowly, slowly, slowly, and then he spoke, he said “ If the trench holds for another five minutes we will be saved”. He was excited as he stood there with his pistol pointing up the steps, and then all of a sudden our barrage opened, and he called out, “COME ON LADS “ I followed third man behind him. What a sight met my eyes when I got to the top of the dugout steps. The trench was levelled in places and the dead, we had to step over, I tried to raise two chums of mine, but they were beyond human aid. I remember saying “come on, our barrage has opened free fire” before I realised they were dead. What is the price of freedom, the blood of a soldier slain, with the horrors of hell around him, and drowned in a sea of pain. These men that manned this trench, what horrors they must have endured seeing the trench smashed into a pulp and death, at least to them it was inevitable old Jerry was too near to us, and he must have the ground measured to an inch.

 

What a noise our barrage made, they say that more shells were fired that morning than during the whole of the South African War, our machine guns firing overhead fire sounded like rain. And in pitch darkness we tumbled on as fast as we could, tripping and falling with these ***wire clippers dangling down. I wrenched my clippers off and got down the canal bank, the canal was empty (some say it had been emptied by the blowing of the sluice gates) Captain Dundas, led the way, followed by Sergeant Nelson, Donaldson, and Knocker White, the runner, and I came next. We climbed up the other side with the help of our bayonets, stick in the side of the canal where the shells had broken the concrete. When we got on the top all you could see just in front was a complete line of fire, bursting shells which lit up our immediate path, all scaling ladders had been lost, buried, during old Jerry’s bombardment of our own trench. We were now close behind the barrage and as it lifted we saw the trenches in front, our objective. I saw the figures of men in them, and said to myself “ Now for it “ I looked around there were not many of us left, only those of our own company that were in the dugouts survived this bombardment, I noticed each man had got his rifle down to his hip, and Dundas said” We can take anything this morning” and we dashed for the trench, but the men I saw in front, ran as it seemed to me, through the Parados, the back of their trench, (I found out afterwards) that he had paths behind, and small passages connecting the paths, front and back, a sort of second trench to aid their escape.” We fired into them as they ran, before I knew really what was happening, some were taking prisoners, and bombing the deep dugouts, I found six of us following Captain Dundas after the retreating Jerry’s into the open fields beyond. Something was said about taking Machine Gun emplacements, which post cost an awful loss of life when the Germans in daylight get a good field of fire. But our Captain lost his head, there were only seven of us, and as the barrage lifted he said, “ Come on lads, we can take that ridge,” (about another 200 yards in front) Link - http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/fallen-alumni/captain-henry-lancaster-nevill-dundas-mc-and-bar

 

On he went and us after him, I realized we were for it, I saw some H.L.I. lads following and when they caught up to us I ask “ where are you chaps going?” they said as they had lost their officer, they were following us, I said “ Go back to the first line trenches, as we were following our Officer, but he’s gone barmy.” They did not come any further, and no doubt got safely back.

HDundas.jpg

 

Well we ran into trouble further on right enough, Captain Henry Lancaster Nevill Dundas was shot in the head? he spun around like a top and down he went, I went to earth soon as saw him hit. I saw Sergeant Donaldson go to his assistance, he was shot immediately, Sergeant Nelson too was killed. There remained Knocker White the runner, two Lewis Gunners, and myself. We were lying down together, I saw Knocker White brace himself up and make a dash back, but the moment he ran he was met by a rattle of rifle, he only got a few yards before they got him. The three of us got together and I counselled them to remain where we were for a time. They got impatient after short time and proposed making a dash for it, I said “ I am sticking it here.” They ran in a stooping position but by the sound of the fire that met them, they were lucky if they got away with only a Blighty each. (I couldn’t find any trace of them later on) I held on for a time and then I realized that dawn was breaking, as I thought the Germans were on both sides and in front of me, at least I hadn’t much chance. I remember looking at the two Lewis Guns which were in front of me, and wondering as thoughts do run through your mind, what sort of a fight could I put up behind the guns, as I was a Lewis Gunner. But I decided to chance a bolt for it, I got ready for a sprint, and braced myself up and dashed into open, but I had no luck, I had not gone many yards before the bullets were flying past me. I bore a charmed life, then I got one through the foot, just a sharp, hot pain and down I went. I lay still, as I reckoned that any movement would bring more fire, but I was afraid of being captured, so I decided to roll over and over, and as I did so my luck held. I rolled into a German Machine Gun emplacement, I found two dead Germans beside their guns on their backs, and some wounded Guardsmen. They said they had got a fright when I rolled in, they thought it was Fritz. They said they were expecting to be captured, I pulled my three bombs out of my pockets placed them handy, and things looked healthier. I propped one of the chaps who appeared to be shivering (shell shocked) on the other side and gave him a rifle and asked to keep a look out, and give me the wire if he saw anything more. We kept watch on either side, we could not see in front, but I kept my eyes open for anyone coming over the top. Its queer how you feel, you would rather make a fight of it and chance being killed than be captured, I know I said at the time I would not be captured alive.

Two hours or so passed and broad daylight came, a beautiful sunny morning. We bandaged up the wounded and I took the money etc from the dead Germans as souvenirs, I offered some money to the others, but they said if they were taken prisoners and they had German money on them it would be all up with them. What a beautiful sight it was when in the brilliance of this sunny morning the Guards made the second attack 9.30 am, or a little later. The sun caught their bayonets as they broke over the top in open formation, as they drew near I put my tin hat on top of my rifle and waved it aloft. I was scared they might bomb this emplacement we were in. I walk out and met them in the open and got safely into their trenches.

 

The 1st Irish Guards, and the Grenadiers were making this leapfrog attack, and they got going in short sharp rushes, I saw a very strange sight here. A big Grenadier had got one foot on the fire step but he could not get his other foot to come up to it, his mind I should say beat him, I spoke to him and said I had just come back from over the top, but while I was watching a few minutes he still could not get over, he was not a coward and I’ll bet he made up for his lapse (due to shell burst no doubt). Later on in this day I found our 1st Battalion had taken many prisoners from the dugouts, which we had taken in our attack before dawn. We had paid a dear price for our victory.

From the trenches back to the canal the place was littered with our dead, I found one chap who was not dead and as I passed he asked me to turn him over, as I did the blood rushed from him like as if I had turned a bucket over. I then fell on with a wounded German, I gave him a fag and slipped my arm though his and intended to help him to the canal dressing station, two Jock Officers came along and told me to leave him alone, they said “We have too many of our wounded to attend to,” so I left him and made my way to the canal.

The canal was a sight, captured Germans were made (after some prodding) to convey our stretchers, back over the top they went, as fast as they bought wounded in, back again for more, I must say they did not go with empty with empty stretchers either, as old Jerry was still bombarding our lines with heavy stuff, the stretchers bearers had a rough time of it. The cellars in the side of the canal were full of our wounded, there moans were terrible to hear, one chap near me was calling out “Can no one do anything for me?” I could if I had some Morphine. I beat it from there and ran into some awful sights on stretchers, one chap had his two legs blown off, he raised himself up and looked at his legless trunk, his face was ashen, but what he saw made him worse, another chap had his right leg smashed into smithereens, and he was singing at the top of his voice, I asked him what he was singing for? And he said, pointing to his leg, that’s twelve months Blighty.

I was lucky at last, for the next place I put my nose in was full of walking wounded cases waiting to have their wounds dressed. While I was waiting my turn I saw some German Officers in the corner, I ask them could any of them speak English, one spoke English well, so I had a chat with him. He was well groomed and clean shaven and I asked him how he got punched, he said his men had put up their hands. I chaffed him about our victory, he said to me, “We have a big army between here and Cambrai” and he doubted our ability to take Cambrai. I said “You couldn’t hold this line” but he said Cambrai was vital to them, and open country beyond. After having my foot dressed I made my way to the road, how excited everybody was, I was inundated by Officers “how are we getting on?”  “How far have we got etc. I told them what I could, and then some Motor Ambulances arrived and we climbed in, German and English together. Then followed a pitch dark nights ride in a cattle truck, German wounded were pushed in alongside of us, the shutters were put up, and off we went. Here we were, our friends, the enemy side by side, check by jowl, tightly packed going down the line together. (The last time I went home to Blighty, going down the line in the Hospital train, a Prussian Guardsman lay in the next cot to me).

It was inky dark in this cattle truck, only the light from fag ends lit the darkness, and we sang all the way down to Bapuame. 

 

 

I would be pleased to Email you the full diary if you wish,

Regards,

 

Quote

 

 

 

Edited by Pat Collington
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Thank you for posting that fascinating extract from your Great Uncle's memoir Pat, I have sent you personal message.

 

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