What WW1 books are you reading?

[Black Maria]

I am about a quarter of the way through ' Have You For Forgotten Yet ? ' and I'm really enjoying reading it . It's well written , detailed and very interesting .

 

 

 

[Black Maria]

Just started ' Brothers in Arms ' (P & S Books ) edited by Karen Farrington .

[Martin Bennitt]

Just read Frank Crozier’s ‘A Brass Hat in No Man’s Land’ in a first edition I picked up for a pittance in a second hand bookshop in a village in the middle of South Africa. Not sure how much of it I should believe but an entertaining read nonetheless.

 

Cheers Martin B

[Tom Kilkenny]

DJC might be interested to know I got hold of a copy of 'Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man' at the weekend - a Folio Society edition in its slipcase for the grand sum of £3 from a local second-hand bookshop. 

 

Thanks again for the recommendation.

 

 

[Dust Jacket Collector]

8 hours ago, Tom Kilkenny said:

DJC might be interested to know I got hold of a copy of 'Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man' at the weekend - a Folio Society edition in its slipcase for the grand sum of £3 from a local second-hand bookshop. 

 

Thanks again for the recommendation.

 

 

I hope it turns out to be £3 well spent.

[Black Maria]

Just finished 'Brothers in Arms' . It's the story of two brothers, 'Robin' and ' Phil ' Monypenny who fought on the Western Front with the

2nd Essex and 1st R.W Kents , they were both officers . Robin wrote his war service down and it is this memoir and the letters home

from both him and Phil that make up the book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it  and unlike some of the centenary books there is not

too much 'filler' . Although anyone with a good general war knowledge may find the editor's overview of certain aspects of the war

at the start of each chapter a tad tedious.

[paulgranger]

Following Crunchy's review of Peter Simkins' 'From Defeat to Victory', I have started in on it, and reached Chapter 3 , It is very readable, and informed. Well worth the time.

Edited 3 April , 2018 by paulgranger
Spelling corrected

[BullerTurner]

Just finished Charles Cruttwell's memoir of the service of the 1/4 Berkshires.  A very interesting read indeed,  inspired to me by an old school friend whose great uncle served and died in 1916, at Hebuterne.

 

as an afterthought I researched Capt. Cruttwell, discovering that the little pill, Evelyn Waugh, had made his life a misery;.the utter bastard.

[paulgranger]

Cruttwell's history of the Great War is still worth a look.

[593jones]

1 hour ago, paulgranger said:

Cruttwell's history of the Great War is still worth a look.

 

Probably better than anything Waugh wrote.

[other ranker]

Thought I'd tell you about 'My Round of the War', by Basil Clarke, published in 1917. Seemingly he was a journalist for one of the national papers  who managed to travel around the front in France and Flanders in the opening months of the war, staying one step in front of the authorities who were trying to stop such things.

Later he moved to the Rumanian front where he gets tangled up in  battles between the Russians and Austrians. His account of meeting Klappa, a bloodthirsty Austrian spy-hunter -in chief in a bar just inside the Rumanian border puts the hairs on your neck up. Clarke was lucky to get out alive, as was Klappa when the bar was surrounded by locals out to get him. There are copies on Abe if you are interested.

[Black Maria]

I saw a paperback book in an Oxfam bookshop the other day which contained lots of letters from the front from eight brothers ,

five of whom never returned . I looked up the book on Amazon when I got home and realised I already had a hardback copy !

I am now reading it : ' Brothers in War ' by Michael Walsh ( Ebury Press 2006 ) . Only a few chapters in but very impressed with

Mr Walsh's writing style , he really does bring the boy's characters to life and I've not reached their letters yet . 

[Martin Bennitt]

I'm into another of the books I picked up in a small bookshop in a village in the middle of South Africa, 'A Naval Lieutenant  1914-18' by 'Etienne'. It is the first edition (1919) of what was republished later as  'A North Sea Diary'  by Stephen King-Hall. As such it is apparently quite rare, but it cost me all of 100 rand, about £6. It is the account of the author's service aboard the cruiser HMS Southampton, which he says "can claim an honour denied to nearly every other ship in the Grand Fleet, namely that on all the four principal occasions when considerable German forces were encountered in the North Sea, her guns were in action". His description of Jutland, when Southampton suffered 37 dead and 40 wounded in a close-range night duel with German cruisers but still managed to torpedo and sink one of them, the Frauenlob, is particularly dramatic, but he is also good on the monotony of patrols and life ashore.

 

Cheers Martin B

[Marilyne]

On 3/14/2018 at 08:58, Black Maria said:

I am about a quarter of the way through ' Have You For Forgotten Yet ? ' and I'm really enjoying reading it . It's well written , detailed and very interesting .

 

 

 

That's the first WWI book I read on my kindle upon arriving in this part of the world... It's a great read !! 

[Black Maria]

21 minutes ago, Marilyne said:

That's the first WWI book I read on my kindle upon arriving in this part of the world... It's a great read !! 

Yes I agree , it's a superb book .

[charlesmessenger]

On ‎08‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 09:44, Martin Bennitt said:

I'm into another of the books I picked up in a small bookshop in a village in the middle of South Africa, 'A Naval Lieutenant  1914-18' by 'Etienne'. It is the first edition (1919) of what was republished later as  'A North Sea Diary'  by Stephen King-Hall. As such it is apparently quite rare, but it cost me all of 100 rand, about £6. It is the account of the author's service aboard the cruiser HMS Southampton, which he says "can claim an honour denied to nearly every other ship in the Grand Fleet, namely that on all the four principal occasions when considerable German forces were encountered in the North Sea, her guns were in action". His description of Jutland, when Southampton suffered 37 dead and 40 wounded in a close-range night duel with German cruisers but still managed to torpedo and sink one of them, the Frauenlob, is particularly dramatic, but he is also good on the monotony of patrols and life ashore.

 

Cheers Martin B

Martin

 

I have had a copy for many years. It is an excellent read.

 

Charles M

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear All,

I recently acquired from Tom Donovan, the 1922 war memoir of Lt-Col Neil Fraser-Tytler, DSO and Bar, CdG, etc.: "Field Guns in France".

Interestingly, this sixth impression has a follow-up leaflet stuck in, with a message from the author, assuring the reader that he was no warmonger intent upon killing. When reading the book (actually a series of letters to his father), I was struck by his high level of professionalism - despite the fact that he dwelt upon "killing Huns" to such an extent, as to have included a 'Gamebook of German Casualties from Personal Observation' ('Total, 412 Huns') after the Index but before the Maps.

Surprisingly, he also related having spoken to captured German officers, but without showing the slightest emotion...

Sadly, Fraser-Tytler (who fathered two daughters, and whose wife subsequently rose to distinction) died prematurely: no doubt the after-effects of being gassed in France. The book has no portrait of that gallant Officer, so I will make amends, here.

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[Marilyne]

Hi all, 

I've read quite a lot since stuck in this hellhole here (no, not Brussels...). Even if I actually hate the things, I bought myself an e-reader before leaving. It was that or taking another trunk with me full of books. I have to admit: my boss and my dad were both right: it's kinda handy. 

So here's what I read on it since end january: 

• Ian Hay's "The First Hundred Thousand" and "Carrying on". ... absolutely splendid! 
• P.C. Blacker's "Have you forgotten yet?" very gripping, great read.
• Anthony Farrar-Hockley's "Death of an Army". 
• Taylor Downing's "Breakdown", on shell shock on the Somme. Considering the price for the e-book compared with the normal one... good catch. Very thorough analysis of shell shock and the consequences on the operational capabilities of the army. 
• Geoff Dyer's "The missing of the Somme"... right... in my defense it was an e-book bargain, because the guy's a complete mess if you ask me and so is his book, but OK... good enough for an afternoon next to the pool. 
• Allan Mallinson's "Too important for the generals"... was afraid he would go to much down the "what if?" road, but ultimately some interesting theories. 

And in between, for the shorter periods of free time, I'm going through Peter Liddle's seminal "Passchendaele in Perspective"

I am now considering starting the WE with Charles Emmerson's "1913: the world before the great war"... still thinking. 

 

But honestly... I do long for the pile of REAL books waiting at home ... 

 

Toedeloe, 

 

Marilyne

 

 

[Marilyne]

Completing: as I bought Peter Hart's "Endgame", I have to take it chronologically and so I downloaded Ian Passingham's take on the German offensives of 1918, which got some nice reviews here... just to start right. 

And for more relaxed "pool" reading, I've downloaded Charles Emmerson's "1913" .

Looking forward to both of them. 

 

Marilyne

[Pat Atkins]

Just re-read on Kindle the wartime diaries of Pte Edward Roe, 1st, 2nd and 6th East Lancs Regt - really fascinating memoirs of an engaging old sweat from August 1914 to Armistice via Flanders, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia: Diary of an Old Contemptible. I particularly enjoyed it as he shared a number of similarities of service with my grandfather, so it shed a little light there too. 

 

Not so light, but informative, was Andrew Rawson's The British Army 1914-1918 - as most of my serving relatives managed to get themselves knocked off by spring 1915, I've often rather neglected the big picture; this book helped redress things.

 

And finally, there's Brophy & Partridge's wonderful The Long Trail: what the British soldier sang and said in 1914-1918, which is a suitable companion to much other Great War reading and a thing of beauty in itself.

 

Pat  

[Black Maria]

Just finished reading Michael Walsh's ' Brothers in War ' . A superb book , Mr Walsh weaves the Beechey brothers' story together brilliantly

using their letters home and his descriptive writing to produce a wonderful tribute to a family which was torn apart by the war.

[nigelcave]

On 4/4/2018 at 13:12, BullerTurner said:

Just finished Charles Cruttwell's memoir of the service of the 1/4 Berkshires.  A very interesting read indeed,  inspired to me by an old school friend whose great uncle served and died in 1916, at Hebuterne.

 

as an afterthought I researched Capt. Cruttwell, discovering that the little pill, Evelyn Waugh, had made his life a misery;.the utter bastard.

I think EW felt that Cruttwell had done the same to him! Whatever the bickering, Cruttwell, to my mind, wrote the most masterly single volume of the Great War, an achievement all the more remarkable given that he served in the war and yet manages to be as dispassionate as one would expect from a professional historian. And he must have had presence, as he was Principal of Hertford; a shame he had died before I got anywhere near the place.

[Martin Bennitt]

12 minutes ago, nigelcave said:

..... Cruttwell, to my mind, wrote the most masterly single volume of the Great War, an achievement all the more remarkable given that he served in the war and yet manages to be as dispassionate as one would expect from a professional historian. And he must have had presence, as he was Principal of Hertford; a shame he had died before I got anywhere near the place.

 

I would go along with that. Although first published in 1934 (I have the 1936 second edition) it shows its age much less than one might expect and is highly readable.

 

Cheers Martin B

[Martin Bennitt]

Just got through another of my South African acquisitions, a bit more recent this time, a general history of the 1st South African Infantry Brigade on the Western Front, by local historian Chris Schoeman. Although entitled 'Somme Chronicles' it takes in other battles apart from the Somme theatre -- Delville Wood, Longueval and the Butte de Warlencourt --  including Arras, Third Ypres and the final offensive. It seems to lean heavily on John Buchan's history but is none the worse for all that.

 

Cheers Martin B

 

 

[Marilyne]

15 hours ago, Black Maria said:

Just finished reading Michael Walsh's ' Brothers in War ' . A superb book , Mr Walsh weaves the Beechey brothers' story together brilliantly

using their letters home and his descriptive writing to produce a wonderful tribute to a family which was torn apart by the war.

 

Just read a few reviews on this book... it's definitely going on my list !! 

For now still going through Passingham's rendition of the German Spring Offensive. I must say that I liked his book on Messines Ridge far better. This one feels a bit like a somewhat long wikipedia-page. 

 

Marilyne