Marilyne Posted 21 November , 2018 Share Posted 21 November , 2018 Hi guys, so I finished the two books I had on the Zeebrugge raids and now, consideiring my ongoing visist to all the women buried on the Western Front, it's time I started to read a bit more about them and what they all did in the Great War. So after a bit of research, I discovered Hugh POPHAM's "The FANY in war and Peace", about the story of the FANY from 1907 to 2003 and I'm starting on one of the nurse's diaries I already have at home: those of Edie Appleton, edited by Ruth Cowen. More to come... I have a birthday present still to order on Amazon... M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Scorer Posted 21 November , 2018 Share Posted 21 November , 2018 Which of the two books on Zeebrugge was the best, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crickhollow Posted 21 November , 2018 Share Posted 21 November , 2018 Many thanks. I have ordered a copy of Greenhaigh's book which has had good reviews. It appears to be a very detailed and thorough analysis of the French sacrifices in WW1 which was considerable and often unappreciated in the Anglo-centric histories of the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 22 November , 2018 Share Posted 22 November , 2018 I am reading the third book of Epitaphs of the Great War (Sarah Wearne). Very moving. This one covers the last hundred days. I have liked them and wish there had been more. RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Main Body Posted 30 November , 2018 Share Posted 30 November , 2018 Have just started "Godley: The man behind the myth" by Terry Kinloch. It's a biography of Alexander Godley, the commander of the NZEF during The Great War. Kinloch's intention is to present a balanced assessment of Godley, who has a poor reputation in New Zealand. An aloof and austere figure, Godley is seen by many New Zealanders as a butcher and a bungler, but Kinloch argues that view is wholly unfair. The book is an attempt to redress the balance somewhat, whilst also detailing Godley's 48 year career in the British Army. Thoroughly researched and with many photos, it looks to be a thought provoking book that challenges more than a few myths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 30 November , 2018 Share Posted 30 November , 2018 4 hours ago, Main Body said: it looks to be a thought provoking book that challenges more than a few myths. As I have an interest in the New Zealanders this could be one to put on my list, thanks for the tip MB. Apart from that it would appear that we have something else in common; I assume the Everton FC in your list of interests is the one in Walton on Merseyside as opposed to the one in Chile or the one that used to exist in Auckland around the time of WW1? Good to know either way. Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Main Body Posted 30 November , 2018 Share Posted 30 November , 2018 12 hours ago, Fattyowls said: As I have an interest in the New Zealanders this could be one to put on my list, thanks for the tip MB. Apart from that it would appear that we have something else in common; I assume the Everton FC in your list of interests is the one in Walton on Merseyside as opposed to the one in Chile or the one that used to exist in Auckland around the time of WW1? Good to know either way. Pete. Spent a lot of time at the Gwlady's street end in the 1980s. Glory days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 1 December , 2018 Share Posted 1 December , 2018 I've just started reading 'Laurence Atwell's letters from the front ' and am only a few pages in but it looks to me like one of the letters has been put in the wrong chronological order. His letter of 12th April describes his visit to the breastworks and firing trenches but he was still at Harfleur waiting to be sent to the front at this time. It does make sense however if read between his letters of May 10th and 14th when he was at the front , so it looks like it is a letter from May12th not April 12th . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phsvm Posted 1 December , 2018 Share Posted 1 December , 2018 (edited) "Singled Out: How 2 Million Women Survived without men after the first world war" by Virginia Nicholson. I know this book as been mentioned before on this forum but worth another plug. Excellent eye opener on another aspect of the war and lIfe after it. Edited 1 December , 2018 by phsvm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 4 December , 2018 Share Posted 4 December , 2018 On 01/12/2018 at 11:17, phsvm said: "Singled Out: How 2 Million Women Survived without men after the first world war" by Virginia Nicholson Have it and read it!! It's indeed an eye opener, demographically speaking but also from a societal point of view. Glad you enjoyed it! For me I'm turning my focus now on the women who served (and died) on the Western Front, to research my project a bit more. For that, I lined up the Wynn's "Women in the great War", Hugh Popham's "The FANY in peace and War" and Ruth Cowen's "A Nurse on the Western Front: the diaries of Edith Appleton". The next months is going to be a mix of diaries and more researched books on the women I'm researching and visiting in Belgium and France. I do have a start of a bibliography lined up on the topic, but will be grateful for every extra suggestion in the matter. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 4 December , 2018 Share Posted 4 December , 2018 (edited) 23 minutes ago, Marilyne said: Have it and read it!! It's indeed an eye opener, demographically speaking but also from a societal point of view. Glad you enjoyed it! For me I'm turning my focus now on the women who served (and died) on the Western Front, to research my project a bit more. For that, I lined up the Wynn's "Women in the great War", Hugh Popham's "The FANY in peace and War" and Ruth Cowen's "A Nurse on the Western Front: the diaries of Edith Appleton". The next months is going to be a mix of diaries and more researched books on the women I'm researching and visiting in Belgium and France. I do have a start of a bibliography lined up on the topic, but will be grateful for every extra suggestion in the matter. M. One person who always springs to mind whenever someone mentions women andcthe Great War is this larger than life, and greatly overlooked lady, who's life story reads more like a fictional super-hero comic than fact: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Marvingt Edited 4 December , 2018 by neverforget Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 23 December , 2018 Share Posted 23 December , 2018 Based on some advise here on the forum, I just started Huntly Gordon's "The unreturning Army"... 2 chapters in and I love the style and the writing. Next to that I found another little book at Defence Library called "La grande Guerre, si proche, si loin"... reflexions on the centenary. Might be good, might be nothing. we'll see... anyway... enought reading material to spend the whole holiday. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimberley John Lindsay Posted 25 December , 2018 Share Posted 25 December , 2018 Dear All, I have just finished the highly entertaining "From Private to Major" by James Hawke, OBE (born 4 Apr 1891), published by Hutchinson & Co., in 1938. Janes Hawke was commissioned in the Field (1 Jan 1917) from the Cheshire Regiment, and even flew many operations as an Observer in Macedonia (and briefly trained as a Pilot), when attached to the RFC/RAF. Never knowing his father and having been deserted by his mother, Hawke eventually became a Major, Quartermaster, Peshawar District Signals, and led a happily married life. The most amusing line concerned his being sent Solo on a night-flight in a D.H.9:- 'When almost on the ground, the instructor shouted: "Take control!" I only took the wing-tip through one flare this time. 'Furious, he jumped out. "Go on," he raged."take the thing up. And burn yourself to death."' Kindest regards, Kim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 25 December , 2018 Share Posted 25 December , 2018 Dad has just lent me Barrie Pitt's Zeebrugge: eleven VCs before breakfast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalyback Posted 25 December , 2018 Share Posted 25 December , 2018 Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War. A very big surprise from my mother today. I have used a PDF copy for a while but blimey even the softback edition is a HUGE tome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 27 December , 2018 Share Posted 27 December , 2018 Was sent this for Christmas by a friend: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 27 December , 2018 Share Posted 27 December , 2018 I hadn't realised they had reprinted it in 2008 . My copy is c 2000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 27 December , 2018 Share Posted 27 December , 2018 Boyfriend got me Jacques-Henri Lefebvre's monumental "Verdun - La plus grande bataille de l'histoire racontée par les survivants" - the 2014 edition. 520 pages of Verdun stories... it's going on the pile... no idea when I'll get to it, but I do hope in the next five years... actually I really need that assignement to Hamburg... long train rides back home on the WE's !!! Also got a 60 euro voucher for the big bookshop in Aachen ... but that's not for WWI books. Anybody else got interesting Christmas gifts?? M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 27 December , 2018 Share Posted 27 December , 2018 Am about half way through this book , he was a private soldier and then a subaltern in the 1/4th Gloucestershire regiment . Written when he was in his early eighties and shortly before he died from lung cancer in 1978 , it's superb ( IMHO ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 8 January , 2019 Share Posted 8 January , 2019 just looked it up on Kindl... it's free to read in Kindl unlimited... but I can't have that because I need an address in Germany... so will have to wait another few months (fingers crossed) I'll keep it in mind, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Garrett Posted 8 January , 2019 Share Posted 8 January , 2019 I have just finished reading John Powell's "Haig's Tower of Strength". This biography of General Sir Edwin Bulfin is well researched and written. It covers his commands as a brigadier general and major general during 1st and 2nd Ypres and Loos and his later command of a corps under Allenby in Palestine. As a Catholic Irish soldier, whose family included a cousin who was involved in the 1916 Easter Rising, he did well to reach such high rank in a time when he did not fit the usual stereotype of British Army officers. I thoroughly recommend it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 9 January , 2019 Share Posted 9 January , 2019 (edited) He saved the day at Zandvoorde on 30th October 14. It's a good piece of work. Edited 9 January , 2019 by David Filsell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waddell Posted 10 January , 2019 Share Posted 10 January , 2019 Recently finished Alastair Horne's 'The Price of Glory'. Enjoyable book to read. Feels a little dated in areas but the author knew how to tell a story. Gave me a good background to the battles at Verdun. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelcave Posted 10 January , 2019 Share Posted 10 January , 2019 For a one-volume, accessible, work it deservedly ranks amongst the classics. Strongly recommend reading it in conjunction with the other books in his trilogy on France at war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaureenE Posted 11 January , 2019 Share Posted 11 January , 2019 12 hours ago, Waddell said: Recently finished Alastair Horne's 'The Price of Glory'. It appears there are two editions available, the original published in 1962, and an abbreviated version published in 1964. The abbreviated version is available in the Internet Archive (archive.org) Lending Library The price of glory; Verdun 1916 by Alistair Horne 1964 "This specially abridged edition first published in Penguin Books 1964." https://archive.org/details/priceofgloryverd00horn The other books in his trilogy, mentioned by nigelcave are also available online https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A(Alistair+Horne+)&sort=date Cheers Maureen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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