What WW1 books are you reading?

[joerookery]

From the German perspective does not go as far as the Marne.

[TullochArd]

The Defence of Duffers Drift springs to mind as a readable and recurring military educational tool.  It has had many, many reincarnations since the Anglo Boer War where it was originally set.  The post-Great War reincarnation being the Battle of Booby's Bluffs, which I started yesterday.  A review indicates "originally published in 1921 by an Army officer under the pseudonym Major Single List. It is important for its "lessons-learned" examination of the new weapons introduced in the Great War (most notably tanks, machine guns and aeroplanes) and how these innovations required learning new combined arms tactics. In the style of Duffer's Drift, a hapless battalion commander faces a battle scenario in a series of six dreams. In the first dream, he makes so many mistakes as to prove catastrophic for him and his men. But he learns a few more things about tactics and leadership through each dream, until at last he leads his men to victory through the treacherous terrain of Booby's Bluffs. Included with the dreams are notations to real life mistakes made by American commanders during the War" 

So far so good.

Booby's Bluffs has been "internet-ized" at:

The battle of Booby's Bluffs : List, Single, Major : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Edited 3 October , 2021 by TullochArd

[FROGSMILE]

4 hours ago, TullochArd said:

The Defence of Duffers Drift springs to mind as a readable and recurring military educational tool.  It has had many, many reincarnations since the Anglo Boer War where it was originally set.  The post-Great War reincarnation being the Battle of Booby's Bluffs, which I started yesterday.  A review indicates "originally published in 1921 by an Army officer under the pseudonym Major Single List. It is important for its "lessons-learned" examination of the new weapons introduced in the Great War (most notably tanks, machine guns and aeroplanes) and how these innovations required learning new combined arms tactics. In the style of Duffer's Drift, a hapless battalion commander faces a battle scenario in a series of six dreams. In the first dream, he makes so many mistakes as to prove catastrophic for him and his men. But he learns a few more things about tactics and leadership through each dream, until at last he leads his men to victory through the treacherous terrain of Booby's Bluffs. Included with the dreams are notations to real life mistakes made by American commanders during the War" 

So far so good.

Booby's Bluffs has been "internet-ized" at:

The battle of Booby's Bluffs : List, Single, Major : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Thank you for this TullochArd, I am familiar with the original and have it in my library, but had never heard of this WW1 based version until now.  I shall enjoy reading it.

Edited 3 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[chaz]

currently reading A nurse in Action from WW2, but also looking through Calne district soldiers and Devizes district soldiers both of which cover soldiers died from local towns, 2 more in the series to get as well.

[Knotty]

Just about to start “How I filmed the War” by Geoffrey Malins. I decided to find out a bit about the man who gave us the iconic Hawthorn mine explosion, it appears that he was a bit of a “devil may care” character, who was fearless/eccentric in try to film the war. 

[Marilyne]

On 03/10/2021 at 21:05, Knotty said:

Just about to start “How I filmed the War” by Geoffrey Malins. 

Was quite disappointed by it actually... 

M.

[Knotty]

1 hour ago, Marilyne said:

Was quite disappointed by it actually... 

Not that impressed so far, and I feel that there will be no great improvement. The problem I think is that the writing style is a very formulaic as used in the 1920’s, dare I say a bit Jeeves & Wooster😁

Edited 4 October , 2021 by Knotty

[Don Regiano]

3 hours ago, Marilyne said:

Was quite disappointed by it actually... 

M.

 

1 hour ago, Knotty said:

Not that impressed so far

Thanks for the warnings.  I have the Kindle version to read when I am over there but haven't started it yet.

In return, I don't offer you The 1916 Battle of the Somme: A Reappraisal by Peter Liddle. 

I am aware that a lot of his work is held in high regard (quite rightly).  However, this is not one of them.  Quite apart from a significant number of his sentences being overly long and tortuous, the book is not a reappraisal.  It seems to me to be more of an exercise in the style of the "donkeys led by lions brigade" which he so deprecates and denigrates at every opportunity.  He does not seem to apply the same rigour to his support of the Chateau Generals.  Some of his observations about the times, the unfailing belief in the higher echelons held by the Tommies and his distinct lack of criticism contrasts markedly with those of the likes of George Ashurst in "My Bit: A Lancashire Fusilier at War 1914-18", George Coppard in " With A Machine Gun To Cambrai", Frank Richards in "Old Soldiers Never Die" and others.

I couldn't finish the book fast enough.

[Marilyne]

10 hours ago, Don Regiano said:

In return, I don't offer you The 1916 Battle of the Somme: A Reappraisal by Peter Liddle. 

Good to know... I'll take it off my wish list then!! 

 

M.

[Don Regiano]

3 hours ago, Marilyne said:

Good to know... I'll take it off my wish list then!! 

 

M.

It's just my opinion Marilyne.  Others may take a different view. 

I am not a card-carrying member of the "lions led by donkeys" brigade but I thought the book was a prime example of the pendulum swinging too far in the opposite direction.  What I found most distasteful was his interpretation of the impact of the class structure on the attitude of the other ranks to those in command: "the natural order of things".  He quotes some soldiers of the time but interestingly makes no reference to the published works of those soldiers who took a different view to his.

Reg

[fritz]

A recommendation for German-speaking readers.

[Marilyne]

Danke, Fritz !! 

Steht auf meine Weihnachtsliste!! 

M.

[fritz]

Hallo Marilyne,

hier noch eins zu Ostern! Selbst gemacht. Deutschland gegen England in Belgien. 

Mit besten Grüßen

Fritz

 

Edited 15 October , 2021 by fritz

[Uncle George]

‘The Way Back,’ the new (2019) translation (and title!) of Remarque’s sequel to ‘All Quiet …’ 

There is a well-known passage in ‘All Quiet’ which begins, “Had we returned home in 1916, out of the suffering and the strength of our experiences we might have unleashed a storm. Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless and without hope …”

There is a similarly striking and incisive thought in ‘The Way Back,’ set as it is at the end of 1918 and into 1919. The narrator has indeed gone back. He writes of himself and his fellow veterans: “We were like the deserted, shell-cratered battlefields in France; they are just as quiet as the ploughed fields all around them, but deep inside them is all the discarded explosive material, shells and grenades, and for as long as it takes to dig it all out and clear it away, ploughing will be a precarious and perilous activity.”

[Michelle Young]

Battle on the Aisne by @Jerrymurland, a very good read. 

[MikeyH]

An antiques event over last weekend, had a stall of books at £1 each, so had to bag a few:-

The Official Story of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, By Sir Max Aitken (vol. one) 1915.

Lawrence and the Arabs, by Robert Graves, 4th edition 1928.

The Battle of Loos, by Phillip Warner, 1976 with d/j.

The Hazy Red Hell, compiled by Tom Donovan, 1999 with d/j.

There were around a dozen more WW1 titles, but I very sensibly exerted some self control!

Mike.

Edited 29 October , 2021 by MikeyH

[doyle3]

currently reading The North Eastern Railway in the First World War by Rob Langham

No major battles to stir the blood but lots of small items of info re personnel, Zeppelin raids, Women Police Constables, family support services, ambulance trains, derailments, munitions etc.

A nice glimpse into a part of the  home front.

 

 

[Marilyne]

I went south on holiday at Hotel Mummy and packed in my suitcase: 

Teckla Bowser's "British civilian volunteers" - classic reprint

... and a kindl full of new readings: 

just before leaving I downloaded Stephen Wynn's "Etaples", thinking yes! finally a book on the camp  ... just read it.... way of speaking. I'm so glad I just paid the 2€ on kindl because it's quite honestly absolutely worthless. I'm really sorry if I'm offending the author here... but there is no logic, there's no proper introduction and conclusion and it's even very boring to read. And above all: the "sources" of the book are a list of general websites... if a student of mine would come up with a work like that, it would be a clear "F". I definitely stopped reading at the sentence "an article of wikipedia writes"... 

I'm going to work on my own Etaples study from the Girl's point of view this week. 

And then I have Christine Hallett's "Nurse Writers of the First World War" and "Veiled Warriors"; and then I want to read the war diary of nb 26 General Hospital as an example of the work done by a general hospital in the war... and it actually has a good description of Etaples. 

So lots to do... 

M.

 

[doyle3]

just finished "A Soldier and a Gentleman. Brigadier General Sir Bertram Portal, 1866-1949" by Richard Waldram.

An easy ready at 116pages. Covers his pre WW1 career and family life; return to the Army in 1914, Easter Rising, Western Front; post WW1 life/family.

 

 

[fellop]

I have just started A Battle Too Far: Arras 1917 by Don Farr Published by Helion, but I got it a little cheaper as my local bookshop had an ‘Offers Week’. I was encouraged to pick it up as I had enjoyed reading the authors Mons 1914 – 1918 The Beginning and the End. Well done to the author for putting the ‘Notes’ at the bottom of each page rather than the reader flipping from chapter to notes section at rear of the book.

Regards

Peter

[GWF1967]

On 04/07/2021 at 21:17, Michelle Young said:

 

 

Currently reading The Invisible Cross, the letters of Colonel Graham Chaplin, Cameronians. Picked up the book ( and a few others...😗) in Hay on Wye last week. A very good read. 

A second vote for The Invisible Cross. - Andrew Davidson. 

 The author's Grandfather, Lt Fred Davidson, R.A.M.C, was the 1st Cameronians' medical officer. He took several photographs of Battalion officers.  A Facebook appeal to help identify the officers led Davidson to the grand children of Colonel Graham Chaplin, and a collection of over 500 letters, sent by Chaplin to his wife Lil between August 1914 and September 1917, by which time he had become "the longest serving front line officer in the army".    

 The letters tell of meeting mutual friends, and new acquaintances;  Most often they complain of lack of sleep and describe the receipt and quality of food, but gripes are interspersed with news of promotions, wounding and deaths, and the arrest and subsequent court martial of his friend.   

 Sassoon, Graves and Bernard Montgomery fought alongside him,  J.C. Dunn, medical officer of 2nd R.W.F,  was a "Chaplin admirer".   "Padre McShane says the reason I was not given a Brigade was for being so outspoken at Loos. He said that if that were so, I wear the invisible cross of military glory"

Chaplin burnt all the letters he received certain he would not survive.  He died in 1956, aged 82.

As Michelle says, "A very good read".

 

[exXIX]

I have just finished reading this trilogy, very interesting angle in that it contains Sassoon, Graves and Owen within it's very believable narrative. Dealing mainly with Neurasthenia and it's manifestations, woven into a story of families and love, be that for each other, male or female...

Available at amazon.co.uk 

[Marilyne]

On 21/11/2021 at 15:24, GWF1967 said:

A second vote for The Invisible Cross. - Andrew Davidson. 

As Michelle says, "A very good read".

With recommendations like that... ordered... will be in the post Friday ! 

M.

[Martin Bennitt]

I am re-reading Henri Barbusse’s classic ‘Le Feu’ (Under Fire in English), which I won in a quiz at an event to mark Armistice Day five years ago. This particular edition contains reproductions of woodcuts and engravings by Raymond Fontanet, known as Renefer, who also served at the front.

Cheers Martin B

[Michelle Young]

On 21/11/2021 at 12:30, fellop said:

I have just started A Battle Too Far: Arras 1917 by Don Farr Published by Helion, but I got it a little cheaper as my local bookshop had an ‘Offers Week’. I was encouraged to pick it up as I had enjoyed reading the authors Mons 1914 – 1918 The Beginning and the End. Well done to the author for putting the ‘Notes’ at the bottom of each page rather than the reader flipping from chapter to notes section at rear of the book.

Regards

Peter

I’m struggling with his Mons book, what my dear old Dad (who contributed a couple of the maps) would have called a bum squeezer. I’m finding it very dull.