What WW1 books are you reading?

[susanhemmings]

Nearly finished 1914 - fantastic read - brought a lot of things together for me.

next on list Lyn Macdonald's "Paschendaele" - then trying to get a copy of "Somme". If 914 is anything to go by it should be hightly educational.

Read 12 days on the Somme followed by Somme Mud - both great reads also.

Susan.

[Tinhat47]

"The Winding Road Unfolds" by T.S. Hope. It's excellent, and by far the most graphic World War I first-hand account I've ever read.

[dutchbarge]

Lyn MacDonald's excellent 1914: The First Months of Fighting

My fav. Have read it cover to cover several times. Have jsut finished Niall Ferguson's The War of the World. Not at all heartwarming like MacDanald (if that is the appropriate term). Rather takes the gloss off the subject and knocks down the importance of the West's part in both world wars.

Thought provoking and places everything about both world wars into a much broader picture.

Cheers, Bill

[Guest]

In middle of " The Spirit of the Troops is Excellent " by Derek Bird. Excellent account of the 6th Seaforth Highlanders in the Great War. Love the amount of detail on the individuals, and hope to find as much, on the men am researching.

Nice bloke too. ( thanks for the advice )

Cheers Mike

[Martin Bennitt]

I am nearly half-way through Orlando Figes' massive and highly detailed but extremely well-written 'A People's Tragedy -- a History of the Russian Revolution.' A long read but well worth it

cheers Martin B

[Roger Thompson]

Hi there,

I have just received today a copy of the History of the 17th(Northen)Division, as some of you are aware that was my granddads Division, so some enjoyable reading to be done.

Cheers Roger.

[Nigel Marshall]

the History of the 17th(Northen)Division

Hmmmm,

Its pay day soon!

I'm currently reading 'Testament of Youth' and 'Letters from a lost Greneration' in tandem. I don't know why but the two in conjunction with each other make for a very rewarding and most moving read.

Cheers,

Nigel

[David B]

Two actually. Last week was at a South coast of NSW holiday town - nice and quiet in winter, the place is jam packed in

summer and while browsing a second hand book shop found Martin Middlebrooks The Kaisers Battle. Got it for 8 dollars

(4 pounds)To my surprise on returning home there was in the mail a book on the Jersey Pals. "Ours" by forum member

Ian Ronayne. Good read too, and as my father was one of the pals I am not putting it down until finished

David

[MJohnson]

At present am re reading Under Two Flags by Max Egremont - The Life of Major General Sir Edward Spears and Letters From A Lost Generation - First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends .

Both fascinating reading .

[susanhemmings]

Now finished Lyn MacDonald's Passchendaele. Third of the way into Roses of No Man's Land, already have lined up 1915, Somme and To the Last Man.....

One wonderful way to bring things together. I really wish that I had read 1914 before my trip to Ypres....

all superb books.

[Tony Ring]

Now finished Lyn MacDonald's Passchendaele. Third of the way into Roses of No Man's Land, already have lined up 1915, Somme and To the Last Man.....

One wonderful way to bring things together. I really wish that I had read 1914 before my trip to Ypres....

all superb books.

The Unknown Soldier - Neil Hanson. Follows the life / death of a British & German soldier in the trenches plus gives some back ground how the Unknown Warrior was chosen.

Somme Mud - E P F Lynch (Aussie Diggers account)

Mud Beneath My Boots - Allan Marriott (NZ soldiers account of the trenches)

Massacre at Passchendaele, The New Zealand Story - Glyn Harper.

Best read is Somme Mud followed by The Unknown Soldier.

Tony

[Tinhat47]

I'm reading Geoffrey Moorhouse's Hell's Foundations: A Town, Its Myths and Gallipoli about the town of Bury. A really excellent read that I picked up at the used bookstore in Knoxville, Tenn., for $4.

[1st_east_yorks]

"Forgotten voices of the great war", by Max Arthur.

I know many readers will have read this, but it is still an absorbing read.

Next in line are ;

"Kitchener's Army - Raising the new army 1914-1916" - Peter Simkins.

"Old lie : The great war and the public school ethos" - Peter Parker.

Sean.

[LesCroft]

In Flanders Fields - Leon Wolff

Amazes me how the English language has been dumbed down since 1958.

[john metcalfe]

Just been in local library looking for another book, which they didnt have but found another one 1918 A VERY BRITISH VICTORY by Peter Hart. So far looks to be informative on the relevent battles and turning points

[HVD5677]

To Conquer Hell by Edward Lengel---US offensive in Meuse Argonne

[andigger]

Its been a while since I posted on the Forum, even longer since I first started this thread, but if anything could bring me back to the Forum its the search for a great book. I just picked up "With The Allies" by Richard Harding Davis (1914). According to the Publisher's Note Davis was a war correspondent for Wheeler Newspaper Syndicate who left for Belgium at the outbreak of the war. Almost shot as a spy he followed the retreat into France. The chapters include The Burning of Louvain, The Battle of Soissons, Bombardment of Rheims, and The War Correspondents.

Seems like it should be a good read.

Andy

[Martin Bennitt]

welcome back Andy, long time no see

I have just finished 'Somme Mud' which I found an absolutely fantastic read, very atmospheric, which brought home to me what it must have been like. Before that I read the rather maligned 'Silent Night' by Stanley Weintraub, having picked it up for a couple of euros second-hand. It wasn't very good; but I've read worse. Next on my list, found in the library yesterday, is Richard Emden's 'The Lasr Fighting Tommy'.

cheers Martin B

[andigger]

'With the Allies" is definitely a quick read. Davis is a war correspondent and the story follows his travels and experiences during the opening months of the war. At the point I am now, he has just returned to Paris from Rheims. His observations of the soldiers of both sides and the civilians caught in the middle are interesting, and not surprising. The best laugh I got though was his description of the Americans:

"... above the roar of shells, the crash of falling walls, forts, forests, cathedrals, above the scream of shrapnel, the sobs of widows and orphans, and the cries of wounded dying all over Europe, you can still hear the shrieks of the Americans calling for their lost suit cases. ... All that was asked of the stranded Americans was to keep cool, and like true sports, suffer inconvenience. Around them were the French and English, facing the greatest tragedy of centuries, and meeting it calmly and with noble self-sacrifice.... And in the Rue Scribe and in Cockspur Street thousands of Americans were struggling in panic stricken groups bewailing the loss of a hat-box, and protesting at having to return home in second class. Their suffering was something terrible. In London, in the Ritz and Carlton restaurants, American refugees, loaded down with fat pearls and seated at tables loaded with fat food, besought your pity. ... the thought their immigrant ancestors had come over in steerage did not help a bit."

[Leo van Bergen]

Because of a recent Dutch translation I have just finished Ellen LaMotte's 'Backwash of War' for the second time, but again it was an experience not lightly to forget. They're stories from a a nurse entering the war idealistically but leaving it highly cynically (especially on war and medicine). The book was forbidden in the US after publication in 1916. It would destroy all hope of 'a good war', of 'a war to end all wars'.

Also on war and medicine the book I am reading now: Gregory M. Thomas, Treating the Trauma of the Great War. Soldiers, civilians and psychiatry in France 1914-1940. On the way especially psychiatric victims of the war were treated by doctors in and after the war and how these victims were used by them to make temselves more important in French society.

[stoj22]

Nearly through "The Bantams" then I've got "Cambrai 1917" by Bryn Hammond waiting it's turn. I ordered it a year ago and it arrived last week, hope it's a good 'un!

Steve.

[rmcguirk]

I’ve just been rereading The Turkish Battle at Khaybar by Esref Kuscubasi (pronounced Eshref Kushchoobashih). If you’re interested in the Arab Revolt, this is a book with a difference. EK was a friend of Enver and a member of his “Special Organization”, a secret force of irregulars trying to hold the Ottoman Empire together, financed by the Germans from 1914. In 1916 and ’17 he and his men were serving in the Hejaz, when they clashed with part of the Amir Abdullah’s army. Most of EK’s detachment of 40 men were killed; he survived, wounded, and was captured. He was eventually handed over to the British, who imprisoned him first in Qasr el-Nil Barracks in Cairo, then in Verdala Barracks on Malta. His relations with the Hejazi Arabs who were his enemies were surprisingly good; with the English less so, though he had great respect for Intell Officer Wyndham Deedes, who spoke Turkish well.

The production is not of the best; nor are the photos well-produced (the book was printed in Istanbul). But the translation and editing by Philip H. Stoddard and H Basri Danusman is excellent. Stoddard’s 1963 PhD thesis at Princeton was entitled “The Ottoman Government and the Arabs, 1911 to 1918: A Preliminary Study of the Teskilat-i Mahsusa [special Organization]”. This was an important source for my Sanusi study, as Enver’s brother Nuri and Ja’far al-Askari, were both members of the SO, when they served with the Sanusi against the British in Egypt.

If you can find this book, I recommend it highly.

[Ian Patterson]

welcome back Andy, long time no see

I have just finished 'Somme Mud' which I found an absolutely fantastic read, very atmospheric, which brought home to me what it must have been like. Before that I read the rather maligned 'Silent Night' by Stanley Weintraub, having picked it up for a couple of euros second-hand. It wasn't very good; but I've read worse. Next on my list, found in the library yesterday, is Richard Emden's 'The Lasr Fighting Tommy'.

cheers Martin B

Hi, I'm fairly new to the forum but I must agree that "Somme Mud" is an excellent read. I am at the moment struggling through "The Border Regiment In The Great War" by Colonel HC Wylly.

[Waddell]

Currently reading two very different autobiographical works by 'sensitive' and young soldiers.

Have nearly finished Monk Gibbons "Inglorious Soldier". Finding it a hard slog although well written. The first part of the book deals with the Skeffington murder during the Irish Rebellion, the later with his time in the ASC on the Western Front. Very well written but find some parts are hard to get through. A good introduction to the Irish Rebellion and the way that some Irishmen like Gibbon were judged by the Englishmen around them- I was previously unaware of the tensions.

Picked up a copy of "Iron in the Fire" by Edgar Morrow. Morrow was an English born boy who enlisted with Western Australia's 28th Battalion AIF. This is a reprint of the original that was originally published in 1934. He served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front till the end of the war. This book, so far, is beautifully and economically written with a policeman's eye for detail and a wonderful way of expressing what he was feeling at the time. Fantastic book so far!

Scott.

[dtglover]

Just finished Massacre on the Marne by Fraser Skirrow,

life and death of the 2/5th West Yorkshire Regt.

This is a subject close to my heart as I had an ancestor who fought in the 2/8th Battallion West Yorks Regt.

It enabled me to place him on the 22nd Nov 1917 when he was killed in action, but also fascinating as had examples of letters to loved ones.

Damian