Horne, Charles F. (Editor in Chief) and
Walter F. Austin (Directing Editor),
SOURCE RECORDS OF THE GREAT WAR..
Complete in seven volumes, with four supplementary volumes. American Legion Edition.
Joffre, von Ludendorff, Foch & Wilhelm.
THE TWO BATTLES OF THE
MARNE.
Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1927., VG. First Edition.
No DJ. Front cover starting to loosen. Lower corner of front
board slightly frayed & bumped. Otherwise a clean, sound copy
with very little wear. Lettering bright on front & on spine.
Accounts on the two battles of the Marne River, 1914 & 1918,
by the two French leaders, Marshal Joffre & Marshal Foch, and
the two German leaders General von Ludendorff and Crown Prince
Wilhelm. 229 pp.
$45.00
Keegan, John,
THE FIRST WORLD WAR..
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).
Maps on endpages, photographs, notes, bibliography, index, 475 pages.
~~~ The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the
relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized
warfare and mass death. Probing the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have
propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict, Keegan takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe's
crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the
crisis. He reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf
an entire continent. But the heart of Keegan's superb narrative is, of course, his analysis of the military conflict.
~~~ FROM THE CRITICS (Chris Barsanti): "Keegan, the best popular military historian of our time, has
chronicled the four-year cataclysm of World War I with his customary mixture of incisive analysis and compassionate
commentary. Sometimes it’s all too easy to forget the apocalyptic forces WWI unleashed upon the world. The patina of
Europe’s civilized aristocracy was swept away by the endless killing, paving the way for the more efficient barbarism
and nationalist psychoses of World War II. This is Keegan’s theme, and while not a revolutionary one, it is
convincingly delivered. He dismisses many revisionist studies of the war that would have one believe 'if only' this or
that had happened, the war would never have been fought. As in his other work, Keegan’s ability to clearly portray the
plight of the individual soldier is what carries the book. Through all the accounts of strategies and battles, he never
lets us forget these are people he is writing about. He acknowledges that in WWI, unlike other wars he has written on,
heroism is not remembered and only graveyards remain: '...no brave trumpets sound in memory for the drab millions who
plodded to death on the featureless plains of Picardy and Poland; no litanies are sung for the leaders who coaxed them
to slaughter.'
$35.00
MacDonald, Lyn,
1915, THE DEATH OF INNOCENCE..
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket, (NY: Henry Holt & Company, 1993).
Photographs, maps, page-end notes, bibliography, index, 625 pages.
~~~ By Christmas 1914, the wild wave of enthusiasm that had sent men flocking to join up a few months earlier began to tail off, and though the original British Expeditionary Force had suffered 90 percent casualties, most people, particularly the soldiers themselves, still believed that 1915 would see the breaking of the deadlock. But their hopes were shattered on the bloody battlefields of Neuve Chapelle, Ypres, Loos, and far away on the shores of Gallipoli.
Lyn Macdonald's story of 1915 is stark, brutal, frank, sometimes painfully funny, always human. Never before has any
writer collected so many firsthand accounts of the experiences of ordinary soldiers, through diaries, letters, and
interviews with survivors--and it is the dogged heroism and sardonic humor of the soldiers that shine through the
pages of this epic narrative. 1915 is a uniquely compelling blend of military history and poignant memories of the
fighters who survived the ordeal.
~~~ From Publishers Weekly: "Based on letters, journals and memoirs, this fifth volume of Macdonald's
chronicle of the Great War as British soldiers experienced it covers the battles of Neuve Chapelle and Loos, the second
battle of Ypres and the Gallipoli campaign. The author provides a detailed look at the unique trench culture of the
British 1st Army and analyzes `lessons learned,' such as the proper deployment of massed artillery and infantry
reserves during that bloody year. Her assessment of Allied strategy and tactics is unparalleled in clarity. Her
statistics further dramatize the loss of life on the Western Front in 1915 (Macdonald regards Gallipoli as an extension
of the Western Front): Of the 19,500 square miles of German-occupied territory fought over, only eight were recovered --
an average of 200,000 casualties per mile. Macdonald's vividly rendered history evokes pity and awe at the slaughter.
By Christmas 1915, she notes, there was still some hope of ending the conflict quickly, but it was no longer the hope
of innocent optimism.
~~~ From Library Journal: "Macdonald presents a history of the second year of the Great War, focusing
almost entirely on the impressions and experiences of common soldiers gathered from interviews over the last 20 years
as well as from letters, journals, and memoirs. The author has chosen not to analyze Loos, Ypres, Neuve Chappelle, and
the introduction of gas warfare in detail but rather to set the scene and let the desperate, patriotic, idealistic
soldiers tell in their own words how those qualities were expunged and the desire merely to survive left in their
place. The book is not a replacement for a general history, but Macdonald's considerable skill in weaving her narrative
makes this an excellent addition to the literature.
~~~ Hardcover OUT OF PRINT. Paperback currently in print at $25.
$45.00
Michelin & Cie.,
LILLE, BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR.
Michelin
& Cie. Clermont-Ferrand, Michelin Illustrated Guides to the
Battlefields, 1919., VG. First Edition. Stiff card covers.
Illustrated by 100+ B/W photographs & maps. Period
advertisements. 63 pp. $35.00.
$35.00
Prior, Robin and
Trevor Wilson (General Editor: John Keegan),
THE FIRST WORLD WAR (Cassel's History of Warfare Series)..
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket, 8x11.
Cassell & Co., 2000. Illustrated throughout, 28 color maps, chronology, biographies, suggested further readings, index, 224 pages. "World War I created the modern world. By ushering in modern techniques of warfare and redrawing the boundaries of Europe, the war forever changed how wars would be fought and how politics would be conducted. In this concise and authoritative history packed with photographs and specially commissioned battle maps, historians Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson vividly bring back to life this worldwide conflict, its horrific toll, and its significant consequences." British import. OUT OF PRINT.
$45.00
Bilton, David.
THE GERMANS ON THE SOMME.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. 250 b&w photographs.
(Pen & Sword, 2010).
9.5x7.5, 224 pages.
~~~ This highly illustrated book covers the activities of the German Army on the River Somme throughout the long years of The Great War. The initial fighting in 1914 was against the French prior to the arrival of the British Army. The 1916 Allied Offensive eventually resulted in the German withdrawal but only at a terrible cost to both sides. The 1918 Kaiserschlacht saw the Germans return, albeit briefly. Each phase is covered from the German perspective using primary and secondary sources. In addition to the wealth of splendid/fully captioned photographs, there is an authoritative general text and a useful chronological order of events. Being arguably the most evocative area in British military history, much has been written on the Somme. What makes this splendid book so different is the author's successful attempt to view events through the eyes of our adversaries.
$29.95
Buchan, John.
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME.
Grosset & Dunlap,
1917.
VG. A clean, tight copy with pictorial cover. 34 full- &
half-page photographs, 33 maps, showing trenches and natural
features, roads, towns, railroads, etc.~ many of them
fold-out. Two appendices: "Sir Doublas Haig's Second
Dispatch" and "Experiences of the IV German Corps in the
Battle of the Somme During July, 1916: General Sixt von
Armin's Report". 264 pp. $40.00
$40.00
Fraser, Alastair H, Andrew Robertshaw & Steve Roberts.
GHOSTS ON THE SOMME:
Filming the Battle, June-July 1916.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. 200 illustrations.
(Pen & Sword, 2010).
9.5x7.5, 224 pages.
~~~ The Battle of the Somme is one of the most famous, and earliest, films of war ever made. The film records the most disastrous day in the history of the British army - 1 July 1916 - and it had a huge impact when it was shown in Britain during the war. Since then images from it have been repeated so often in books and documentaries that it has profoundly influenced our view of the battle and of the Great War itself. Yet this book is the first in-depth study of this historic film, and it is the first to relate it to the surviving battleground of the Somme.
~~~
The authors explore the film and its history in fascinating detail. They investigate how much of it was faked and consider how much credit for it should go to Geoffrey Malins and how much to John MacDowell. And they use modern photographs of the locations to give us a telling insight into the landscape of the battle and into the way in which this pioneering film was created.
~~~
Their analysis of scenes in the film tells us so much about the way the British army operated in June and July 1916 - how the troops were dressed and equipped, how they were armed and how their weapons were used. In some cases it is even possible to discover what they were saying. This painstaking exercise in historical reconstruction will be compelling reading for everyone who is interested in the Great War and the Battle of the Somme.
$50.00
Hancock, Edward and Nigel Cave.
BAZENTIN RIDGE:
Somme.
NEW copy, paperback. Illustrated.
(Pen & Sword, 2009).
5.5x8.5, 160 pages.
~~~ This guide book deals in detail with the action of 14 - 17 July 1916 involving the
110th and 20th Brigade troops including the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Leicestershire
Regiment, the 8th and 9th Devonshire Regiment and the 2nd Border Regiment
together with the 1st East Yorkshire King's Own Light Infantry, 24th Manchesters
and 2nd Royal Warwicks in support.
$16.95
Masefield, John.
THE OLD FRONT LINE.
NEW copy, paperback.
(Pen & Sword, 2006).
6x9.25, 160 pages.
~~~ July 1st 1916 is a date that remains embedded in the British folk memory. It was the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the day on which British and Empire troops suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, a third of them fatal. In this evocative classic memoir John Masefield, the future Poet Laureate, describes the battleground over which the armies were to fight. He had spent months at the front and was familiar with the men, the trenches that they inhabited and the conditions that they endured. 'The Old Front Line' was written shortly after the battle, and this elegant account will still move the modern reader as well as providing a valuable guide for the many 21st century visitors to the battlefield.
~~~
This edition has a powerful new Introduction by Martin Middlebrook.
$16.95
McCarthy, Chris,
THE SOMME: The Day-by-day Account.
Greenwich Editions., 1996. NEW copy. Hardcover. Glossy illustrated
boards issued without dust jacket. Glossy paper throughout. 9x11.
Profusely illustrated with maps and photographs. Appendices,
bibliography, index, 176 pages.
~~~ Originally published at $29.95,
now
OUT OF PRINT.
$30.00
Middlebrook, Martin and Mary Middlebrook.
THE MIDDLEBROOK GUIDE TO THE SOMME BATTLEFIELDS:
A Comprehensive Coverage from Crecy to the World Wars.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. Illustrated.
(Pen & Sword, 2007).
6x9, 400 pages.
~~~ While best known as being the scene of the most terrible carnage in the WW1 the French department of the Somme has seen many other battles from Roman times to 1944. William the Conqueror launched his invasion from there; the French and English fought at Crecy in 1346; Henry V’s army marched through on their way to Agincourt in 1415; the Prussians came in 1870.
~~~
The Great War saw three great battles and approximately half of the 400,000 who died on the Somme were British – a terrible harvest, marked by 242 British cemeteries and over 50,000 lie in unmarked graves.
~~~
These statistics explain in part why the area is visited year-on-year by ever increasing numbers of British and Commonwealth citizens. This evocative book written by the authors of the iconic First Day on the Somme is a thorough guide to the cemeteries, memorials and battlefields of the area, with the emphasis on the fighting of 1916 and 1918, with fascinating descriptions and anecdotes.
$50.00
Middlebrook, Martin.
THE FIRST DAY ON THE SOMME.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. Illustrated.
(Pen & Sword, 2003).
6x9, 352 pages.
~~~ After an immense but useless bombardment, at 7.30 am. On 1 July 1916 the British Army went over the top and attacked the German trenches. It was the first day of the battle of the Somme, and on that day the British suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, two for every yard of their front. With more than fifty times the daily losses at El Alamein and fifteen times the British casualties on D-day, 1 July 1916 was the blackest day in the history of the British Army. But, more than that, it was a watershed in the history of the First World War. The Army that attacked on that day was the volunteer Army that had answered Kitchener's call. It had gone into action confident of a decisive victory. But by sunset on the first day on the Somme, no one could any longer think of a war that might be won. After that it was a struggle that had simply to be endured.
~~~
Martin Middlebrook's research has covered not just official and regimental histories and tours of the battlefields, but interviews with hundreds of survivors, both British and German. As to the action itself, he conveys the overall strategic view and the terrifying reality of an new kind of war for front-line soldiers.
$32.95
Sheldon, Jack.
THE HELL THEY CALLED HIGH WOOD:
The Somme 1916.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket.
(Pen & Sword, 2003). Illustrated.
6x9, 224 pages.
~~~ The Somme was surely one of the bloodiest rendezvous for battle of all time. High Wood, dominating the Bazentin Ridge, was the fiercely contested focal point of the battle. The Germans showed great determination and sacrifice defending the feature and it was not until September that it finally fell to the attackers. ironically the successful divisional commander was rewarded with dismissal for "wanton waste of men".
~~~
This exceptional book not only paints a graphic and gruesome picture of the fighting but sheds light on the problems of high command.
$36.95
O'Connor, Mike.
AIRFIELDS & AIRMEN: SOMME.
NEW copy, paperback.
(Pen and Sword, 2008). Illustrated.
5.5x8.5, 160 pages.
~~~ Following on the success of Airfields and Airmen of Ypres, the author turns his attention to the most legendary sector of the British effort in World War I, the Somme. From 1916 to 1918 the British and German armies were locked in a deadly struggle here, while the Royal Flying Corps and the Imperial German Air Service flew overhead. Initially acting as scouts and artillery spotters, the ever more sophisticated aircraft became instruments of war themselves, engaging in deadly conflict far above the deadlocked armies below.
~~~
This new volume uses the Battleground Europe format of maps and then-and-now illustrations to cover all the airfields, crash sites and areas associated with the units, battles and individual aces of the aerial conflict of World War I. Coverage also includes French actions, and a few American units that served in the region near the end of the war.
$16.95
Pederson, Peter.
HAMEL:
Somme.
NEW copy, paperback. Illustrated.
(Pen & Sword, 2003).
5.5x8.5, 176 pages.
~~~ On 4 July 1918, American and Australian troops captured the village of Hamel and the ridge overlooking it. It was not a big battle: the equivalent of one Australian division and one battalion of newly arrived Americans were the only infantry involved. Although Hamel is not a famous named battle it is noteworthy for an increased level of sophistication . At Hamel machines went a long way towards relieving the infantry of the obligation to fight its way forward. After the battle, Haig's Headquarters promulgated its lessons for other commanders.
~~~
Among the senior officers who visited Monash's Headquarters was Brigadier-General Bernard Montgomery. The military thinker and former Tank Corps officer, Major-General J.F.C. Fuller, thought Hamel more important in making the reputation of the Tank Corps than the battle of Cambrai.
$16.95
Pegler, Martin.
ATTACK ON THE SOMME:
Haig's Offensive 1916.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. 60 illustrations.
(Pen & Sword, 2006).
9.25x6, 192 pages.
~~~ Salford was late in recruiting for its Pals battalions, with many of its men already joining Territorial units and a new Pals battalion in Manchester. Yet within a year it had raised four Pals battalions and a reserve battalion. Raised mainly from Lancashire’s most notorious slums, the men trained together in Wales, North East England and on Salisbury Plain, they had great expectations of success.
~~~
On the 1st of July 1916 the Somme offensive was launched and in the very epicenter of that cauldron the first three of Salford’s battalions were thrown at the massive defenses of Thiepval - the men were decimated, Salford was shattered.
~~~
Michael Stedman records the impact of the war from the start on Salford and follows the difficulties and triumphs. Whether the actions small or great the author writes graphically about them all.
~~~
Unusual photographs and a variety of sources make this both a readable and a scholarly account.
$32.95
Pidgeon, Trevor.
TANKS ON THE SOMME:
From Morval to Beaumont Hamel.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. 30 illustrations.
(Pen & Sword, 2010).
9.5x6, 176 pages.
~~~ On 15 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, tanks - one of the decisive weapons of twentieth-century warfare - were sent into action for the first time. In his previous books Trevor Pidgeon, one of the leading authorities on the early tanks, has told the story of that memorable day, but only now has his account of later tank operations during the Somme battle become available.
~~~
In this, his last work which was completed shortly before he died, he reconstructs the tank actions that took place between late September and November when the Somme offensive was closed down. His account gives a vivid insight into the actions and experiences of the tank crews, and it shows the appalling dangers they faced as they maneuvered their crude, vulnerable and unreliable machines towards the enemy. His book will be essential reading for anyone who is familiar with his previous studies of the subject and for anyone who wants to follow in the tracks of the tanks as they lumbered across the battlefield nearly 100 years ago.
$39.95
Reed, Paul.
COMBLES:
Somme.
NEW copy, paperback. Illustrated.
(Pen & Sword, 2009).
5.5x8.5, 144 pages.
~~~ Combles was the largest village on the Somme in 1916 and fighting for its possession began in September 1916. Flanked by two large woods to the west - Bouleaux ('Bully') and Leuze ('Lousy') - these became the front line where men of the 56th (London) Division fought and died.The bastion of Combles finally fell to a combined English and French attack. Tanks were used here in their first action on the Western Front.
$16.95
Renshaw, Michael.
BEAUCOURT:
Somme.
NEW copy, paperback. Illustrated.
(Pen & Sword, 2009).
5x8, 160 pages.
~~~ Beaucourt is one of the last parts of the Battle of the Somme still to be covered, until now, by the splendid Battleground Europe Series. It was also one of the last actions of the Battle of the Somme, 1916.
~~~
The eventual capture of Beaucourt along with Beaumont Hamel forced the Germans to retreat to their new defensive position known as the Hindenburg Line. The Battle of Beaucourt was also known as the Gough Offensive, led by General Gough, with a large proportion of the troops involved being from the Royal Naval Division. Indeed, Beaucourt is where Bernard Freyberg of that division won his Victoria Cross.
~~~
Following the usual Battleground style, readers are taken on a voyage of discovery through the village of Beaucourt and along the banks of the Ancre in the direction of Cambrai.
$16.95
Renz, Irina, Gerd Drumeich and Gerhard Hirschfeld.
SCORCHED EARTH:
The Germans on the Somme 1914-18.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. 16 pages mono b&w plates.
(Pen & Sword, 2009).
6x9, 224 pages.
~~~ This book discusses in detail the experience of German warfare in the first World War, focusing specifically on the battle of the Somme. The Somme, together with other regions of northern France, had also lain under German domination. Its inhabitants had been rigorously suppressed and their possessions carted off as booty. Finally, during their 1917 withdrawal, the Germans had subjected the whole region to Operation Alberich, a retreat involving unparalleled brutality which left the population in occupation of a wilderness wrought by war (the "scorched earth policy"). A well-known, and well-researched account, the authors have combined their research skills to produce a book which includes private testimonies. Amongst these are many unknown or previously unpublished letters and diaries as well as numerous photographs.
$40.00
Rogerson, Sidney.
TWELVE DAYS ON THE SOMME:
A Memoir of the Trenches, 1916.
NEW copy, paperback.
(Frontline Books, 2009). 3 illustrations.
5x7.5, 160 pages.
~~~ A joint operation between Britain and France in 1916, the Battle of the Somme was an attempt to gain territory and dent Germany’s military strength. By the end of the action, very little ground had been won: the Allied Forces had made just 12 km. For this slight gain, more than a million lives were lost. There were more than 400,000 British, 200,000 French, and 500,000 German casualties during the fighting.
~~~
Twelve Days on the Somme is a memoir of the last spell of front-line duty performed by the 2nd Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Written by Sidney Rogerson, a young officer in B Company, it gives an extraordinarily frank and often moving account of what it was really like to fight through one of the most notorious battles of the First World War. Its special message, however, is that, contrary to received assumptions and the popular works of writers like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, men could face up to the terrible ordeal such a battle presented with resilience, good humour and without loss of morale. This is a classic work whose reprinting is long overdue.
~~~
This edition includes a new Introduction by Malcolm Brown and a Foreword by Rogerson’s son Commander Jeremy Rogerson.
$26.00
Saunders, Tim.
WESTCOUNTRY REGIMENTS ON THE SOMME.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket.
(Pen & Sword, 2006).
8.5x11, Illustrated. 224 pages.
~~~ Previous works have concentrated on the 'Pal' in Britain's northern towns and cities. This book seeks to explore the little appreciated part in the Battle of the Somme played by the Regular and Volunteer Service battalions of two small West Country regiments; the Devonshire Regiment and the Dorset Regiment.
~~~
These two regiments had five battalions in action on the first day of the battle and were represented in most of the significant attacks during the three and half months of the 1916.
~~~
The reader will be able to form a clear picture of the battle's development as a whole through the eyes of Westcountry soldiers who fought on the Somme.
$45.00
Sheldon, Jack.
THE GERMANS AT THIEPVAL.
NEW copy, paperback.
(Pen & Sword, 2006).
8.5x5.25, 192 pages.
~~~ Ninety years after the Battle of the Somme was fought, visitors continue to flock in very large numbers to the massive Memorial to the Missing at Thiepval, site of a bitter three-month struggle during the summer of 1916.
~~~
This book explains in detail how, from the autumn of 1914 onwards, the German defenders turned this key feature into a virtually impregnable position, from which they were able for weeks on end to repulse every attempt to capture it. Drawing on original maps, photographs and personal accounts of the German defenders, the reader is taken stage by stage through the battles for the German front line between Ovillers and Saint Pierre Divion, during the two years from September 1914 to September 1916. It explains why the British attacks of 1st July 1916 failed so catastrophically, and culminates with an account of its eventual loss at the end of September 1916.
$25.00
Sheldon, Jack.
THE GERMAN ARMY ON THE SOMME 1914-1916.
NEW copy, paperback. Illustrated.
(Pen & Sword, 2007).
9.5x7.5, 224 pages.
~~~ By drawing on a very large number of German sources, many of them previously unpublished, Jack Sheldon throws new light on a familiar story. In an account filled with graphic descriptions of life and death in the trenches, the author demonstrates that the dreadful losses of 1st July were a direct consequence of meticulous German planning and preparation. Although the Battle of the Somme was frequently a close-run affair, poor Allied co-ordination and persistence in attacking weakly on narrow fronts played into the hands of the German commanders, who were able to rush forward reserves, maintain the overall integrity of their defenses and so continue a successful delaying battle until the onset of winter ultimately neutralized the considerable Allied superiority in men and material.
$32.95
Stedman, Michael.
SOMME 1916:
And Other Experiences of the Salford Pals.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. Photographs.
(Pen & Sword, 2006).
9.25x6.75, 240 pages.
~~~ Salford was late in recruiting for its Pals battalions, with many of its men already joining Territorial units and a new Pals battalion in Manchester. Yet within a year it had raised four Pals battalions and a reserve battalion. Raised mainly from Lancashire’s most notorious slums, the men trained together in Wales, North East England and on Salisbury Plain, they had great expectations of success.
~~~
On the 1st of July 1916 the Somme offensive was launched and in the very epicenter of that cauldron the first three of Salford’s battalions were thrown at the massive defenses of Thiepval - the men were decimated, Salford was shattered.
~~~
Michael Stedman records the impact of the war from the start on Salford and follows the difficulties and triumphs. Whether the actions small or great the author writes graphically about them all.
~~~
Unusual photographs and a variety of sources make this both a readable and a scholarly account.
$39.95
Westlake, Ray.
TRACING BRITISH BATTALIONS ON THE SOMME.
NEW copy, paperback.
(Pen & Sword, 2009). 8 pages of b&w illustrations.
6x9, 320 pages.
~~~ Although seventy-eight years have passed since the Battle of the Somme was fought, interest in this, the bloodiest battle of the First World War, has never waned. Ray Westlake has collated all the information so painstakingly gathered, to produce a comprehensive compendium of the exact movements of every battalion involved in the battle. This book is invaluable not only to researchers but to all those visiting the battlefield and anxious to trace the movements of their forbears.
$26.00
Wilkinson, Roni.
PALS ON THE SOMME 1916.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket.
(Pen & Sword, 2003). Illustrated.
6x9, 224 pages.
~~~ Pals on the Somme covers the history of all the Pals Battalions who fought on the Somme during the First World War. The book looks at the events which led to the war and how the ‘Pals’ phenomenon was born. It considers the attitude and social conditions in Britain at the time. It covers the training and equipping of the Battalions, the preparations for the ‘Big Push’, 1st July 1916, and going over the top, and how each battalion fared, failed or succeeded. It looks at how they Battalions had to undergo a change after the 1st July, due to the heavy casualties, and the final victory in 1918, and how the battalions were eventually amalgamated.
~~~
The final chapter examines how each area coped in the aftermath of losing their men in the three year slaughter. It covers the organizations and visits to the Battlefields as they are today.
$29.95
Strachan, Hew.
THE FIRST WORLD WAR.
Viking, 2004. First American Edition. Hardcover with dust jacket. In new condition except for black remainder dot on bottom edge of book. Maps, numerous photographs distributed
throughout text (including many never-before published & 24 color plates), notes, index, 364 pages. "Ninety years have passed since the outbreak of the First World War, yet as military historian Hew Strachan argues in this brilliant and authoritative new book, the legacy of the "war to end all wars" is with us still. A truly global conflict from the start, the war and many of its most decisive battles were fought in or directly affected the Balkans, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. Even more than the Second World War, the First World War continues to shape the politics and international relations of our world, especially in hot spots such as the Middle East and the Balkans. Strachan has done a masterful job of reexamining the causes, the
major campaigns, and the consequences of the First World War, compressing a lifetime of knowledge into a single definitive volume. Written in crisp, compelling prose and enlivened with vivid photographs, many of which have never appeared in print before, and detailed maps, The First World War re-creates this world-altering conflict both on and off the battlefield: the clash of ideologies between the colonial powers at the center of the war, the social and economic unrest that swept Europe both before and after, the military strategies employed with stunning success and tragic failure in the various theaters of war, the terms of peace and why it did not last. Drawing on material culled from many countries, Strachan offers a fresh, clear-sighted perspective on how the war not only redrew the map of the world but also set in motion the most dangerous conflicts of today. Deeply learned and powerfully written, The First World War will stand as a landmark of contemporary history. " ~~~ From Publishers Weekly:
"One of the leading historians of WWI offers this superior one-volume version of his massive projected three-volume work, the first volume of which, To Arms, clocked in at 1250-plus pages last year. Strachan strenuously avoids the traditional focus on the Western Front (and the British) and the conventional assumptions of generals' stupidity and soldiers' valor. The war as he sees it was a race among generals on all sides to create new weapons and tactics faster than their opponents, a race that the Triple Entente won. It was also a race among soldiers to fight with these new weapons and tactics instead of raw courage and numbers wherever possible. Yet Russia and the Dual Monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were totally unfit for a large modern war (one reason the czar and his empire fell in 1917) and were a source of fatal weakness to Germany's alliance even before Italy changed sides. The political background (including the rising consciousness of colonial nationalities conscripted for the war), social consequences and diplomatic finagling all face an equal amount of revision, leaving the book organized more thematically than chronologically. Readers already familiar with the sequence of events in strict order will benefit most. But all readers will eventually be gripped, and even the most seasoned ones will praise the insights and the original choice of illustrations. This is likely to be the most indispensable one-volume work on the subject since John Keegan's First World War, and will draw serious readers to the larger work."
$27.00
Strachan, Hew (ed).
THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF WORLD WAR I.
NEW copy. Hardcover with dust jacket. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) Photographs and color
plates throughout, bibliography, section of maps, illustration sources, index, 356 pages.
~~~ ~World War I has shaped
the history of the 20th century. It was the first
conflict in which airplanes, submarines, and tanks
played a significant role, the first in which casualties
on the battlefield outnumbered those from disease. It
precipitated the collapse of the empires of
Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and it promoted revolution
in that of Russia. The USA's entry into the war and the
part it played in the peace settlement signaled the
arrival on the world stage of a new great power. The
victors at Versailles took nationalism as one of their
guiding principles, they also aimed at instituting their
vision of liberalism and even democracy; the political
consequences are still being played out. ~~~ In this
extensively illustrated book, an international team of
experts explores the war in all its different aspects.
From its causes to its consequences, from the strategy
of the politicians to the tactics of the generals, the
course of the war is charted and its political and human
consequences assessed. Chapters on economic mobilization, the impact on women, the role of propaganda, and the rise of socialism, establish the wider social context of fighting which took place at sea and in the air and which ranged on land from the Flanders trenches to the Balkan moountains and the deserts of the Middle East.
~~~ While the war was fought on many fronts and in many different ways, the unifying experience of participants was that of the trenches. The legacy of 'the war to end wars' ~ in poetry and prose, in collective memory and political culture - is with us still, eighty years after that first Armistice Day.
~~~ Twenty-three contributors, including Ulrich Trumpener, Paul G.
Halpern, Hew Strachen, Robin Pryor, J.M. Winter, Modris Eksteins, Trevor Wilson,
Tim Travers, and others.
~~~ Paperback edition currrently in print at $24.95; hardcover OUT OF PRINT.
$35.00
Terraine, John.
TO WIN A WAR: 1918, THE YEAR OF VICTORY..
Doubleday, 1981., VG/VG, First Edition. DJ in mylar protector.
Original "14.95" price still intact on DJ. A nice clean copy with
no apparent flaws. Maps, photographs, chapter-end notes,
bibliography, appendices, index, 268 pp. $35.00
$35.00
Thomas, Capt. Shipley,
THE HISTORY OF THE A.E.F.
Battery Press Reprint of 1920 Edition, in Association with the
Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation., 2000. NEW copy. Hardcover,
decorated boards. Maps, diagrams, illustrations, photographs, tour
guide, index, 540 pages.
$48.00
Horne, Alistair,
THE PRICE OF GLORY: Verdun 1916
.VG. Trade PAPERBACK.
(Penguin Books, 1986). Photographs, index, 362 pages. Abridged edition.
~~~ Verdun was the battle which lasted ten months; the battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles; the battle whose aim was less to defeat the enemy than to bleed him to death; the battle ground whose once firtile terrain is even now the 'nearest thing to desert in Europe'.
~~~ But this book is very much more than a chronicle of the facts of death. It is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the men who fought there, and one that shows Verdun
to be the key to an understanding of the First World War -- the key to the minds of those who waged it, to the traditions that bound them, and to the world that gave them the opportunity.
$15.00
German General Staff.
YPRES, 1914. Constable & Co, London, 1919., NF/G. First Edition. Head & toe of
dust jacket spine chipped. About 1/5th (lower left corner) of front
panel of DJ missing. DJ in mylar protector. Book itself nearly
immaculate, tight & bright. Clean inside & out. 5.5x8. AN OFFICIAL ACCOUNT
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE GERMAN GENERAL STAFF, With Introduction
and Notes by the Historical Section (Military Branch), Committee of
Imperial Defence. Translation into English by "G.C.W." Maps,
extensive
notes, appendices, index, 136 pp. Table of contents as follows:
Introduction; German Preface; Preliminary Remarks; The Theatre of
Operations; The Advance of the Fourth Army; The Operations of the
Fourth Army, 20th-31st October 1914; The Attempt to Break through
South of Ypres; The Operations of the Fourth Army from the End of
October to the 9th November 1914; The Last Phase; Conclusion.
Appendices as follows: Order of Battle of the Fourth Army; Order
of
Battle of the Army Group Fabeck; Order of Battle of the Group
Gerok;
Order of Battle of the Army Group Linsingen; INDEX. ;
$60.00
German General Staff.
YPRES 1914: AN OFFICIAL GERMAN ACCOUNT, THE GENERAL STAFF
. NEW copy, Battery Press, 1994.
Hardcover issued without dustjacket. 160 pages.
~~~ This is a reprint of the rare English translation of this Official Account written by the German General Staff in 1920. It describes in great detail the German Offensive at Ypres in Flanders during October & November 1914. This attack was against British & Canadian troops. In addition, there is an introduction by the British Historical Section which places the campaign in the context of British plans & operations.
$34.00
Groom, Winston,
A STORM IN FLANDERS, THE YPRES SALIENT, 1914-1918:
Tragedy and Triumph on the Western Front ..
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket,
(NY: Grove/Atlantic, Inc, 2002).
introduction, Author's Note on Unit Sizes and Designations, 66 b&w photos
& illus., 5 maps, bibliographic notes, source notes, index, maps as rear
endpapers, 276 pages.
~~~ From Kirkus Reviews:
A somber portrait of early modern war in one of its
most hellish manifestations. Best known for the novel
Forrest Gump (1986), Groom is also a seasoned writer on
historical subjects (Shrouds of Glory, 1995, etc).
The
present study brings us little that other histories do
not-Stanley Weintraub's recent Silent Night,
for instance, focuses on the famed Christmas truce of
1914, while John Keegan's The First World War
gives extensive coverage on the Ypres
Salient-but it relates the terrible events of four
years with fluency and sometimes unpleasant vividness.
From Groom we learn that a single 1917 battle along the
Belgian front "enriched the Flanders earth with the
corpses of some
228,000 Englishmen and Germans, not to mention about
20,000 French, all in an area not much longer than
Manhattan Island." He adds that we still do not have
an accurate number of total deaths in the Ypres area,
and that statisticians can
only posit the true, and staggering, extent of the
bloodshed. All those corpses
over four years lent the trenches on both sides an
infernal aspect, which Groom
evokes with well-chosen quotations from the combatants:
a Canadian soldier relates
that the "whole salient had an odor beyond
description," which does not stop Groom from doing his
best to describe the smells, sights, and sounds of a
battle
that seemed to go on forever. (Another Canadian
soldier, John Macrae, wrote the
poem "In Flanders Fields," the Ypres front's best-known
literary monument.)
Groom's account, full of detail and the smell of
gunsmoke, is expertly paced and
free of dull stretches, unlike more technical
studies of the Ypres Salient: he
knows just when enough is enough, when it's time to
pull his lens from close-ups of hand-to-hand fighting
and exploding Germans up to the big picture of
Ypres in the overall context of WWI. A fine narrative
that will be of much interest to students of military
history.
~~~ Hardcover originally published at $27.50, now OUT OF PRINT.
Gilbert, Martin,
THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A Complete History..
NEW copy. Hardcover with dust jacket. Photographs, maps, page-end notes, bibliography, index, 615 pages.
Horne, Charles F. (Editor in Chief) and
Walter F. Austin (Directing Editor),
SOURCE RECORDS OF THE GREAT WAR..
Complete in seven volumes, with four supplementary volumes. American Legion Edition.
Joffre, von Ludendorff, Foch & Wilhelm.
THE TWO BATTLES OF THE
MARNE.
Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1927., VG. First Edition.
No DJ. Front cover starting to loosen. Lower corner of front
board slightly frayed & bumped. Otherwise a clean, sound copy
with very little wear. Lettering bright on front & on spine.
Accounts on the two battles of the Marne River, 1914 & 1918,
by the two French leaders, Marshal Joffre & Marshal Foch, and
the two German leaders General von Ludendorff and Crown Prince
Wilhelm. 229 pp.
Prior, Robin and
Trevor Wilson (General Editor: John Keegan),
THE FIRST WORLD WAR (Cassel's History of Warfare Series)..
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket, 8x11.
Cassell & Co., 2000. Illustrated throughout, 28 color maps, chronology, biographies, suggested further readings, index, 224 pages. "World War I created the modern world. By ushering in modern techniques of warfare and redrawing the boundaries of Europe, the war forever changed how wars would be fought and how politics would be conducted. In this concise and authoritative history packed with photographs and specially commissioned battle maps, historians Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson vividly bring back to life this worldwide conflict, its horrific toll, and its significant consequences." British import. OUT OF PRINT.
McCarthy, Chris,
THE SOMME: The Day-by-day Account.
Greenwich Editions., 1996. NEW copy. Hardcover. Glossy illustrated
boards issued without dust jacket. Glossy paper throughout. 9x11.
Profusely illustrated with maps and photographs. Appendices,
bibliography, index, 176 pages.
major campaigns, and the consequences of the First World War, compressing a lifetime of knowledge into a single definitive volume. Written in crisp, compelling prose and enlivened with vivid photographs, many of which have never appeared in print before, and detailed maps, The First World War re-creates this world-altering conflict both on and off the battlefield: the clash of ideologies between the colonial powers at the center of the war, the social and economic unrest that swept Europe both before and after, the military strategies employed with stunning success and tragic failure in the various theaters of war, the terms of peace and why it did not last. Drawing on material culled from many countries, Strachan offers a fresh, clear-sighted perspective on how the war not only redrew the map of the world but also set in motion the most dangerous conflicts of today. Deeply learned and powerfully written, The First World War will stand as a landmark of contemporary history. " ~~~ From Publishers Weekly:
"One of the leading historians of WWI offers this superior one-volume version of his massive projected three-volume work, the first volume of which, To Arms, clocked in at 1250-plus pages last year. Strachan strenuously avoids the traditional focus on the Western Front (and the British) and the conventional assumptions of generals' stupidity and soldiers' valor. The war as he sees it was a race among generals on all sides to create new weapons and tactics faster than their opponents, a race that the Triple Entente won. It was also a race among soldiers to fight with these new weapons and tactics instead of raw courage and numbers wherever possible. Yet Russia and the Dual Monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were totally unfit for a large modern war (one reason the czar and his empire fell in 1917) and were a source of fatal weakness to Germany's alliance even before Italy changed sides. The political background (including the rising consciousness of colonial nationalities conscripted for the war), social consequences and diplomatic finagling all face an equal amount of revision, leaving the book organized more thematically than chronologically. Readers already familiar with the sequence of events in strict order will benefit most. But all readers will eventually be gripped, and even the most seasoned ones will praise the insights and the original choice of illustrations. This is likely to be the most indispensable one-volume work on the subject since John Keegan's First World War, and will draw serious readers to the larger work."
Terraine, John.
TO WIN A WAR: 1918, THE YEAR OF VICTORY..
Doubleday, 1981., VG/VG, First Edition. DJ in mylar protector.
Original "14.95" price still intact on DJ. A nice clean copy with
no apparent flaws. Maps, photographs, chapter-end notes,
bibliography, appendices, index, 268 pp. $35.00
Thomas, Capt. Shipley,
THE HISTORY OF THE A.E.F.
Battery Press Reprint of 1920 Edition, in Association with the
Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation., 2000. NEW copy. Hardcover,
decorated boards. Maps, diagrams, illustrations, photographs, tour
guide, index, 540 pages.
German General Staff.
YPRES 1914: AN OFFICIAL GERMAN ACCOUNT, THE GENERAL STAFF
. NEW copy, Battery Press, 1994.
Hardcover issued without dustjacket. 160 pages.
