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Author: Ray Westlake
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 1996-06-01
Total Pages: 305
ISBN-13: 085052511X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Following the success of British Battalions on the Somme, the author has produced a source book of the same quality on the Gallipoli Campaign. It has come about as a result of many years of enquiries from researchers and family historians.
Author: Peter Hart
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-10-07
Total Pages: 561
ISBN-13: 0199911878
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →One of the most famous battles in history, the WWI Gallipoli campaign began as a bold move by the British to capture Constantinople, but this definitive new history explains that from the initial landings--which ended with so much blood in the sea it could be seen from airplanes overhead--to the desperate attacks of early summer and the battle of attrition that followed, it was a tragic folly destined to fail from the start. Gallipoli forced the young Winston Churchill from office, established Turkey's iconic founder Mustafa Kemal (better known as "Ataturk"), and marked Australia's emergence as a nation in its own right. Drawing on unpublished eyewitness accounts by individuals from all ranks--not only from Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but from Turkey and France as well--Peter Hart weaves first-hand stories into a vivid narrative of the battle and its aftermath. Hart, a historian with the Imperial War Museum and a battlefield tour guide at Gallipoli, provides a vivid, boots-on-the-ground account that brilliantly evokes the confusion of war, the horrors of combat, and the grim courage of the soldiers. He provides an astute, unflinching assessment of the leaders as well. He shows that the British invasion was doomed from the start, but he places particular blame on General Sir Ian Hamilton, whose misplaced optimism, over-complicated plans, and unwillingness to recognize the gravity of the situation essentially turned likely failure into complete disaster. Capturing the sheer drama and bravery of the ferocious fighting, the chivalry demonstrated by individuals on both sides amid merciless wholesale slaughter, and the futility of the cause for which ordinary men fought with extraordinary courage and endurance--Gallipoli is a riveting account of a battle that continues to fascinate us close to a hundred years after the event.
Author: Rodney Ashwood
Publisher:
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781911512172
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →While the main emphasis of the Great War was on the Western Front of France and Belgium, the British Army also took part in what was a lesser known conflict, but one of equal intensity and drama. This was at Gallipoli, on the shores of Turkey, between April 1915 and January 1916. By December 1914, the war on the Western Front had ground to a halt in a stalemate of trench warfare, and Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, proposed a strategy to take Turkey, a German ally, out of the war. This could force Germany to fight on two fronts and could free up the Dardanelles waterway at Gallipoli. While the concept was sound, its execution was not, as it was hastily planned, and inadequately resourced. The 2nd Battalion the South Wales Borderers was present throughout the whole campaign and was the only Welsh battalion to take part in the amphibious assault on 25 April 1915. Other historians give little credence to the success of the battalion on that day and this book sets out to redress the balance. The 4th Battalion landed at Gallipoli a few months later, to take part in the second main offensive, at Suvla Bay, in August 1915. This campaign took part amidst the most appalling conditions, such as the unrelenting heat of a mediterranean summer, a lack of water, poor food, inadequate equipment and without proper sanitation. Sickness and disease were rife, and at the height of the war there were up to 5,000 cases of dysentery a week. Both battalions of this famous Welsh regiment endured the privations of the campaign with great stoicism, courage and dignity and were amongst the last soldiers to leave the peninsula during the final evacuation in January 1916. By a clever weave of official records and personal anecdotes, most of which have never been published before, the reader is taken on a journey of highs and lows, depicting the reality of life on active service. Meticulously researched and written, this is a personal account of the South Wales Borderers during the Gallipoli campaign which adds an important social dimension to the traditional style of books already written on one of the most dramatic campaigns in British military history. Some of the best, toughest and most generous soldiers in the British army come from Wales. This book serves as a tribute to those magnificent soldiers.
Author: Brigadier E. A. James
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Published: 2012-09-06
Total Pages: 137
ISBN-13: 178150153X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →One of the most used and most useful works of reference on the Great War ever published. In this marvellous volume is listed every cavalry and Yeomanry regiment, every battalion of every infantry regiment, Regular, Territorial or other - that existed during the Great War. In every case the location of the unit on 4 August 1914 is given, or the date and place of its formation if raised after the outbreak of war. Its initial disposition, subsequent moves, changes in subordination and final disposal or location on 11 November 1918 are all recorded. Thus, in a masterly and concise form, we have the war service record of 31 regular and 17 reserve cavalry regiments, 57 Yeomanry regiments and their second and third line counterparts and nearly 1,750 infantry battalions. Several appendices contain a mine of information; a table of the infantry regiments showing the number of the different types of battalions each had, regular, reserve, extra reserve, territorial, New Army, garrison etc.; how the New Army battalions were raised; the Training Reserve; list of infantry divisions; summary of battle honours, casualties and VCs of each infantry regiment. Finally, there is a good index.
Author: Evan McGilvray
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-02-27
Total Pages: 250
ISBN-13: 1781590761
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This is a study of Sir Ian Hamilton VCs command of the Gallipoli campaign. Appointed by Kitchener after the failure of the initial Allied naval offensive in the Dardanelles, Hamilton was to lead the ambitious amphibious landings that were intended to open the way to Constantinople. In the event, however, opportunities immediately after the landings were squandered and, in the face of unexpectedly effective Turkish resistance, soon stalled in attritional trench warfare like that on the Western Front. ?Hamilton has often been criticized for this failure and in many ways seen to typify the stereotype of a British general clinging to outdated Victorian thinking. Yet this fresh reappraisal, drawing on original archival research, shows that Hamilton did display some progressive ideas and a realization that warfare was rapidly changing. Like all generals of this period he faced the challenge of unprecedented technological and tactical revolution as well as the political and media battle. It is as a case study of command in these circumstances that Evan Mcgilvray's assessment of Hamilton will be most valued.
Author: H. C. O'Neill
Publisher:
Published: 2002-01-01
Total Pages: 496
ISBN-13: 9781843421733
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Royal Fusiliers (7th Foot) was one of five infantry of the line regiments to have four regular battalions (all the others had two each) and two Special Reserve, numbered 1 to 6. In addition the RF had an Extra Reserve battalion, the 7th. By the end of the war the number of battalions had risen to 44, and in the first half of 1919 a further two battalions (45 and 46 ) were raised for service in North Russia. The regiment did not have its own Territorial battalions but the first four battalions of the London Regiment were affiliated and included (Royal Fusiliers) as part of their full title. These in turn raised 2nd, 3rd and 4th line duplicate battalions. Leaving aside the London Regiment battalions this history quotes an estimated 195,000 as having served in the RF (more than the whole of the original BEF); if the Londons are included the total rises to 235,476. They fought in every theatre of war except Mesopotamia and 15,600 died. 80 Battle Honours and 12 VCs were awarded (James s British Regiments 1914-1918). The first two VCs of the Great War were awarded to Lieut M Dease (posthumous) and Pte S Godley, both of the 4th Battalion, both at Mons on 23 August 1914. To cover so many battalions in detail in a single volume is hardly practical, but the author has managed a fair compromise. He has set out to deal with every significant engagement as correctly and completely as possible, while singling out incidents he judges worthy of note. He does not devote separate chapters or sections to each battalion but lets the story unroll, bringing in the battalions as they appear on the scene. There are separate chapters on Gallipoli, Salonika and East Africa; the rest of the book is concerned with the Western Front. His sources are the battalion diaries, personal diaries of officers, special accounts of particular actions contributed by soldiers actually involved, letters and conversations. The opening chapter is of particular interest because here the author explains in some detail how the regiment expanded and how each wartime battalion came to be formed. The appendix gives the Roll of Honour of officers (1054 names); a table showing the numbers of Warrant Officers, NCOs and Men on the Roll of Honour, by battalions; a table summarising decorations awarded, including foreign awards; brief biographies or notes on a number of RF general ranking officers; and several accounts of soldiers who took part in the various operations. There is a good, 24-page index.
Author: Ray Westlake
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 1997-09-05
Total Pages: 537
ISBN-13: 1473812747
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A unique account of the 143 infantry battalions of the British Army that served in France and Belgium from August to the end of December, 1914, during WWI. Ray Westlake has painstakingly compiled a comprehensive compendium of the exact movements of every regiment involved on the various battlefields in France and Flanders during World War One. Detailed records of movements, both in and out of battle areas and on a day-by-day basis, are covered in the same meticulous style as the author’s previous books, British Battalions on the Somme and British Regiments at Gallipoli.
Author: Ray Westlake
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2000-11-12
Total Pages: 243
ISBN-13: 1783379960
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The author's previous three books in this series—British Battalions on the Somme, 1916, British Regiments at Gallipoli andBritish Battalions in France and Belgium, 1914 have achieved all that they set out to do. On the historical side it is now agreed by a large number of grateful historians, researchers, museum curators, librarians etc. that for the first time they are able to establish quickly and conveniently what part each unit played in these important campaigns. It was also intended to provide family historians with a means of tracing the war service of their relatives. This again has been accomplished. British Battalions in France and Belgium, January- June, 1915 sets out with the same objectives in mind, on this occasion providing a unique account of the 291 infantry battalions of the British Army that served in France and Belgium from 1st January to the end of June, 1915. Over 500 volumes of war diaries and unit histories have been consulted, along with personal memoirs and diaries. Detailed records of movements, both in and out of battle areas and on a day-by-day basis, being covered in the same meticulous style as before.
Author: Joseph Murray
Publisher: Cerberus Publishing Limited
Published: 2005-06-25
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781841450476
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Gallipoli Campaign stands out as a landmark in the history of the First World War, and it was perhaps the most controversial action of that war; it certainly ended in tragedy. The author, Joseph Murray, was among the 400,000 British and Empire troops taking part; he served as a naval rating turned soldier in the Hood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division. This book is based on a diary he kept at the time and his later letters home. The battle was a war of nerves, largely played out underground in the tunnels constantly being built by either side. This is a thoroughly riveting and detailed account of that important but tragic operation.
