The British at First and Second Ypres

The British at First and Second Ypres PDF

Author: Bob Carruthers

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2015-09-21

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1473876575

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This new volume in the long-running Images of War series features the actions of the British Army at Ypres from 1914-15. Rare photographs illustrating the optimistic men of the BEF in the act of mobilization and transport to France are contrasted with photographs from the battlefield during the opening phases of the campaign, which culminated in the four-year struggle for the Ypres salient. The photographs are accompanied by a fascinating text, featuring Bruce Bairnsfather's personal description of the conditions endured by the men in the rudimentary trenches on the Ypres salient during 1914-15 as the early phase of the battle for Ypres raged around them. This book incorporates a wide range of photographic images encompassing the actions of the cavalry, infantry and artillery. Also featured are images, which depict the myriad activity behind the lines, dealing with German prisoners of war, the endless supply columns of the commissariat and the extraordinary efforts to provide proper medical care for the wounded.

Magnificent But Not War

Magnificent But Not War PDF

Author: John Dixon

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 184415002X

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"[This volume] is essentially a day-by-day record of the Second Battle of Ypres which draws heavily upon personal accounts, regimental histories and war diaries to present a comprehensive study of the battle in which Germany gained the dubious distinction of becoming the first nation in history to use poisonous gas as a weapon of war"--Jacket.

Ypres

Ypres PDF

Author: Mark Connelly

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2018-10-25

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0198713371

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In 1914, Ypres was a sleepy Belgian city admired for its magnificent Gothic architecture. The arrival of the rival armies in October 1914 transformed it into a place known throughout the world, each of the combatants associating the place with it its own particular palette of values and imagery. It is now at the heart of First World War battlefield tourism, with much of its economy devoted to serving the interests of visitors from across the world. The surrounding countryside is dominated by memorials, cemeteries, and museums, many of which were erected in the 1920s and 1930s, but the number of which are being constantly added to as fascination with the region increases. Mark Connelly and Stefan Goebel explore the ways in which Ypres has been understood and interpreted by Britain and the Commonwealth, Belgium, France, and Germany, including the variants developed by the Nazis, looking at the ways in which different groups have struggled to impose their own narratives on the city and the region around it. They explore the city's growth as a tourist destination and examine the sometimes tricky relationship between local people and battlefield visitors, on the spectrum between respectful pilgrims and tourists seeking shocks and thrills. The result of new and extensive archival research across a number of countries, this new volume in the Great Battles series offers an innovative overview of the development of a critical site of Great War memory.

Borrowed Soldiers

Borrowed Soldiers PDF

Author: Mitchell A. Yockelson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2016-01-18

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0806155604

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The combined British Expeditionary Force and American II Corps successfully pierced the Hindenburg Line during the Hundred Days Campaign of World War I, an offensive that hastened the war’s end. Yet despite the importance of this effort, the training and operation of II Corps has received scant attention from historians. Mitchell A. Yockelson delivers a comprehensive study of the first time American and British soldiers fought together as a coalition force—more than twenty years before D-Day. He follows the two divisions that constituted II Corps, the 27th and 30th, from the training camps of South Carolina to the bloody battlefields of Europe. Despite cultural differences, General Pershing’s misgivings, and the contrast between American eagerness and British exhaustion, the untested Yanks benefited from the experience of battle-toughened Tommies. Their combined forces contributed much to the Allied victory. Yockelson plumbs new archival sources, including letters and diaries of American, Australian, and British soldiers to examine how two forces of differing organization and attitude merged command relationships and operations. Emphasizing tactical cooperation and training, he details II Corps’ performance in Flanders during the Ypres-Lys offensive, the assault on the Hindenburg Line, and the decisive battle of the Selle. Featuring thirty-nine evocative photographs and nine maps, this account shows how the British and American military relationship evolved both strategically and politically. A case study of coalition warfare, Borrowed Soldiers adds significantly to our understanding of the Great War.

Ypres

Ypres PDF

Author: Ian Beckett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1317865332

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The battle for Ypres in October and November 1914 represented the last opportunity for open, mobile warfare on the Western Front. In the first study of First Ypres for almost 40 years, Ian Beckett draws on a wide range of sources never previously used to reappraise the conduct of the battle, its significance and its legacy.

Ypres 1914: Langemarck

Ypres 1914: Langemarck PDF

Author: Jack Sheldon

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2014-04-30

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 147383726X

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These three Battleground Europe books on Ypres 1914 mark the centenary of the final major battle of the 1914 campaign on the Western Front. Although fought over a relatively small area and short time span, the fighting was even more than usually chaotic and the stakes were extremely high. Authors Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon combine their respective expertise to tell the story of the men British, French, Indian and German - who fought over the unremarkable undulating ground that was to become firmly placed in British national conscience ever afterwards.When, in October 1914, the newly created German Fourth Army attacked west to seize crossings over the Yser, prior to sweeping south in an attempt to surround the BEF, two things prevented it. To the north, it was the efforts of the Belgian army, reinforced by French troops, coupled with controlled flooding of the polders but, further south, the truly heroic defence of Langemarck, for three days by the BEF and then by the French army, was of decisive importance. The village stood as a bulwark against any further advance to the river or the town of Ypres. Here the German regiments bled to death in the face of resolute Allied defence and any remaining hope of forcing a decision in the west turned to dust.

Defending the Ypres Front, 1914–1918

Defending the Ypres Front, 1914–1918 PDF

Author: Jan Vancoillie

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2017-09-30

Total Pages: 506

ISBN-13: 1526707489

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Published by the Memorial Museum Passchendaele in 2016 in Dutch as Bouwen aan het front, this book examines how the German army developed field fortifications to hold what can loosely be described as the Ypres Front. With the decision by Falkenhayn in 1915 to concentrate Germanys offensive efforts largely in the east, the German defenders around Ypres set to developing their lines for semi-permanent occupation. The sub soil around the Salient generally made it difficult to construct and maintain mined (i.e. deep) dugouts—unlike on, for example the Somme, with easily worked chalk not far below the surface. The only practicable alternative was to use reinforced concrete.In this book the authors (both with many years of experience in researching and working on matters Great War, particularly the German army in Belgium) have examined in detail an impressive range of primary sources to provide a narrative of what the Germans built, how they built it (the logistical challenge was enormous) and how the designs and requirements of bunkers (for example, forward medical bunkers, artillery shelters, machine gun and observation bunkers) changed as the war progressed and as the military situation on the front dictated. There are many photographs, largely unseen by British readers, design diagrams and maps to supplement the text; whilst the activities of selected particular formations are examined in detail to provide an example of the effort that was put into the work.Additions to the Dutch edition will include a tours section, taking a visitor to accessible remaining structures in the Salient area; and a glossary of terms and their English equivalent. The book will be in full color throughout.

Hell in Flanders Fields

Hell in Flanders Fields PDF

Author: George H. Cassar

Publisher: Dundurn

Published: 2010-08-30

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 177070471X

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On 22 April 1915, the men of the 1st Canadian Division faced chlorine gas, a new lethal weapon against which they had no defence. In defiance of a particularly horrible death, or, at the very least, severe lung injury, these untested Canadians fought almost continuously for four days, often hand-to-hand, as they clung stubbornly against overwhelming odds to a vital part of the Allied line after the French units on their left fled in panic. By doing so, they saved 50,000 troops in the Ypres salient from almost certain destruction, and, in addition, prevented the momentum of the war from tipping in favour of the Germans. In this new, deeply researched account, the distinguished military historian George H. Cassar skillfully blends into the history of the battle the graphic and moving words of the men on the front line. Illustrated with outstanding photographs and numerous maps, and drawing from diaries, letters, and documents from every level of planning, Hell in Flanders Fields is an authoritative, gripping drama of politics, strategy, and human courage.

A Storm in Flanders

A Storm in Flanders PDF

Author: Winston Groom

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1555847803

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From the Pulitzer Prize–nominated author of Forrest Gump: “A fascinating, evenhanded, page-turning account” of Ypres’s pivotal WWI battles (San Francisco Chronicle). The Ypres Salient in Belgian Flanders was the most notorious and dreaded territory in all of World War I—possibly of any war in history. After Germany’s failed attempt to capture Britain’s critical ports along the English Channel, a bloody stalemate ensued in this pastoral area no larger than the island of Manhattan. Ypres became a place of horror, heroism, and terrifying new tactics and technologies: poison gas, tanks, mines, air strikes, and the unspeakable misery of trench warfare. Drawing on the journals of the men and women who were there, Winston Groom has penned a drama of politics, strategy, the human heart, and the struggle for victory against all odds. This ebook features 16 pages of black-and-white historical photographs. “Everything nonfiction should be.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Groom reconstructs a forgotten military passage that serves as a cautionary tale about war’s consequences.” —Pittsburgh Tribune-Review “Groom’s account, full of detail and the smell of gunsmoke, is expertly paced and free of dull stretches.” —Kirkus Reviews “Moving . . . Inspiring . . . An important and brilliantly written book.” —Booklist