Title: The German Army Handbook of 1918

Author: Deryck Schreuder

Publisher: Frontline Books

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: German Army

Category: First World War

Compiled by British Intelligence, for restricted official issue by the General Staff, "German Army Handbook", April 1918, is a comprehensive assessment of the German Army during the latter stages of the First World War. Illustrated throughout with plates, diagrams, charts, tables and maps, it provides a detailed breakdown of the army, covering all aspects from recruiting and training, mobilization, command and organisation, weapons and signals to transportation, medical and veterinary services, and uniform. There are also two maps, showing Army Corps Districts, and Zones of Administration and Lines of Command in June 1917.The events of 1914 transformed the armies of Europe, and made much of the information contained in the amended 1912 handbook worthless. The emergence of trench warfare created conditions in which the traditional concepts of offence and defence had little meaning. Within a few months battle conditions had created a situation in which pre-war intelligence publications had only little relevance. "The German Army Handbook", April 1918 was a remarkable achievement. It provides solutions to many questions that histories of the First World War and accounts of its battles are unable to answer. It shows how the static conventions of trench warfare usurped the traditional role of cavalry, and how the German Army were able to take advantage of the dominance of the machine-gun on the Western Front in 1915.

Title: Dictionery of Tommies' Songs and Slang

Author: John Brophy & Eric Partridge

Publisher: Frontline Books

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Soldiers

Category: First World War

During the First World War the British soldiers were renowned for their chirpy songs and plucky sayings. Indeed nothing would lift the spirits of the often exhausted and demoralized troops more than a hearty singalong. These cheery and at times ribald and satiric songs and sayings have been collected together to give a fascinating insight into the more light-hearted side of trench life. The songs include marching tunes, songs for billets and rude chants for when no commanding officer was present. Each song is accompanied by a short passage that traces the origins of the melody and accounts for lyrical alternatives. There is also a large glossary of soldiers' slang words and phrases, revealing the Tommies' vocabulary in all its bawdiness. "The Daily Telegraph - Dictionary of Tommies' Song and Slang" reveals the courage, gaiety and astringent cynicism with which men armed themselves against the horrors of trench warfare.

Title: Landownership in Eastern Germany Before the Great War

Author: Scott M. Eddie

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Price: £65.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus: Chronology of First World War

Category: Travel Writing

The big landlords of eastern Germany have loomed large in the country's history, but the absence of official statistics on landownership has left their position and identity confined to folklore, without satisfactory quantification. This study, making extensive use of primary sources from the seven 'core provinces' of eastern Germany-the so-called 'East Elbian' region-establishes answers to questions pivotal to our understanding of pre-war Germany: who were the biggest landowners, both by area and by the tax assessment of their land? Which social groups held land? How much land did they own and where? How did this change, especially during the last decades before the Great War? Professor Eddie demonstrates that most of the inroads into landownership by the bourgeoisie had already been made by the mid-1850s, perhaps even before the mid-1830s. However, one of the most interesting findings in this study is that, despite rapid industrialization after 1880, there was a net exodus of the nouveaux riches from the ranks of large land owners. On the eve of war, the largest landowners were the Prussian state, the royalty, and the higher nobility. Meticulously researched and thoroughly documented, this book will be the benchmark for all future work in this area.

Title: Liverpool Pals

Author: Graham Maddocks

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Price: £25.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus: Pals Battalions

Category: First World War

"Liverpool Pals", is a record of duty, courage and endeavour of a group of men who, before war broke out in 1914, were the backbone of Liverpool's commerce. Fired with patriotism, over 4,000 of these businessmen volunteered in 1914 and were formed into the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th (Service) Battalions of the King's (Liverpool Regiment); they were the first of all the Pals battalions to be raised, and they were the last to be stood down.It is commonly held that the North of England's Pals battalions were wiped out on the 1st July, 1916, certainly this befell a number of units, but the Liverpool Pals took all their objectives on that day. From then on they fought all through the Somme Battle, The Battle of Arras and the muddy hell of Passchendaele in 1917, and the desperate defence against the German offensive of March 1918.

Title: Cheerful Sacrifice

Author: Joanthan Nicholls

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Price: £14.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus: Chronology of First World War

Category: First World War

Cheerful Sacrifice tells the story of the spring offensive of April - May 1917, otherwise known as the Battle of Arras. Probably because the noise had hardly died down before it started up again with the explosions at Messines, shortly to be followed by the even more horrible Third Ypres - remembered as Passchendaele - the Battle of Arras has not received the attention it deserves. Yet, as the author points out, on the basis of the daily casualty rate it was the most lethal and costly British offensive battle of the First World War. In the thirty-nine days that the battle lasted the average casualty rate was far higher than at either the Somme or Passchendaele. Jonathan Nicholls, in this his first book, gives the Battle of Arras its proper place in the annals of military history, enhancing his text with a wealth of eye-witness accounts. One is left in no doubt that the survivor who described it as 'the most savage infantry battle of the war', did not exaggerate. Nor can there be much doubt that the author is destined to rise high in the firmament of military historians.

Title: A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919

Author: David A. Andelman

Publisher: Wiley

Price: £30.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Versailles Treaty

Category: First World War

In a Shattered Peace, veteran foreign correspondent David A. Andelman takes a fresh look at the Treat of Versailles as the point of origin for many of today's most critical international issues. This revealing history exposes the powerful lessons that a six-month period in a long ago era has for us today. Andelman turns the spotlight on the many errors committed by the peacemakers that led to crises and bloodshed from Algeria to Kosovo and wars from Israel to Vietnam.

Title: War Girls

Author: Janet Lee

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Price: £30.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: First Aid Nursing Yeomanry

Category: First World War

The fascinating story of the British women who volunteered for service in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry during the First World War; Accessible and enjoyable to read history of an interesting, quirky, audacious and pioneering sisterhood of women; Analyses the relationship between gender and war in the early twentieth century; The first full length book on the subject; The author's passion and enthusiasm for her subject are palpable; Includes personal testimonies e.g. diaries, letters and memoirs from the women themselves.

Title: Hard as Nails

Author: Michael Foley

Publisher: Spellmount

Price: £18.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Sport and the First World War

Category: First World War

This is the history of the Sportsmen's Battalion, Royal Fusiliers 23rd service battalion, which consisted almost entirely of men from the world of sport or entertainment. The battalion was privately raised and took men up to the age of 45. The battalion included a champion boxer, cricketers, footballers, MPs and the author John Chessire. They were men who did not need to serve in the First World War but had an unquestioning sense of duty. The history is enhanced by the letters and drawings by John Chessire, giving a first-hand account of their experiences. A man from the upper classes, a writer, poet and artist, he chose to serve as a private so he could do his duty, even when it conflicted with his religious beliefs and love for his family. The book covers the battalion's beginnings in London and progression to Hornchurch, France and then Germany. It includes their time at Vimy Ridge, at the Somme and at the Battle for Deville Wood.

Title: The US Army of World War I

Author: Mark R. Henry

Publisher: Osprey

Price: £9.50

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: US Army in the First World War

Category: First World War

Before the mid-1916 National Defense Act the US Army had a few tens of thousands of men, but by November 1918 there were nearly a million and a half American combat troops in France. General Pershing's American Expeditionary Force arrived in 1917 short of weapons, equipment, and experience of modern warfare; but it proved itself in the fighting on the Argonne, and played a major part in stopping Germany's last offensive in spring 1918, and in the final advance through the Hindenburg Line. This book details the organisation, uniforms, equipment and campaigns of the US Army in World War I.

Title: Healing the Nation

Author: Jeffrey S. Reznick

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Price: £35.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Women and the First World War

Category: Military History

Healing the Nation is a study of caregiving during the Great War, looking anew at life behind the lines for ordinary British soldiers who served on the Western Front. Using a variety of literary, artistic, and architectural evidence, this study draws connections between the war machine and the wartime culture of caregiving: the product of medical knowledge and procedure, social relationships, matériel, institutions and physical environments that informed experiences of rest, recovery and rehabilitation in sites administered by military and voluntary-aid authorities. Rest huts, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers served not only as means to sustain manpower and support for the war but also as distinctive sites where soldiers, their caregivers and the public attempted to make sense of the conflict, and the unprecedented change it wrought, within traditional frames of reference. Revealing many aspects of wartime life that have received limited, if any attention, including the phenomenon of rest huts as ‘homes away from home’ and the notion of ‘convalescent blues’, this study shows that Britain’s ‘generation of 1914’ was a group bound as much by comradeship of healing as by comradeship of the trenches.

Title: History of the Great War

Author: Punch Magazine

Publisher: Nonsuch

Price: £16.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus: Chronology of First World War

Category: First World War

This is no formal history of the Great War in the strict or scientific sense of the phase; no detailed record of naval and military operations. There have been many occasions on which silence or reticence seemed the only way to maintain the national composure. "Mr Punch's History of the Great War" is a mirror of varying moods, month by month, but also reflecting in the main how England remained steadfastly true to her best traditions.

Title: Soldier, Poet, Rebel

Author: Miles Hudson

Publisher: Sutton

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: First World War Soldiers

Category: First World War

Charles Hudson VC was one of the twentieth century's outstanding fighting soldiers. His military career through two world wars and in Russia in 1919 earned him a host of medals. He was also a man of deep feeling, an accomplished poet and, in many ways, a rebel. In this compelling biography, the author skilfully interweaves his own narrative insight with his father's wartime journals and other unpublished material. The narrative includes detailed personal descriptions of the Battle of the Somme and other actions. It recounts the authoress Vera Brittain's bitter reaction to the death of her brother Edward when under Hudson's command in Italy in 1918 and tells how Hudson, out of compassion for her feelings, did not reveal the truth until he met her in 1934. It tells of the extraordinary affair in the summer of 1940, when the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, asked a meeting of senior army commanders in the then beleaguered Britain whether, in the event of a successful German invasion, their soldiers would agree to be evacuated to Canada or whether they would insist on going home to support their families. The author examines Hudson's motivation in both wars and delves deeply into his complex, and highly courageous, character.

Title: Forgotten Soldiers of the First World War

Author: David Woodward

Publisher: Tempus

Price: £12.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: First World War Battles

Category: First World War

We know a great deal about Lawrence of Arabia but what about the lot of the common soldier who fought on the Middle Eastern Front? Using personal accounts from the diaries and letters of British soldiers who served in the First World War, David Woodward describes the experience of combat in Egypt and Palestine. Drawing upon unpublished records in the Imperial War Museum, "Forgotten Soldiers of the First World War" paints a vivid picture of life for the British Tommy in conditions vastly different from the Western Front, where heat, sand storms and insects proved just as deadly as the enemy.

Title: Anzacs and Ireland

Author: Jeff Kildea

Publisher: Cork University Press

Price: £19.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Allied Forces

Category: First World War

The book offers an account of the activities of Australian soldiers on leave who ended up in Ireland as tourists and often found themselves caught up in the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Black and Tan War. The chapter on the Easter Rising adds a new dimension to the increasingly complex picture of that event, while students and scholars of the Irish diaspora will find much of interest also. The author makes use of participants' diaries. There are fascinating glimpses of rarely mentioned social aspects of wartime Ireland, such as the 'six bob a day tourists' (Australian soldiers on leave). Kildea also looks at the ongoing impact of the First World War on Australian and Irish identity, and compares recent commemorations of WWI in both countries.

Educational Websites

Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Virtual Library,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Learn History, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, Teach It, Science Active, Geography IST, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Universal Teacher, English Teaching, English Online, History Learning Site,
History on the Net, Black History, Greenfield History, School History, HistoryWorld, I Love History,
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