The first book written about Britain's premier army base in the First World War.??The book contains and explores the following:??• The first published record of the troops in Aldershot on 4 August 1914.?• The first published list of officers and men from Aldershot killed in the war.?• Lists the dead from WWI in Aldershot Cemetery.?• Outlines the activities of crucial figures in the War such as Smith-Dorrien, Haig and French in Aldershot in the period before the War.?• Traces the growth development of aircraft manufacture at Farnborough under the guidance of Mervyn O'Gorman from a balloon factory to major aircraft manufacture.?• Highlights the changes in the social fabric of Aldershot during the war.?• Records the experience of Aldershot as a premier training base through the eyes of Anthony Eden, Wilfred Owen and men of all ranks.

Named one of the Ten Best Books of 2013 by The Economist World War I altered the landscape of the modern world in every conceivable arena. Millions died; empires collapsed; new ideologies and political movements arose; poison gas, warplanes, tanks, submarines, and other technologies appeared. -Total war- emerged as a grim, mature reality. In The Great War, Peter Hart provides a masterful combat history of this global conflict. Focusing on the decisive engagements, Hart explores the immense challenges faced by the commanders on all sides. He surveys the belligerent nations, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and strategic imperatives. Russia, for example, was obsessed with securing an exit from the Black Sea, while France--having lost to Prussia in 1871, before Germany united--constructed a network of defensive alliances, even as it held a grudge over the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. Hart offers deft portraits of the commanders, the prewar plans, and the unexpected obstacles and setbacks that upended the initial operations.

The last great war of antiquity was fought on an unprecedented scale along the full length of the Persian-Roman frontier. James Howard-Johnston pieces together the fragmentary evidence of this period to form, for the first time, a coherent story of the dramatic events, key players, and vast lands over which the conflict spread.

The British army was almost unique among the European armies of the Great War in that it did not suffer from a serious breakdown of discipline or collapse of morale. It did, however, inevitably suffer from disciplinary problems. While attention has hitherto focused on the 312 notorious ‘shot at dawn’ cases, many thousands of British soldiers were tried by court martial during the Great War. This book provides the first comprehensive study of discipline and morale in the British Army during the Great War by using a case study of the Irish regular and Special Reserve batallions. In doing so, Timothy Bowman demonstrates that breaches of discipline did occur in the Irish regiments but in most cases these were of a minor nature. Controversially, he suggests that where executions did take place, they were militarily necessary and served the purpose of restoring discipline in failing units. Bowman also shows that there was very little support for the emerging Sinn Fein movement within the Irish regiments. This book will be essential reading for military and Irish historians and their students, and will interest any general reader concerned with how units maintain discipline and morale under the most trying conditions.

There were fewer than 500 houses in Yateley in WWI but with Aldershot, Farnborough, Camberley and Sandhurst close by, this Hampshire villages response to the call to arms was more prepared than most, and punched above its weight.Using contemporary evidence from many sources researched by our local history team, the Yateley Society recreates the impact of the War on our predecessors. The story of the men who left Yateley to fight -- territorials, regulars, volunteers and conscripts -- is told alongside that of the battalions of Kitcheners New Armies training in trench warfare on Yateley Common. At the same time, in the three private houses forming the Yateley Military Hospital, Yateley women of all ages were tending wounded soldiers.With its intimate glimpses into village life, this book, will fascinate anyone with Yateley connections. The names of many families in the village of 100 years ago are here, while for recent newcomers with perhaps a Victorian or Edwardian house there may be clues to the history of your homes.With its many illustrations and maps, this exploration of the social network, and social consequences of the Great War on a small community in North East Hampshire has interest for historians and general readers alike.

This is a major new history of the British army during the Great War written by three leading military historians. Ian Beckett, Timothy Bowman and Mark Connelly survey operations on the Western Front and throughout the rest of the world as well as the army's social history, pre-war and wartime planning and strategy, the maintenance of discipline and morale and the lasting legacy of the First World War on the army's development. They assess the strengths and weaknesses of the army between 1914 and 1918, engaging with key debates around the adequacy of British generalship and whether or not there was a significant 'learning curve' in terms of the development of operational art during the course of the war. Their findings show how, despite limitations of initiative and innovation amongst the high command, the British army did succeed in developing the effective combined arms warfare necessary for victory in 1918.