Includes the First World War Illustrations Pack – 73 battle plans and diagrams and 198 photos Major-General Ernest Swinton had already had a long and illustrious career in the British Army before the advent of the First World War in 1914. Appointed as the official war correspondent by the war Minister Lord Kitchener in 1914, his reporting home was the only way for the British people to follow the war as journalists were at that time banned at the front. In these dispatches from the front Swinton told the public of the bloody fighting in Flanders and the heroic efforts of the Allies to stop the German Juggernaut. The miserable conditions and bloody siege warfare of the trenches left a lasting impression on him and he looked to a scientific solution to the muddy stalemate of the Western Front. He would gain lasting fame as the architect of the “tank” project that was to revolutionize warfare in the First World War and for many years thereafter. In this volume of reminiscences he traces his involvement in the early years of the war and his later years as the driving force in the development and adoption of the tank.

The courage and sacrifices during World War I of the students who attended the influential boarding school best known for the sport that bears its name. Few schools can claim to have had such a deep and diverse effect on British history as Rugby. Its influence on the sporting field is well-known, but this book examines the roles played by Rugbeians in many different spheres during the Great War. Politicians and academics, Olympians and artists all left their ordinary lives to fight for their country and it was their school which bound them together. Some such as Ernest Swinton, inventor of the tank, and Maurice Hankey, Cabinet Secretary, had direct influence on the shaping of the conflict, whereas others such as Duncan Mackinnon (Olympic gold medal-winning rower) and the Cawley brothers (both Members of Parliament) are remembered primarily for their pre-war achievements. Until now there has never been a volume which traces the extent of Rugby’s influence, but this book showcases the extraordinary range of individuals from the school who left their mark on the war and the world at large. “I would say that the author has gone to great concentration and written an excellent and very detailed book. There is no other thing to do but to recommend this book, a really excellent book.” —The UK Historian

This book assesses Lloyd George's attempt to shape the history of 1914-18 through his War Memoirs. His account of the British conduct of the war focused on the generals' incompetence, their obsession with the Western Front, and their refusal to consider alternatives to the costly trench warfare in France and Belgium. Yet as War Minister and Prime Minister Lloyd George presided over the bloody offensives of 1916-17, and had earlier taken a leading role in mobilising industrial resources to provide the weapons which made them possible. Rewriting the First World War examines how Lloyd George addressed this paradox.

First published in 1996. The First World War was the single most important event of the twentieth century. This volume concentrates on non-U.S. aspects of the conflict. Organized alphabetically, its more than 600 detailed entries offer information and insight on such subjects as the causes of the conflict, major battles and campaigns, weapons systems (including military aviation, chemical warfare, the submarine, and the tank), and the terms of the peace. Some 350 biographies provide information on the roles played in the conflict by generals, admirals, and civilian leaders. There are also biographies of individuals who were shaped by the war, such as Charles De Gaulle, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin; essays on each of the countries involved in the conflict; new appraisals of such subjects as military medicine and artillery tactics; and essays on such diverse subjects as art, literature, and music in the war. Each entry has references for additional reading, and a subject index provides easy access. The volume is an excellent reference source for scholar and neophyte alike.

Writing a War of Words is the first exploration of the war-time quest by Andrew Clark - a writer, historian, and volunteer on the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary - to document changes in the English language from the start of the First World War up to 1919. Clark's unique series of lexical scrapbooks, replete with clippings, annotations, and real-time definitions, reveals a desire to put living language history to the fore, and to create a record of often fleeting popular use. The rise of trench warfare, the Zeppelinophobia of total war, and descriptions of shellshock (and raid shock on the Home Front) all drew his attentive gaze. The archive includes examples from a range of sources, such as advertising, newspapers, and letters from the Front, as well as documenting social issues such as the shifting forms of representation as women 'did their bit' on the Home Front. Lynda's Mugglestone's fascinating investigation of this valuable archive reassesses the conventional accounts of language history during this period, recuperates Clark himself as another 'forgotten lexicographer', challenges the received wisdom on the inexpressibilities of war, and examines the role of language as an interdisciplinary lens on history.

The modern tank was invented in 1916 as a means to mechanically overcome the stalemate of trench warfare brought on by the increased lethality of fires employed during World War I. Its introduction received mixed reviews among British leaders. Some advocated its continued role supporting infantry and artillery attacks. Others envisioned it as a revolutionary weapon with the potential to effect decisive results at an operational and strategic level. Still others viewed it as a useless and unnecessary drain on already-scarce resources of men and materiel. Ultimately, the tank was an ancillary sideshow and failed to produce a decisive knock-out punch leading to Allied victory in World War I. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons why the tank failed to become the decisive weapon of World War I. It specifically focuses on the genesis of logistics, maintenance, training, and production infrastructure, studying the interaction of development, employment, acceptance or lack thereof, and subsequent frictions which negatively influenced the ascent of tanks as the decisive weapon of World War I. By examining the British efforts to design support systems while simultaneously producing, fielding and employing multiple iterations of the tank, this paper seeks to promote a deeper understanding of the potential challenges facing other armed forces that are rapidly upgrading or replacing combat systems in the midst of the Global War on Terror.

Deborah is a British First World War tank that rose from the grave after taking part in one of the most momentous battles in history. In November 1917 she played a leading role in the first successful massed tank attack at Cambrai. Eighty years later, in a remarkable feat of archaeology, the tank’s buried remains were rediscovered and excavated, and are now preserved as a memorial to the battle and to the men who fought in it. John Taylor’s book tells the tale of the tank and her crew and tracks down their descendants to uncover a human story every bit as compelling as the military one.