It provides both an intimate look at the Canadian men in the trenches and an authoritative account of the slow evolution in tactics, weapons, and advancement. Featuring never-before-published photographs, letters, diaries, and maps, this recounting of the Great War through the soldiers’ eyewitness accounts is moving and thoroughly engrossing. At The Sharp End is the first comprehensive history of Canadians in World War One in 40 years. It heralds a growing interest in World War One history with a CBC documentary currently under development. Acclaimed Canadian actor Paul Gross is starring in a $20-million feature film to be released in summer 2007.

    He left school in 1913 to become an apprentice plumber but three years later was conscripted, serving as a machine gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Fighting in the mud and trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele, he saw a great many of his comrades die, and in one dreadful moment the shell that wounded him kill his three closest friends. In vivid detail he describes daily life in the trenches, the terror of being under intense artillery fire, and the fear of going over the top. Then, after the Armistice, the soldiers' frustration at not being quickly demobbed led to a mutiny in which Harry was soon caught up.The Second World War saw Harry in action on the home front as a fire-fighter during the bombing of Bath. He also warmly describes his friendship with American GIs preparing to go to France, and, years later, his tears when he saw their graves.Late in life Harry achieved fame, meeting the Queen and taking part in the BBC documentary The Last Tommies, finally shaking hands with a German veteran of the artillery and speaking out frankly to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the soldiers shot for cowardice in the First World War.The Last Fighting Tommy is the story of an ordinary man's extraordinary life. Please note eBook edition does not the contain the images included in original print edition.

    Author Peter Hart, the Oral Historian at Britain’s Imperial War Museum, was granted unprecedented access to the museum’s archives; through these rare manuscripts and firsthand accounts, he provides a riveting perspective on the first true “air war.” From the swirling dogfights to the bombing missions that became ever more deadly, the book reveals the terrible scope of aerial combat and commemorates the men who fought, killed, and died in the clouds above.

    All four Canadian divisions advanced in a line behind a well-rehearsed creeping barrage of artillery fire. By nightfall, the Germans had suffered a major setback. The Ridge, which other Allied troops had assaulted previously and failed to take, was firmly in Canadian hands. The Canadian Corps had achieved perhaps the greatest lightning strike in Canadian military history. One Paris newspaper called it "Canada’s Easter gift to France." Of the 40,000 Canadians who fought at Vimy, nearly 10,000 became casualties. Many of their names are engraved on the famous monument that now stands on the ridge to commemorate the battle. It was the first time Canadians had fought as a distinct national army, and in many ways, it was a coming of age for the nation. The achievement of the Canadians on those April days in 1917 has become one of our lasting myths. Based on first-hand accounts, including archival photographs and maps, it is the voices of the soldiers who experienced the battle that comprise the thrust of the book. Like JUNO: Canadians at D-Day, Ted Barris paints a compelling and surprising human picture of what it was like to have stormed and taken Vimy Ridge.

    Collectively known as the Third Battle of Ypres, the fighting raged from early June until mid-November, and revealed new depths of tragedy, heights of gallantry, astonishing stoicism, humour, loss, grief, and terrible human suffering. The remains of no less than 200,000 soldiers still lie unfound within the narrow boundaries of the battlefield of Passchendaele. The German panoramas - many of which have not seen the light of day since the end of the war - match and often surpass the Imperial War Museum for both scale and quality. Like their British equivalents, they were taken at huge personal risk by specialist photographers. All the panoramas reveal what no other photographs can - the view beyond the trench parapet - and a great deal more. Also included are unpublished testimony, letters and memoirs from all the different regiments who served on the Somme, sourced from the regimental archives across the United Kingdom, Ireland and elsewhere; stunning mapping, plans and diagrams throughout; and equivalent aerial photographs.

    It was a small, secret expedition – known from its clandestine nature as “the Hush-Hush army” – sent to the Caucasus at the end of 1917 in a bid to thwart Turkish encroachment into the region, hinder Russia's Bolsheviks and forestall any Russian attempts to move south into Persia or export revolution to British-ruled India. Small and ill-supplied, Dunsterforce made up for its weakness with the personal dash of its commander, who had already been immortalised in literature as “Stalky” in Rudyard Kipling’s public school tales. Kipling and Dunsterville had been schoolmates at United Services College at Westward Ho! in Devon. Dunsterville’s own book has plenty of derring-do as the general and his subordinate officers (who led sub-expeditions) dealt with the Kurdish, Persian and Cossack tribesmen throughout the vast mountainous area between the Black and Caspian Seas. In the end, Dunsterforce found itself battling in vain to save the oil rich town of Baku from the Turks until lack of resources and the fatal disunity among his allies compelled the force to withdraw with their mission unfulfilled. This colourful memoir, reflecting the charismatic character of its author, is an important source for anyone interested in the great power rivalry between Russia and Britain; in British intervention in Bolshevik Russia, and the unorthodox military campaigns of history.

    Lest We Forget brings together first-hand recollections from the Great War to World War II, to vividly illustrate the impact of war. Told in the actual words of the men, women, and children who lived through a century of war it is a moving insight into the greatest conflicts of the 20th century. The testaments of those who were there depict the horrors of war, yet also provide inspiration with tales of enduring courage, sacrifice, and daring. Arranged thematically into chapters such as hope, fear, the kindness of strangers, the human cost, and brothers in arms, it reveals the full scope of war in all its stark reality. Evocatively illustrated throughout with line drawings from the Imperial War Museum's archives, it will appeal to anyone wanting to gain an insight into not only specific conflicts, but the overarching and sometimes surprising effects of war in general. Lest We Forget vividly ensures that the wartime experiences of ordinary people will never be forgotten.

    clear and interesting."—Foreign Affairs"Direct and clear... it lays bare a most complicated course of events so that even the layman can follow."—New Republic Named as One of The 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth CenturyWith diplomacy unraveling during the summer of 1914, Germany swept into Belgium during the first week of August in an audacious attempt to catch France and England off guard. First contemplated after the Franco-Prussian War, the Schlieffen Plan was designed to keep Germany from fighting on two fronts. With a quick and decisive victory over France and its allies to the west, Germany could then confront Russia to the east. Despite the surprise of Germany's initial advance, the plan ultimately failed because it required much more mobile troops than were available at the time - something that would have to await the mechanized blitzkrieg of World War II—allowing France and British Expeditionary Forces to establish a tenacious defense. What followed was a stalemate along the Marne River and the beginning of four long years of destructive trench warfare that would only be lifted by a joint French, British, and American offensive across this same river plain in 1918. In The Campaign of the Marne, the entire genesis of the Schlieffen Plan, its modification, implementation, and the complex series of grueling battles that followed is laid out with the intent to make the entire episode comprehensible to the general reader. Hailed as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century by eminent military historian John Keegan, this is the first time the book has been available since its original publication in 1935.

    Written by Ruth Brocklehurst and Henry Brook, this book provides detailed accounts of all the major battles and how the latest innovations such as submarines, tanks, poison gas and barbed wire helped shape the course of the First World War.

    But until now, most of these studies have focused at the division level or higher. Now, with To the Limit of Endurance, Peter F. Owen offers a tautly worded, historically rigorous, and intensely human survey of the agonizing burden shouldered by the Second Battalion of the Sixth Regiment of U.S. Marines from its formation in Quantico, Virginia, in 1917 until the cessation of hostilities in November of the following year. In places like Belleau Wood and Soissons, these young men, led by dedicated officers, died in staggering numbers—primarily because of the outmoded tactics they had learned. Owen shows how the battalion regrouped after these campaigns, however, and embarked on a period of intense retraining. By the time of the closing weeks of the war, the adjustments they had made allowed them to mold themselves into a coldly efficient military machine. Drawing on a treasure trove of surviving first-hand accounts, Owen expertly combines these individual observations with military records and archival sources to create a mosaic that provides not only a case study of how one organization grappled with transformation but also a tightly focused, ground-level view of the lives—and deaths—of these courageous American military men. The grueling, ultimately triumphant odyssey of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines will appeal to military historians, professional soldiers, and interested general readers.

    Not only were Clyde-built ships known the world over, Scotland produced half of Britain's total production of railway equipment, and the cotton and jute industries flourished in Paisley and Dundee. In addition, Scots were a hugely important source of manpower for the colonies. Yet after the war, Scotland became an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties, a result of huge numbers of volunteers and the use of Scottish battalions as shock troops in the fighting on the Western Front and Gallipoli - young men whom the novelist Ian Hay called 'the vanished generation'.In this book, Trevor Royle provides the first full account of how the war changed Scotland irrevocably by exploring a wide range of themes - the overwhelming response to the call for volunteers; the performance of Scottish military formations in 1915 and 1916; the militarization of the Scottish homeland; the resistance to war in Glasgow and the west of Scotland; and the boom in the heavy industries and the strengthening of women's role in society following on from wartime employment.

    Reeling from the huge losses in earlier battles, the German army was in no shape to absorb the impact of the Battle of Messines and the subsequent bitter attritional struggle.Throughout the fighting on the Somme the German army had always felt that it had the ability to counter Allied thrusts, but following the shock reverses of April and May 1917, much heart searching had led to the urgent introduction of new tactics of flexible defense. When these in turn were found to be wanting, the psychological damage shook the German defenders badly. But, as this book demonstrates, at trench level the individual soldier of the German Army was still capable of fighting extraordinarily hard, despite being outnumbered, outgunned and subjected to relentless, morale-sapping shelling and gas attacks.The German army drew comfort from the realization that, although it had had to yield ground and had paid a huge price in casualties, its morale was essentially intact and the British were no closer to a breakthrough in Flanders at the end of the battle than they had been many weeks earlier.

    He grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts and attended Adams Academy in Quincy before earning his B.A. (1909) and M.A. (1911) from Harvard College. After leaving Harvard, Beston took up teaching at University of Lyon. In 1914 he returned to Harvard as an English department assistant. Beston joined the French army in 1915 and served as an ambulance driver. His service in le Bois le Pretre and at the Battle of Verdun was described in his first book, A Volunteer Poilu (1916). Following the end of World War I, Beston began writing fairy tales under the name "Henry Beston." In 1919, The Firelight Fairy Book was published, followed by The Starlight Wonder Book in 1923. During this time, he worked as an editor of The Living Age, an offshoot of The Atlantic Monthly.

    Field E. Kindley, with the famous Eddie Rickenbacker, was one of America’s foremost World War I flying aces. Like Rickenbacker’s, Kindley’s story is one of fierce dogfights, daring aerial feats, and numerous brushes with death. Yet unlike Rickenbacker’s, Kindley’s story has not been fully told until now. Field Kindley gained experience with the RAF before providing leadership for the U.S. Air Service. Kindley was the fourth-ranking American air ace; his exploits earned him a Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster from the United States and a Distinguished Flying Cross from the British government. In February 1920, during a practice drill Kindley led, some enlisted men unwittingly entered the bombing target area. “Buzzing” the troops to warn them off the field, Kindley somehow lost control of his plane and died in the ensuing crash. Using arduously gathered primary materials and accounts of Great War aces, Jack Ballard tells the story of this little-known hero from the glory days of aerial warfare. Through this tale, an era and a daring flyer live again.