Fred R. Van Hartesveldt - The Battles of The British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1915 - Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders) - Praeger (2005) PDF
Fred R. Van Hartesveldt - The Battles of The British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1915 - Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders) - Praeger (2005) PDF
Fred R. Van Hartesveldt - The Battles of The British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1915 - Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders) - Praeger (2005) PDF
THE BRITISH
EXPEDITIONARY
FORCES, 1914–1915:
Historiography and
Annotated Bibliography
PRAEGER
THE BATTLES OF THE
BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY
FORCES, 1914–1915
Recent Titles in
Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders
Historiography and
Annotated Bibliography
Westport, Connecticut
London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available at www.loc.gov
ISBN: 0-313-30625-7
ISSN: 1056-7410
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
HISTORIOGRAPHY
1. Introduction 1
4. Generalship 19
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 25
Index 163
Acknowledgments
Doing a book always requires help–more than can ever be properly acknowledged.
Some people not only do more but do it with cheerful good will. They deserved
special attention. My colleague Church Murdock read parts of the manuscript and
made thoughtful and useful comments. It is not his fault that I did not adopt all of
them or that I made other mistakes. He certainly improved my efforts. At the Fort
Valley State University Library, Robbie Walton Robinson handled my seemingly
endless interlibrary loan requests efficiently and without request. My wife, Mary
Ann, patted me on the back when I got weary and also helped with library searches,
proofing, and indexing. Without her I would not have finished. I thank all of these
people and the others who helped in a variety of ways.
Chapter 1
Introduction
The Battles of the BEF, 1914-1915 is a volume in the Bibliographies of Battles and
Leaders series. Ultimately the series will provide historiographical and
bibliographical reference for the study of military history from the earliest human
conflicts to the contemporary era. Although the World Wide Web provides similar
references and is more conveniently updated than a book (for the subject of the
current volume see, for instance: <<www.1914-1918.net>> or
<<www.firstworldwar.com>>), the material is scattered and must be searched for
under a variety of subjects. And, of course, it is available only when researchers
have access to a computer with connection to the Web. Since information on the
Web is generally unedited and not necessarily kept current, accuracy and
completeness are less reliable than in the traditional format. New publications are
identified with relative ease, while more often than not, older (sometimes obscure
but valuable) works are missed. Therefore, a comprehensive reference volume
makes sense and will have a long-term value even in the age of electronic
technology.
A focus on the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) in the first eighteen
months of the year also makes sense. Although the focus of World War I British
historiography is more often the great battles of 1916-1918, the B.E.F., despite its
relatively small size, played a significant role in the first months of the war. The
initial force, "The Old Contemptibles" (the Kaiser spoke of the British as "a
contemptible little army"), was essentially gone by the end of 1914, and being
replaced by units–British and colonial–brought from around the empire and soon
a rising flow of volunteers. The horrors of modern firepower were imprinted on
these forces by the end of 1915 through massed attacks against entrenched machine
guns and the soul-shattering effects of rapid-fire artillery. Conditions became much,
much worse, as poison gas proved its value and mud interfered with trench life and
military operations. So the problems that became synonymous with the entire
conflict were already becoming apparent. Lessons, learned, partially learned, and
unlearned about how to fight the new horrible but unheralded style war were already
2 The Battles of the B.E.F.
work to assert that for leaders the First World War was a dramatically new kind of
conflict in which there had to be a learning curve. He followed Haig’s career with
respect and argued that the general had learned, step by step, until he won the
victory of 1919. The, regrettably bloody lessons, could not have been avoided and
were learned more effectively than by anyone else at the time. His book Mons [No.
908] along with Anthony Farrar-Hockley’s Death of an Army [No. 315] marked a
change in the 1960s. The rehabilitation of the British army in World War I had
begun. The debate, which will be discussed in more detail below, continues to rage.
As far as the BEF is concerned, it has been synthesized–for now–in Nikolas
Gardner’s excellent work Trial by Fire: Command and the British Expeditionary
Force in 1914 [No. 366].
This volume, in which these issues and others will be discussed, is divided
into two sections. There is first a historiographical essay in which the debates of
historians are outlined and references to the more important contributions to the
debates are given. These references are shown by giving the volume’s number in
the annotated bibliography–the second part--in square brackets. The essay is an
attempt to outline the major controversies that have emerged among those who
study the war, especially the first year and a half, and the BEF’s role in it. The
annotated bibliography is intended to coverall significant studies involving the BEF
in l914-15. When the information in a volume was tangential–political disputes at
home, for instance–some discretion was, of course, required. Choices were made
by an evaluation of the importance for understanding the situation of the BEF–a
debate on munitions shortages taking precedence over one on long-range war aims,
for instance.
Entries are in quite standard bibliographic format. The version cited is the
earliest identified. When a volume has been reissued or revised, the dates of those
publications are added at the end of the entry, but publishing details are not given.
When simultaneous publication was done (usually in Britain and the U.S.), only one
set of publication details are is given, the initial version, if identifiable. Titles in
languages other than English have been translated for the convenience of those
using the book, and if a translation of the work has been published the details of that
publication are added to the entry. Limitations on what was included in entries was
necessary for reasons of space, and it is hoped that they will not cause significant
inconvenience for those seeking to find copies of books referenced.
Archival sources for the study of the British military in World War I are
rich and accessible. Although details of such materials are beyond the scope of this
volume, the most important repositories are as follows. Government documents,
particularly War Office papers, are in the Public Record Office at Kew, outside
London. The PRO also has some individuals’ paper collections, such as the typed
version of Earl Haig’s diary (the hand-written, and in some cases significantly
different, version is in the National Library of Scotland). The Royal Army Medical
Corps collection is held by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in
London. Large collections of personal papers may be found at the Imperial War
Museum, London; the Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives, King’s College,
4 The Battles of the B.E.F.
London; and the Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Leeds.
Smaller but still useful collections include those of the British Library, London;
Churchill College, Cambridge; and the National Army Museum, London.
Chapter 2
Once the British government reached a consensus about entering the war that began
with the German invasion of France by way of Belgium, the British Expeditionary
Force was dispatched to the continent. It was assigned a position on the left of the
Allied front and planned to advance into Belgium to meet the invaders. The B.E.F.
consisted of four divisions divided into two corps. In addition there were five
brigades of cavalry–one attached to Sir Douglas Haigs' I Corps and the other four
operating as an independent cavalry "division" commanded by Sir Edmund
Allenby. Overall the commander-in-chief, Sir John French, had a force of about
100,000. The British Army's experience of combat within living memory was
limited to colonial conflicts, which by the standards of what was about to come
could hardly be called more than skirmishing, and the Boer War, which was fought
under quite different conditions than those encountered on the Western Front.
Although the performance of the rank and file of the B.E.F., especially its musketry,
was superior and has been lauded to mythic proportions [Nos. 26, 234, 288, 311,
614-15, 908], the command has received more mixed reviews from historians. It
was perhaps an omen that the commander of II Corps, Sir James Grierson, died en
route to the front and was replaced, against the wishes of Sir John French, by Sir
Horace Smith-Dorrien.
The initial approach of historians who wrote about the B.E.F. was to focus
on its heroism and individual skill [Nos. 149, 272, 434, 455]. By chance, the B.E.F.
at Mons faced an entire German army that was a key to the Schlieffen Plan. Its
objective was to swing around Paris and, if all went well, envelop the bulk of the
French armies. Victory in the West would then allow the bulk of German forces to
turn to the East and confront the enrolling Russian "steamroller" (the "steamroller"
metaphor was commonly but in the event, quite inappropriately, used for the
Russians) before it could crush Prussia. The B.E.F., which the Kaiser referred to
as "a contemptible little army," not only slowed the on-rushing Germans but
significantly contributed to fighting them to a stand-still over the remaining months
of 1914. British troops were the most professional of all European forces, for they
6 The Battles of the B.E.F.
were long-service volunteers, with correspondingly more training than the reserves
called out by the Continental Powers. Reports that Germans took their aimed
systematic rifle fire to be machine guns are common [for a particularly enthusiastic
account see No. 234]. By the end of the year, however, the "Old Contemptibles"
were no more. Even after a generation had passed, it took courage to criticize such
a force. Historians are subject to popular and political pressures like other
commentators (though one hopes less so), but even today there is little, if any,
criticism of the Tommies of the B.E.F.. It seems unlikely that this will change.
Leadership and administration have been more criticized by both
contemporaries and historians. The upper ranks were inexperienced. Their combat
experience was, with the exception of the Boer War, limited to relatively small units
fighting against poorly equipped, often poorly led colonial "rebels." Furthermore,
staff work had not been much admired in the officer corps and some officers found
themselves with jobs for which they had not trained. The result was that in the first
months of the war they did not cooperate well, and operations were not well
coordinated [Nos. 112, 162, 489, 360-62]. Such problems were worsened by the
fact that communications were in a transition from hand-delivered notes to radios.
For the moment, a congeries of methods was used, with varying results. Few of
these problems were really the fault of the officers involved, and beyond discussing
the impact on performance of the army, most commentators offer little criticism of
them.
A problem that could have been avoided was the confusion created by
personal rivalries among the officers who led the B.E.F.. The British Army's officer
corps had long been torn by pique. Cliques or "gangs" often formed around
important top commanders such as Lords Wolseley and Roberts. Members
competed for command and promotions and were promoted by their patrons
without, necessarily, demonstrating a fitness to command. During the era of
colonial conflict, this tendency did not result in serious difficulties. Generally one
group or another controlled an operation and most of the officers were at least
competent. The magnitude of World War I, and the much greater complexity of
command, however, required men from all groups and a higher level of cooperation
than had the colonial fighting. Although assignments drew men from various
cliques, cooperation was not initially dependable or easily achieved. Problems of
control were compounded by the tendency of commanders, after giving general
direction, to leave detailed tactical matters to the men on the scene [No. 825].
While this reflected the limited, slow communications of the day, it also meant that
tactical commanders were free to shape the parts of operations their units fought.
If they disliked and/or distrusted one another trouble could easily arise. Central to
this, according to many studies [Nos. 22, 163, 215] was Sir Henry Wilson. Wilson,
a Francophile and planner for the deployment of the B.E.F., was regarded as
political and erratic. Before the War he had been Director of Military Operations,
and he had remained in Britain acting as Deputy Chief of Staff, but many of the men
in France were either tied to him or his foes. Colonel George "Uncle" Harper,
commander of the Operations Section, was a Wilson man as was Sir John French,
The Battles of 1914 7
of the British forces withdrew. Eventually the II Corps maneuvered to safety, but
2,606 Tommies were lost–more than at Mons itself.
By the 25th of August, Sir John French had cycled to full pessimism, and
had little thought beyond extracting the B.E.F. from battle. To speed the process
he decided to split the B.E.F., with I Corps moving to the east of Mormal Forrest
and II Corps to the west. The two corps would reunite at Le Cateau, but until then
would remain separated by about four miles of woods. Once again I Corps, despite
a brief panic–uncharacteristic for Haig--due to what turned out to be a skirmish, had
little trouble. Slowed by the difficulty of disengaging, II Corps straggled into its
encampments late into the night of the 25th. Sir Edmund Allenby, B.E.F. cavalry
commander, arrived to tell Smith-Dorrien that his retreat had to continue at once or
the Germans would be on him. With his rearguard still straggling in and his forces
badly in need of rest, Smith-Dorrien made a fateful decision: he would fight. He
planned to block the Germans and take advantage of their surprise to once again
disengage and continue his retreat. Allenby agreed with the decision and to put his
force at Smith-Dorrien's disposal. Lieutenant General Thomas D'O. Snow, whose
4th Division was arriving (much of its heavy equipment was unavailable) did the
same. The decision when telephoned to Headquarters was not welcomed. Murray,
the chief of staff, reportedly fainted [No. 521] and certainly he was losing control.
Sir John French deferred to the man on the scene but made it clear that he would
have preferred the retirement to have continued without a break. Smith-Dorrien
fought, and despite 8,482 casualties, the II Corps was able to move away and
resume the full retreat the following day.
Unfortunately, there is no modern or definitive account of the battle of Le
Cateau. The most complete account remains the brief volume issued by the War
Office in 1934 [No. 441]. There are, of course numerous memoirs and unit
histories that describe all or parts of the struggle [see Index under Le Cateau]. This
is particularly regrettable in British military historiography because the debate about
whether Smith-Dorrien did the right thing began almost immediately and continues
at the time of this writing. It would be difficult to decide from existing accounts
whether Le Cateau was a significant victory or a disastrous defeat.
There are some valuable modern accounts. The best is John Terraine's
Mons: Retreat to Victory [No. 908]. Terraine's praise for the B.E.F. in 1914 is
enthusiastic. He emphasizes the importance of the British role in stopping the
Schlieffen Plan, and says that Le Cateau was "one of the most splendid feats of the
British Army during the whole war," Terraine is articulate and erudite but tends
also to be tendentious. His work is the foundation of what is really a sea change in
World War I historiography moving from condemnation of Allied, particularly
British, generals as murderous fools to portraying them as determined men who
learned the new warfare and ultimately won the war. He argues his case well, but
he is arguing a case. Andy Simpson follows Terraine's interpretation in his
Evolution of Victory [No. 856], and argues, as does David Ascoli [No. 21], that Le
Cateau was a triumph for the B.E.F. and strategically significant for blocking the
progress of the Schlieffen Plan. Numerous other authors have concurred that Le
10 The Battles of the B.E.F.
Cateau was a significant victory [See for instance Nos. 28-9, 52, 77-78, 94-95, 288,
333, 347, 464, 574, 588, 710, 792, 871-72] including some German [No. 556, 580,
974] and French [Nos. 116, 364, 423, 527, 582] accounts.
Although fewer in number, there are some who regard Le Cateau as a
minor engagement or even a very serious defeat. Most impressive in this group is
the well-known Barbara Tuchman [No. 916], who is dismissive of the entire
operation. Tom Bridges, a participant, argues that the morale of the II Corps was
significantly undermined, the effect lingering well into the future. Several
Frenchmen have asserted that the B.E.F. was battered, but there is reason to wonder
if they were not trying to divert some of the problems of 1914 to the B.E.F. and
away from their countrymen [Nos. 104, 502]. F. E. Whitton, in a very weak book
[No. 959], offers a contemporary British agreement that Le Cateau was a disaster.
Sir John French initially praised Smith-Dorrien, but later the B.E.F.'s commander
completely reversed his position and argued [No. 341] that Le Cateau was a defeat
and should never have been fought. The background to this and his controversial
feud with Smith-Dorrien are discussed in Chapter 4.
Once the II Corps disengaged after Le Cateau, the retreat continued. The
British force reunited and moved back toward Paris. Good descriptions of the
B.E.F.' retreat can be found in Terraine's Mons: Retreat to Victory [No. 908],
Spears' Liaison 1914 [No. 877], and John Ashby's See Glory, Keep Glory: The
Story of the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 1914-18 [No. 23].
Richard Holmes' Riding the Retreat [No. 490] describes his own horseback
exploration of the B.E.F.'s route with historical accounts of the events of 1914 that
occurred in the places he was visiting. It is an odd, though charming, approach but
filled with insights about the opening of World War I. Historiographical disputes
concerning the retreat itself are few, and merge into questions about the Battle of
the Marne.
As the retreat continued, Sir John French slipped deeper and deeper into
what certainly appears to have been depression. There is no doubt that he was
mercurial, and exaggerated casualty figures from Le Cateau were certainly
worrisome. His orders specified that although he was to cooperate with the French,
he was not to put the B.E.F. at risk of destruction if he could possibly avoid doing
so. His trust in the French was shaken by what he regarded as a tendency to retreat
without warning thus leaving the flanks of the B.E.F. uncovered. His command of
the French language was not good and interviews with allied commanders had not
improved relations. Convinced that disaster loomed, he resolved to remove the
B.E.F. from the battle line for regrouping, reinforcement, and resupply. The
French, desperately trying to cobble together a resistance and desperate to organize
a counter thrust, were appalled. Sir John was unmoved and drove his men to the
point that medical reports told of threads in heavy knit socks having literally to be
pulled from the flesh of wearers' feet. He intended to move the B.E.F. to safety
behind Paris. The two best biographers of Sir John French are George Cassar [No.
186] and Richard Holmes [No. 489], and although both show respect and sympathy
for him, neither offers much defense beyond depression for his actions in the retreat
The Battles of 1914 11
from Mons.
The man who had to sort out the situation was Britain's best known soldier
at the beginning of World War I: Field Marshall Herbert Horatio Kitchener (1st
Earl Kitchener of Khartoum), who had been appointed Secretary of State for War
on August 7, 1914. It was to him that Allied pleas for the B.E.F. to stand its ground
went, and he was French's political boss. His attitude about French was less than
enthusiastic. French felt that Kitchener treated him virtually as a subordinate in the
field and had ideas of taking command. On September 1, Kitchener went to Paris
and wearing his full Field Marshall's regalia, met with French, and effectively ended
the retreat. French, in his memoir 1914 [No. 341] condemns Kitchener for
undermining his authority and asserts (French's is the only account of the
conversation) that Kitchener actually approved of the retreat. Although French has
some support [No. 297, 635], most of those who have discussed the situation have
agreed that Kitchener was simply trying to put some starch into French and get the
B.E.F. back into the battle [Nos. 16, 21, 162, 710, 820], although at least one
scholar wonders if French may not have gotten an unintended message [No. 186].
Intentions and messages aside, the result was that the B.E.F. reversed its direction
and moved into the Battle of the Marne, again to mixed reviews.
It some senses the history of the Marne is really French history, but the
B.E.F. played a role, though how significant depends on who tells the story.
Historiographically the questions about the B.E.F. are: did it move too slowly and
thus forfeit a chance to turn the Marne into a much more meaningful strategic
victory, and did its efforts actually have much strategic meaning at all? The key to
the battle was a counter-attack into a gap between the first and second German
armies, and opinions differ about Sir John French's elan in handling the British
share. A number of historians and contemporaries agree that the B.E.F. delivered
the key blow in stopping the Schlieffen Plan and preventing German success [Nos.
67, 84, 618, 633, 874]. The most important defender of the B.E.F.'s success is John
Terraine in Mons: Retreat to Victory [No. 908]. Others argue just as passionately
that the B.E.F. moved so slowly into position at the Marne that opportunities were
lost and although the German advance was stopped British lives were lost for
relatively little gain. The opportunity to turn the Marne from a tactical success into
a strategic demarche was wasted [Nos. 21, 61, 104, 234, 242, 423, 588, 8551]. The
latter group includes French writers who clearly want to blame others for the
continuation of the war and British authors, like Basil Liddell Hart, who have
worked very hard to damn British generalship in the contest. Those who regard the
Marne as insignificant do not particularly condemn the B.E.F., but if their
interpretation is correct, then the role of the B.E.F. has little meaning regardless of
how well it was played [Nos. 347, 630, 886]. As far as the B.E.F. at the Marne is
concerned, the definitive evaluation remains to be written.
With the Marne won–whatever the ultimate implications–the rest of 1914
was devoted to establishing the line of defenses that remained until the climactic
German breakthroughs of 1918 followed by the Allied counter-attacks that
ultimately led to victory. The B.E.F. took its position on the left of the Allied line
12 The Battles of the B.E.F.
in the area of the city of Ypres. It would defend a salient, and fight three major
battles at Ypres. The first of these was the last of 1914. Beyond some discussion
of the skills of Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig really reflective of the more
significant disputes that in 1915 led to the latter replacing the former [see for
instance Nos. 196-97, 584, 642, 710] there is little dispute about the first battle of
Ypres from a historiographical point of view. The battle, which destroyed the initial
units of the B.E.F., "the Old Contemptibles," has been quite well analyzed by
Anthony Farrah-Hockley in Death of an Army: The First Battle of Ypres [No. 311].
The recent A Storm in Flanders: the Ypres Salient, 1914-1918 by Winston Groom
[No. 420], while readable, offers nothing new and contains several factual errors.
Chapter 3
The three months between the battles of First Ypres and Neuve Chapelle were spent
in establishing and reinforcing trench lines that ran from the English Channel to
Switzerland. The B.E.F. had been reorganized into two armies: the 1st, commanded
by Sir Douglas Haig, positioned opposite La Basse and the 2nd, commanded by Sir
Horace Smith-Dorrien, in the Ypres Salient. The French, as dominant partner in the
Entente, controlled offensive planning. The plan developed by French commander-
in-chief Field Marshal Joseph Joffre involved a two-pronged attack, and he asked
that the B.E.F. relieve two of his corps north of Ypres to free them for participation.
British commander-in-chief, Sir John French, agreed and decided to make an
independent attack of his own. After some consideration, he chose to strike on
Aubers Ridge near La Bassée. The first target would be Neuve Chapelle, from
which the battle ultimately took its name. This meant that the 1st Army would make
the assault, which Haig, snidely, took as a reflection of Smith-Dorrien's
incompetence and the quality of his own force.
The situation changed suddenly, when in early February, London decided
to send the 29th Division–the only British regular army unit not committed to the
war–to the East (it would ultimately become part of the Dardanelles Campaign in
Turkey) rather than to the Western Front. Sir John French was depending on the
29th to handle the relief of the French corps before the offensive. Although a
Territorial division would be sent to the Western Front, Sir John did not think it
could handle the same level of responsibility as a regular army division. He
retracted his agreement to relieve the French corps. Outraged, Joffre canceled his
plans for attack, but Sir John decided to proceed with his.
The assault was to be made by the IV Corps, commanded by Sir Henry
Rawlinson [No. 657, 767], and the Indian Corps, commanded by Sir James
Willcock [No. 964]. Rawlinson, in overall command, prepared well. His artillery
concentration of one gun to every six yards of front was particularly effective
because the high water table in the area required shallow trenches inadequately
protected by sandbag parapets. The goal was to reduce the salient into British lines
14 The Battles of the B.E.F.
at Neuve Chapelle. The initial attack on March 10th was quite effective, though
late-arriving artillery left some German machine guns at the northern end of the
front in action, causing serious casualties in two battalions [No. 73]. The resulting
delay combined with poor communications (a problem that would last out the war)
resulted in a delay in the second phase of the attack, an advance on Aubers Ridge
itself. At the end of the first day, a thousand yards had been gained on a front of
four thousand yards, but two more days of fighting produced nothing more of
significance. Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig had clearly hoped for more,
and had cavalry ready to exploit any meaningful breakthrough. In fact the results
were a gain of about 1,000 yards on a front of about 3,000 yards at the price of 583
officers and 12,309 other ranks. The B.E.F. had proven itself a valuable member
of the Entente and shown the politicians that progress could be made on the
Western Front, helping to undermine arguments that resources should go to
"sideshows" such as the Dardanelles Offensive.
As historians have looked at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle there has been
a good bit of consensus about the tactics and what did and did not work. There is
less agreement about the lessons learned and how well what was learned was
applied to future conflict. One key lesson was the use of artillery, the concentration
of which was not duplicated until 1917 [Nos. 30, 43, 137, 678, 1015], though some
observers suggest that the growing shortage of ammunition was a problem
(production was to become a crisis, politically as well as militarily) [Nos. 137, 140,
336]. The problem of communication between the commanders and the attack
forces was illustrated [Nos. 336, 759, 856], though few attempt to blame the
commanders for not anticipating such problems. The real debate is not whether
these problems and potential lessons were recognized or appreciated, but whether
the generals learned with reasonable expedition. Haig insisted on pushing ahead
after the successes of the first day and gained little [Nos. 768, 856]. Although this
may have been merely the result of an initial success, a willingness to continue even
after advances had clearly stalled would be a pattern in subsequent, larger attacks
in 1916 and 1917. Even so early in the war, this tendency was strongly criticized
[No. 137]. He is defended in connection with Neuve Chapelle with the argument
that he planned carefully and well and could not have predicted the problems of
modern war [No, 618, 872, 906]. Knowing of later problems makes it overly easy
to see their origins in the early stages of the conflict, whether or not they are really
there. Haig's ability to adapt to the new warfare is a continuing point of discussion
[Nos. 79, 261, 906]. It is clear that Neuve Chapelle established some trends that
would continue for most of the war. The importance of artillery–though much
remained to be learned–the difficulty of sustaining an initial success, and the lack
of dependable communications were all demonstrated, though it took years for the
lessons to be dependably understood. The establishment of such patterns made the
battle significant according to some [Nos. 137]. Others, however, believe that
Neuve Chapelle had little importance because with the French limiting their
participation to joining the artillery barrage, the battle was too small to have a
strategic impact [No. 856], or simply that the British lost due to misunderstanding
The Battles of 1915 15
the impact of German machine guns which had not been silenced [No. 1002], and
foolishly repeated vain attacks that cost casualties but gained nothing [No. 137].
After Neuve Chapelle it was the Germans' turn to launch an attack. On
April 22 they released a cloud of chlorine gas that drifted over British (actually
Canadian lines) and French lines northeast of Ypres. The new weapon proved quite
effective and opened a gap that, had the Germans been prepared to exploit it, had
the potential to be a decisive breakthrough. Even though the Germans were not
prepared, the struggle to reestablish Entente lines was desperate and costly. Much
of the key fighting was done by the Canadian Corps, and the fullest accounts of the
battle focus on those units. The best are Daniel G. Dancocks, Welcome to Flanders
Fields, the First Canadian Battle of the Great War: Ypres 1915 [No. 253], Tim
Cook, No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World
War [No. 223], and George Cassar, Beyond Courage: The Canadians at the Second
Battle of Ypres [No. 185]. John Dixon's recent work Magnificent but Not War
[No. 266] adds a broader perspective. There is little historiographical debate about
this battle. Most historians note the failure of the B.E.F.'s command to respond to
several warnings that the use of gas was immanent [For example, Nos. 185, 351,
487, 1010] and praise the Canadians for heroic determination. The Official History
[No. 288], on the other hand, understates the Canadian role. It was at this point
that the much debated dispute between Sir John French and Sir Horace Smith-
Dorrien came to a head and the latter was relieved. The historiography of this
dispute is considered in Chapter 4.
In May the Allied offensive continued, with the B.E.F.'s 1st Army
assaulting Aubers Ridge in concert with a French attack further south. For the
British this was really a continuation of the Neuve Chapelle attack. No one
questions that Aubers Ridge was an unmitigated disaster costing some 11,500
casualties compared to German reports of about 1,000. The most complete
accounts are the Official History [No, 288], which is quite critical of the British use
of artillery and Adrian Bristow's, A Serious Disappointment: The Battle of Aubers
Ridge, 1915 and the Subsequent Munitions Scandal, [No. 137] though the author's
rather haphazard approach to citing sources can be an annoyance. The questions
raised in the historiography of World War I about the battle concern the larger issue
of commanders trying to figure out how to fight the new warfare and whether they
made any progress based on the lessons from Neuve Chapelle. Robin Prior and
Trevor Wilson assert in their meticulous study of Sir Henry Rawlinson [No. 767],
tactical commander at Aubers Ridge, had learned from Neuve Chapelle that German
lines could be broken if adequate artillery fire were applied. Although initially well
planned, that concentration was ultimately watered down at Aubers Ridge. Prior
and Wilson blame Sir John French for shifting the attack to accommodate the
French, though they acknowledge that Rawlinson and 1st Army commander Douglas
Haig failed to adjust as the attack frontage lengthened. Bristow, however, indicates
that the concentration of guns was about the same at the two battles. He blames the
shortage of shells that was a continuing problem for the B.E.F. for the inadequate
barrage. He thinks the British commanders would have preferred a longer, heavier
16 The Battles of the B.E.F.
barrage, like the French employed, but settled for a short intense one due to the
shortage of munitions. Andy Simpson [No. 856] adds both that British munitions
contained a very high number of duds and that the Germans, who also learned from
Neuve Chapelle, had improved their defenses so that only high explosive shells
from howitzers were very effective. The B.E.F. had few of both these shells and
guns. Generally, these historians see the B.E.F.'s commanders beginning to
understand in theory the importance of artillery on the Western Front, and agree
with G. C. Wynne's earlier remark that Aubers Ridge marked the definitive shift of
British tactics toward extended barrages with heavier and heavier guns [No. 1002].
The problem was more in the quantity of guns and shells than in understanding the
need for them.
The initial disappointment at Aubers Ridge did not discourage Sir John
French, and he ordered further efforts. On May 16 the 1st Army sent three divisions
at Festubert to the south of Neuve Chapelle. A three day bombardment, all the
available munitions would allow, proved entirely inadequate. The attack overran
the front line of German trenches which were then abandoned by the defenders, who
reinforced the second line. For the price of 16,500 men the B.E.F. advanced about
1,000 yards on a 3,000 yard front. Unfortunately there is no full account beyond
the Official History; students reading about the battle in other accounts will find
differing analyses. Such a reader might be told that Festubert was the first battle
with attrition as the goal rather than ground and so worked reasonably well [No.
856], or that it was an abortive, poorly organized mess that accomplished little or
nothing [No. 336, 395]. He might also find that the generals were clearly applying
the lessons of Neuve Chapelle, especially concerning more artillery concentration
[Nos. 43, 642, 856, 907, 1002] or that they were not [Nos. 43, 140, 395, 767]. A
thorough and definitive study of the battle would be a welcome addition to the
literature.
Not much had gone well for the Allies in the first half of 1915, and so the
commanders, French and Joffre, met in June to plan for the immediate future. They
quickly agreed that a defensive strategy would allow the Germans room to expand
operations on the Eastern Front and possibly support Austrian efforts against Italy.
They also damned the Dardanelles Offensive against the Ottoman Empire, which
they believed diverted already inadequate resources from the fighting in France.
They were firm in the belief that only on the Western Front could the Central
Powers be definitively defeated. Joffre announced his planned attack in the Vimy
area and urged the B.E.F. to support this with an attack against Loos on his left.
Once again, Sir Douglas Haig's 1st Army was the force in the area. Initially he and
French thought Loos offered some real advantages as a target, but a closer look at
the ground showed that, while flat, it was marked by pits, waste heaps, and other
industrial damage. The ground played clearly into the hands of the defenders.
Joffre pressed and French, despite knowing of the difficulties of the ground,
conceded. The B.E.F. would attack at Loos. A second controversial issue was
poison gas. Having made their condemnations of it as an inhumane, immoral
weapon, Allied commanders immediately demanded that poison gas be supplied to
The Battles of 1915 17
them for use as a deterrent, though they were already planning to use it offensively.
French and Haig believed that it could remedy the shell shortage, though tactical
commanders were hesitant about depending on the first use of an unfamiliar
weapon.
Haig's plan for Loos was simple. The I and IV Corps would attack
between Loos and the La Bassée Canal, supported by diversionary attacks. When
the German front was broken, the XI Corps along with the 1st Army's cavalry would
drive through the gap. One potential difficulty was that the XI Corps, commanded
by Lieutenant General R. C. B. Haking, had an inexperienced staff and two of its
three divisions were New Army (i.e., raised after the beginning of the war) and had
never been in combat. Its artillery lacked training due to both the lack of
opportunity and the shortage of shells to fire. Haig and French also differed about
the positioning of the IX Corps. French believed the reserve should be well back
and under the direction of the commander-in-chief, who would commit it when and
where he thought best. Haig expected to need reserve forces quickly and wanted
them well forward and under his control. French feared that if Haig had control of
the reserve he might commit it even if there were no gap to exploit and the
inexperienced troops would fail and be wasted. Of course, the commander-in-chief
had his way. Meanwhile, Sir Henry Rawlinson, again in tactical command under
Haig, had growing doubts that even the initial attack would work. Due to his
personal position–he had been criticized by French and saved from dismissal by
Haig–he kept his counsel to himself. The problems of command, personal and
professional, are discussed in Chapter 4.
Although the four-day artillery barrage was the biggest up to that time and
involved some 250,000 shells, the width of the front reduced the concentration to
well below that of Neuve Chapelle. The British hoped that the addition of 140 tons
of chlorine gas released from 5,100 cylinders would finish the job, overwhelming
the available German gas masks. The plan also included a shrapnel barrage when
it was expected that the gas had driven the Germans out of their underground
defenses. Despite some mechanical problems, the gas companies got what was
called "the accessory" in place, but the weather did not cooperate very well. Wind
was needed to move the gas to the German trenches, but a meandering breeze
played the British false. In the Loos area the gas blew to and lingered over German
trenches but further north it either hung about in no-man's land or blew back into
British lines. The latter situation was over dramatized by Robert Graves in
Goodbye to All That [No. 405] as there were only seven British deaths due to gas.
Nonetheless British soldiers were forced into gas masks and their combat efficiency
significantly reduced.
The initial fighting went best in the South where the gas was most
effective, but progress was made in the Northern areas as well. After half an hour,
Haig reported progress to French and urged that the reserves (the XI Corps) be
ready to move. After three hours, he reported that his own reserves had been
committed and asked for control of the XI Corps. Getting this took almost two
hours and two hours later Haking reported he was moving forward but faced real
18 The Battles of the B.E.F.
difficulties. In fact, his corps made long, tiring marches and was not adequately fed.
When it arrived on the battlefield on September 26, it was drained and worse sent
into combat without covering fire. The units were cut to pieces by German machine
gun fire, and despite heroic efforts forced to retire. After several more days of
sporadic fighting, the battle ended. The British had lost some 43,000 to perhaps
half that for the Germans. The French did no better.
There is a study of the Battle of Loos: Philip Warner, The Battle of Loos
[No. 940]. It is, however, mostly constructed from excepts from contemporary
accounts. It offers description but relatively little analysis. Loos is another battle
that still lacks a definitive study. Warner does suggest that if the gains of the first
day had been sustained and pursued a more significant victory, if not the desired
breakthrough, could have been attained. A number of scholars agree that the lack
of reserves was a major problem [Nos. 197, 288, 642, 856, 1004]. Basil Liddell
Hart, however, maintains that Haig overstated the problem of reserves and that the
real problem was inadequate artillery and poor ground. No one thinks the ground
was good, and Liddell Hart gets some support in his argument that the real problem
was lack of guns and shells [Nos. 588; see also 43, 302, 856, 1004]. The problems
with poison gas have also raised some questions. Albert Palazzo's Seeking Victory
on the Western Front: The British Army and Chemical Warfare in World War I
[No. 736] has done much to improve understanding of the significance of gas as a
weapon on the Western Front. He suggests that gas was a more important part of
the plan at Loos than has been previously believed, and some other observers have
suggested that the failure to properly prepare for the use of the new weapon or
inadequate supplies of it were a significant factor in the failure [Nos. 351, 657,
1004]. As with earlier 1915 battles there are also suggestions that the concentration
of artillery fire was inadequate [Nos. 43, 856]. In the cases of both gas and
artillery, arguments can be made that the commanders were continuing to struggle
with how to fight the new warfare and were in the process that ultimately led to
victory in 1918 [No. 909]. It can equally be asserted that they were wasting lives
in hopeless struggles that they did not adequately understand. Often defenses of
them seem to depend on hindsight–the Allies won so they must have figured out
how to fight the war.
For the B.E.F., Loos was the last significant battle of the year. The British
settled into their trenches to hold the line and wait for the growth and training of the
newly recruited Kitchener Armies. New army divisions had not fared particularly
well at Loos and clearly needed more training, but their potential was clear. The
great test would come the following summer at the Somme.
Chapter 4
Generalship
Questions about leadership have dogged the British Army from early in World War
I through today. They have been mentioned above, but they are so pervasive that
particular attention should be paid to them. As the "butcher’s bill" mounted, it was
little wonder that contemporaries and later scholars wondered and questioned aloud
whether there might be a better way. Was the infantry really so blunt a weapon that
it could only be used to bludgeon the enemy through massed frontal assaults, at
terrible cost, until he was so worn down that he had to choose between destruction
and surrender? Efforts, such as the Dardanelles Campaign [No. 928], were made
to refocus the major efforts of the BEF proved futile, though supporters never
conceded that they had been given adequate resources to represent a fair chance.
Though these questions would peak later, they were certainly emerging by the end
of 1915. They were also adding to earlier questions that had undermined the
credibility of Field Marshal Sir John French, and led to his replacement as
commander-in-chief of the B.E.F.
The B.E.F. crossed to France under the leadership of Sir John French, next
to Lord Kitchener, already tapped to be Secretary of State for War, Britain’s most
experienced soldier. French had won fame commanding cavalry in the Boer (or
South African) War and continued to believe that mounted forces could play the
role of shock troops, an attitude that critics regard as foolish and old fashioned
[Nos. 13, 185, 206, 362, 489, 710]. Undoubtedly popular and clearly effective at
keeping up his men’s morale [Nos. 362, 203, 808], French lacked administrative
talent and had never been tested as wartime leader of more than a division. Critics
believe that the stress exacerbated a tendency to be mercurial to the point of cycles
of exuberance and depression that undermined his decision-making ability [No.
489]. They insist that his replacement by Sir Douglas Haig at the end of 1915 was
not only the right thing but overdue. Contemporaries and later historians have done
more to confirm than refute the idea that French was unable to handle the B.E.F.
[Nos. 162, 908]. Two recent biographical studies, Richard Holmes, The Little Field
Marshall [No. 489] and George Cassar, The Tragedy of Sir John French [No. 188],
20 The Battles of the B.E.F.
portray French as having good leadership qualities but do not acquit him of the
charges that he lacked administrative skill, tended to destructive mood swings, and
failed to adapt to the nature of the new warfare. Cassar is the more generous of the
two.
Within this general critique, numerous more specific criticisms have been
made of the B.E.F.’s first commander. Although few would go as far as Alan Clark
[No. 206] in regarding him as an incompetent dupe, he is not generally regarded as
among the first rank of military minds. He was rigid and not ready to change even
when the situation made the need clear [Nos. 203, 490, 710, 908]. French’s
temperament, according to some commentators, led to problems with Lord
Kitchener, the political chief of the army, though some suggest that Kitchener was,
at least in part, to blame. During the retreat from Mons the dispirited French felt
that the B.E.F. should withdraw from the line entirely for refitting. It took a visit
from Kitchener, decked out in his Field Marshall’s uniform, to restore enough of
French’s elan to get the B.E.F. into the Battle of the Marne. Although a few
scholars have suggested that Kitchener was glory hunting [Nos. 311, 635], most
have faulted French for a range of failings ranging from timidness to the point of
cowardice, to varying levels of dispiritedness (or depression) either clinical or based
on exhaustion and horror at exaggerated casualty reports (that would have been bad
enough if accurate) [Nos. 21, 243, 423, 908]. These criticisms when combined with
questions about French’s strategic and tactical decisions, make clear that historians
do not have a positive view of his generalship. There are also personal matters that
are thought to have influenced French’s professional activities and the interpretation
of them that darken the clouds that otherwise might have been the regrettable result
of a man past his time and out of his depth.
Unfortunately Sir John French has been accused being both dishonorable
and dishonest. Even before the war there had been some character questions. He
had not always been punctilious about the wives of others; he had fallen into
financial difficulties (perhaps by gambling) that, except for a substantial unsecured
loan from his protege Douglas Haig, were likely to derail his career, and had not
looked good for his involvement in the “Currah Mutiny.” The first of these was
hardly unusual, and the second had been adequately resolved. The “Currah
Mutiny,” which involved resistance to the possible use of the army to impose Home
Rule on Ireland, involved a large part of the senior officers of the army, and so
while French’s effort to be both a resister and avoid the consequences may have
soured some of his relationships in the officer corps [No. 362], these situations
would not have been major historical issues. They are remembered, however, as
precursors to French’s treatment of General Horace Smith-Dorrien during the war
and his responses to criticisms of that treatment and other matters afterward.
It seems likely that all this past and personal baggage would have been cast
aside and forgotten if French's year and a half of command on the Western Front
had been marked by victory. They were, of course, not very successful. How much
of the failure was the fault of Sir John remains a matter of dispute among historians.
However, he did make mistakes and his behavior was at times defensive and did not
Generalship 21
help him maintain his position. Problems came quickly. Eager and talking about
offensives, French sank into gloom as the B.E.F. was forced to fall back from Mons.
His problems with General Charles Lanrezac whose 5th Army was on the flank of
the B.E.F., almost certainly exacerbated by his own lack of language skills, were
real, but his tendency to blame the French for causing the retreat while not duly
acknowledging the desperate and heroic efforts of General Sordet's [Nos. 116, 749]
cavalry to cover the retreat inaugurated a pattern of blaming others. This did
nothing to help Sir John's reputation at the time and became part of the post war
debate as various memoirs fueled one side or another.
The issues surrounding the Battle of Le Cateau are more bitter. Sir Horace
Smith-Dorrien was unexpectedly in command of the B.E.F.’s second corps, having
been appointed by Lord Kitchener when the original commander died en route to
France in August, 1914. French and Smith-Dorrien were not friends [No. 710], and
the commander-in-chief had suggested Sir Hubert Plumer for command of the II
Corps. By coincidence, the bulk of the fighting at Mons, the B.E.F.’s first battle,
fell to the II Corps, and on the retreat with the two British corps separated, Smith-
Dorrien decided he had to make a stand at Le Cateau to block pursuit (see details
of the battle above). The immediacy of the situation and the state of
communications meant that French, who was determined to continue retreating,
could only, reluctantly, acquiesce to Le Cateau after the fact, and it has been
asserted [No. 521] that Sir Archibald Murray, French’s chief-of-staff, actually
fainted when the message that Smith-Dorrien was going to fight came over the
telephone. Once the situation clarified, French did openly praise Smith-Dorrien for
his actions. But a few months later, at the time of Second Ypres, when Smith-
Dorrien suggested a strategic withdrawal to shorten the British line and reduce the
Ypres Salient, French accused him of defeatism and relieved him of command.
Then, when the new corps commander, Plumer, suggested a similar withdrawal, is
was made with little comment by French.
Although Smith-Dorrien refused to make charges even when defending his
tactics [No. 870], most historians have regarded his treatment as unfair and
probably personal. The relationship of the two men has been described as bitter,
perhaps stemming from a pre-war dispute over the role of cavalry as traditional
shock force (French) or mounted infantry (Smith-Dorrien) [Nos. 359, 521, 489,
710]. Basil Liddell Hart [No. 588], no friend of British World War I generals,
suggests that French misperceived his major rival, targeting Simth-Dorrien rather
than Haig as the threat to his position. Smith-Dorrien’s biographers have defended
their subject firmly [Nos. 52, 871] as have others who studied the various aspects
of the situation [Nos. 77, 78, 582, 872]. French, with his memoirs entitled 1914
[No. 341], made matters worse by not only defending himself but also making
attacks on Smith-Dorrien, some of which actually contradict his own statements
from 1914-15. He has been accused of turning the book over to a secretary once
he did some notes for it and then not bothering to check the result so the problems
were due to sloppiness [No. 52]. He has also been accused of out and out lying and
virtual paranoia [No. 710]. Since his book is a virtual screed, denouncing Kitchener
22 The Battles of the B.E.F.
for micro-managing the campaign and undermining the field commander and Sir
Douglas Haig for double-crossing him in an effort to get his command (this
controversy is discussed below), it seems difficult to credit. The most vigorous
defense of French comes from his son [Nos, 343-46], but Ian Beckett [No.80] does
suggest that the delayed orders that kept Smith-Dorrien from disengaging promptly
at Mons could have been telegraphed to him. The II Corps Chief of Staff, George
Forestier-Walker, chose to report in person. If Beckett's account is correct it would
cast some doubt on the efficiency of II Corps' leadership and give some support to
French's view of Smith-Dorrien. The fact that historians, always on the lookout for
a revisionist theme, have not come to his rescue more eagerly, however, suggests
that French was in the wrong.
After Le Cateau the retreat continued, with French beginning to think of
retiring behind Paris to regroup and removing the B.E.F. from the fray entirely.
Pleas from the desperate Joffre led to intervention by Lord Kitchener, who as
Secretary of State for War was Sir John's political boss. Kitchener, who, according
to many scholars, did not think well of French [Nos. 21, 586, 635] decided to go to
France and discuss the situation in early September. He met the B.E.F. commander
wearing his Field Marshal's uniform and decorations, which Sir John took as both
an insult and possibly a desire to take command in the field [No. 341]. Kitchener's
two best biographers, Trevor Royle [No. 820] and George Cassar [No. 186-87]
maintain that there was no such intent, though Cassar does admit Sir John may have
misread the message. They argue that Kitchener merely wanted to impress on
French that the government expected his force to take an active part in the defense
of France. They believe that the fuss over Kitchener's dress was an effort by Sir
John to cover his panicked reaction and divert Kitchener from either inspecting the
B.E.F., which he would have found ready to fight, or talking with the French high
command, which might have spoken ill of Sir John's leadership. Philip Magnus and
some other scholars, however, think French's interpretation was pretty much on
target [No. 635; see also 21, 311]. Cassar does think that Kitchener considered
taking command, and Richard Holmes [No. 490], while he criticizes the decision,
offers the mitigating factors of exhaustion and exaggerated casualty reports. Since
the only extant account of their conversation is French's, it is unlikely that
Kitchener's goals will ever be sorted out entirely. In any case, the retreat ended and
the B.E.F. turned to play its part in the Battle of the Marne.
Victory at the Marne, unfortunately, did little to clear the reputation of Sir
John French. The problems of the battle have been discussed above, but the
charges that the B.E.F. moved too slowly to allow a truly strategic success should
be recalled when thinking about Sir John's fate. Both in contemporary debates and
later histories these questions have dogged his reputation. They have become part
of an aura of failure that historians have not dispelled.
The establishment of trench lines and the emergence of the stalemate on
the Western Front saw the BEF make desperate and heroic stands at battles like first
and 2nd Ypres. The cost of these battles was high, but normally such defensive
holds would redound to the credit of the commander. Oddly French gets little
Generalship 23
credit. Historians have been more interested in the relief of Smith-Dorrien, already
mentioned, and those whose focus is the Canadians, in the performance of both the
troops and Arthur Currie their commander, who organized the defense at 2nd Ypres.
Canadians even damn the British for failing to provide help when Currie, his back
to the wall, pleaded personally for it [Nos. 252-53, 507, 924]. French is either
ignored or portrayed as detached and uninvolved.
The fruitless struggles at Neuve Chappelle and Aubers Ridge were planned
in conjunction with French, and he must share in the blame for failure. Sir John,
however, does not seem to get the same degree of consideration about the need for
learning the new warfare. He and Haig are both blamed for continuing to believe
in mid-1915 that victory was determined by the moral element, i.e., soldiers who
pushed hard enough would win [No.856]. Revisionists credit Haig with learning
better [Nos. 710, 906], but the fact that he had time denied to French is ignored.
Historians before the 1960s tended to follow the lead of Basil Liddell Hart Nos.
[585-88] and condemn British generalship generally. More recently the theme
pioneered by John Terraine [Nos. 906] suggesting that it took time to learn how to
fight with modern technology and mass armies, has seen the leaders in a kinder
light. But this newer thinking has focused on Haig rather than French, perhaps
because Haig was in command at the end of the war. There seems little speculation
that French might have followed the same pattern of development. Political
machinations by Sir John may have helped turn attention to his weaknesses. The
battles of 1915 were hampered by a shortage of artillery shells. French tried to use
the shortage to explain if not excuse the B.E.F.'s failure [Nos. 584], going as far as
leaking information about it to The Times correspondent Charles a Court Repington
[No. 789]. Even politicians who benefitted politically from the revelation [No.
597], came away thinking that Sir John could not be trusted. The political situation
was worsened due to the fact the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, said, based on a
report Kitchener attributed to French, to Parliament that the B.E.F. had plentiful
shells for Aubers Ridge. It did not, and French later denied telling Kitchener it did
[No. 137].
The Battle of Loos, the B.E.F.'s last significant fight of 1915, sealed
French's fate. Not only was the battle a failure, French took a more active role. He
kept the reserve forces under his own control well back from the battle line. When
the initial attack made some gains, Haig asked for reinforcement. The combination
of slow communications and long march to the front resulted in a significant delay
in the reserve forces getting into combat. They were exhausted from marching and
most green as well. They were ineffective. Although Basil Liddell Hart [No. 588]
says that he was exaggerating, Haig used the delay to explain why his battle plan
had failed and blamed French, making his view known back in England, and
certainly others take Haig's side [No. 227]. Lord Blake in his edition of Haig's
papers [No. 101] indicates that Haig out-maneuvered French politically on this
question. Although it was effective at the time, historians have not given Loos
much chance of success regardless of the reserve difficulty [Nos. 15, 179, 206, 227,
302, 405, 900, 970, 982, 994, 940].
24 The Battles of the B.E.F.
At the end of 1915, French was relieved and command put in the hands of
Haig. French's difficulties had probably reached the point that a change was a good
idea, but many have questioned the choice of Haig. He has been attacked for over-
emphasis on cavalry. Though horse soldiers were the only mobile force, they could
act, after the very first encounters, only in the unlikely case of a breakthrough and
then would be faced with modern weapons they could not counter. Haig seemed
slow to reach this realization [No. 642]. Haig's slowness to learn might be
attributed to what General Hubert Gough regarded as inflexibility and an
unwillingness to change his view regardless of circumstances [No. 399]. The new
commander has also been portrayed as not particularly intelligent and as an
intriguer who actively sought to undermine his chief. Although such charges go
back into the beginnings of Haig's career, the issues during World War I revolve
around his tendency to speak ill of French to political superiors [Nos. 261, 940].
Haig's own writings [No. 101] shed little light on his actions and motives; nor do
his diaries, but his friend and biographer, John Charteris, who served on Haig's staff
for most of the war, asserts that Haig had already begun to assert French was unfit
for command [No. 196-97]. Haig had the personal and family connections to allow
such behavior. In fact, he had been invited by King George IV and by Lord
Kitchener to write them privately and freely about his views of the situation. Haig
used this opportunity to illuminate what he thought were French's failings. He was
also in touch with military authorities such as Sir William Robertson, the
Quartermaster General of the B.E.F., and Lord Kitchener at the War Office [No.
226]. John Terraine has vigorously defended Haig, arguing that he was an
intelligent, capable soldier and behaved in an ethical, professional manner [No. 906;
see also 642].
Like many historiographical questions, the possible ambitions of Sir
Douglas Haig are likely to continue to be debated. Sir John French's response,
however, undermined his own credibility perhaps beyond reparation. His memoir
1914 [No. 341] is defensive and filled with contradictions. He completely reverses
his praise for Smith-Dorrien at Le Cateau reverting to his earlier charges based on
inflated casualty figures. He attacks Haig, Kitchiner, and others on specious
grounds [Nos. 162, 186, 820] while portraying himself as little less than a paragon.
His only support comes from his second son Gerald, who in a series of books [Nos.
343-46] tried to make his father's case. He was not successful. French's memoir is
so much an embarrassment that, even if there were a case to be made for him, he
discouraged those who might have defended him. Its problems have been attributed
to sloppy preparation [No. 21] and to exaggerated defensiveness [No. 710]. It seems
likely that the problems of the B.E.F. in 1914-15 will continue to be tied to him and
its successes credited to others.
Annotated Bibliography
1 A.H. B. [Burne, A. H.] Some Pages From the History of "Q" Battery R.
H. A. in the Great War. Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution,
1922. Burne tells the story of serving in the B.E.F. from the end
of First Ypres, and makes clear the frustration of the Royal Horse
Artillery due to being forced to fight from fixed positions rather
than maneuvering as it had been trained.
6 Adcock, Arthur. In the Firing Line: Stories of the War by Land and Sea.
26 The Battles of the B.E.F.
7 Addington, Larry. The Blitzkrieg Era and the German General Staff,
1865-1941. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
1971. Although his focus is much larger than World War I,
Addington's examination of logistical problems in 1914,
especially in regard to the Battle of the Marne, is very useful.
11 Allen, George H., Whitehead, Henry C., et al. The Great War. 5 Vols.
Philadelphia: George Barrie's Sons, 1915-21. These volumes are
a detailed but essentially descriptive history. The portrayal of the
B.E.F. in 1914-15 is readable and a good introduction to the
situation.
14 Aquila. With the Cavalry in the West. London: John Lane, The Bodley
Head, 1922. This diary of a cavalry subaltern has a good picture
of life in France during the war but little in the way of stirring
incidents or action.
15 Arnewood. With the Guns West and East. Privately Printed, 1924. This
account, by Major E. D. M. H. Cooke of the Royal Field
Artillery, describes the Battle of Loos in some detail.
21 Ascoli, David. The Mons Star: The British Expeditionary Force 5th Aug.-
22nd Nov. 1914. London: Harrap, 1981. Ascoli follows the "Old
Contemptibles" from the first shots through the end of the
fighting in 1914. His descriptions are clear and detailed; he is
very critical of Sir John French. Unfortunately, his book is not
well documented.
28 The Battles of the B.E.F.
23 Ashby, John. See Glory, Keep Glory: The Story of the 1st Battalion,
Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 1914-18. N. P.: Helion, 2000.
Ashby offers a complete version of the unit's experiences in the
war, and new information about the incident at St. Quentin in
1914 when two colonels agreed to surrender during the retreat
from Mons.
18. Part of the Second Brigade in the First Division, the Fifth
Battalion was involved in the action in the Ypres Salient,
including Second Ypres, during 1915.
43 Bailey, Jonathan. The First World War and the Birth of the Modern Style
of Warfare. Camberley: Strategic and Combat Studies Institute;
The Occasional Paper No. 22, 1996. Bailey traces the
technological changes, especially in artillery, that characterize
modern war, showing their origins in World War I. He argues
that the early battles were examples of trial and error learning.
46 Baker, H. A. "History of the 7th Field Company, R.E. During the War
1914-1918." The Royal Engineers Journal 46 (June, 1932):
258-73. This article, which is part of a series, covers the period
1914-16. The unit's efforts at constructing trenches and other
defense work and involvement in transport development are
described.
55 Banks, T. M. and R. A. Chell. With the 10th Essex in France. 2nd Ed.
London: Gay & Hancock, 1924. Although the 10th Essex only
arrived in France in the fall of 1915, this account of the unit has
details of life in the trenches for the B.E.F.
59 Barker, Ralph. The Royal Flying Corps in France: From Mons to the
Somme. London: Constable, 1994. The importance of aerial
observation became important quickly to the B.E.F., and Barker
provides an overview of the RFC's operations in the first years of
the war.
65 Batchelor, Peter and Christopher Matson. VCs of the First World War:
The Western Front, 1915. Thrupp Stroud,: Sutton Publishing,
1997. The authors include seventy-two biographical sketches of
the B.E.F.'s heroes from 1915.
34 The Battles of the B.E.F.
67 Bauer, Max. Der Grosse Krieg im Feld und Heimat. [The Great War on
the Battlefield and at Home.] Tübingen, 1921. Bauer, who
would be a member of Ludendorff's operations staff, is critical of
Moltke's intelligence, which he suggests led to false confidence
in the general. He also discusses Moltke's failure to prevent
rivalry between Generals Kluck and Bülow from compromising
the German effort at the Marne. Bauer's connection to
Ludendorff, who was very critical of his predecessors in
command, makes his criticism suspect, but his comments are
very valuable for gaining an understanding of German
operations. His account of the German introduction of poison
gas on April 15, 1915, is also useful.
68 Baumann, Eberhard. Mit der Garde im Westen. [With the Corps in the
West.] Holle: Richard Mühlmann, 1916. Baumann's personal
narrative of the war supplies information about the German's in
action against the British in 1914-15.
72 Baynes, John. Far From a Donkey: The Life of General Sir Ivor Maxse.
Annotated Bibliography 35
84 Belloc, Hilaire. The Elements of the Great War. 2 Vols. New York:
Hearst's International Library, 1915-16. Belloc regards the
Marne as the decisive battle of the whole war and the B.E.F.'s
counter-thrust in the middle of the line on September 9 as the
decisive tactical aspect of the battle. As his nationalism is
evident, his arguments must be taken with at least a bit of
caution.
86 Bennett, Arnold. Over There: War Scenes on the Western Front. New
York: A.L.Bart, 1915. Although a personal narrative, Bennett's
observations of the B.E.F. are, at best, superficial, and he says
little about military operations.
90 Best, Thomas. History of the World War. New York: Street and Smith,
1919. Although he gives the B.E.F. due credit, Best regards
Joffire as the real victor of the Battle of the Marne. He focuses
more attention on the B.E.F. in 1915, however, especially in
regard to the gas attack at 2nd Ypres.
92 Bickers, Richard Townshend. The First Great Air War. London: Hodder
and Stoughton, 1988. Despite its relative novelty, the airplane
was an important element in intelligence gathering from the first
days of World War I.
96 Binding, Rudolf. Aus dem Kriege. [From the War.] Frankfurt: Rutten &
Loening, 1925; rpt. 1929, 1940; Translation: A Fatalist at War.
Trans, by Ian F. D. Morrow. London: Unwin Brothers, 1928.
Binding served in the Flanders region for most of the war and
comments in his letters about the German situation and gives
impressions of the B.E.F., for instance the horrors of Second
Ypres.
98 Bircher, Eugen. Die Krisis in der Marneschlacht; Kämpfe der II und III
deutschen Armee gegen die 5 und 9 französische Armee am Petit
Morin und in den Marais de St. Gond. [The Crisis in the Battle
of the Marne; Battles of the 2nd and 3rd German Armies against
the 5th and 9th French Armies at the Petit Morin and in the Marais
de St. Gond.] Bern: Bircher, 1927. Bircher offers a German
perspective on the Battle of the Marne, but his focus is m`ore on
the French than British.
100 Blake F. The 17th/21st Lancers. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1968. This
volume chronicles the activities of a unit particularly
Annotated Bibliography 39
distinguished at Festubert.
101 Blake, Robert. Ed. The Private Papers of Douglas Haig, 1914-1919.
London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1952. As presented, Haig's
papers suggest that French was in fact incapable of commanding
the B.E.F. and that Haig was quite skillful in handling the
political aspects of their rivalry, for instance over the handling of
reserves at Loos. Blake, however, used the typed version of
Haig's diary which was apparently revised in the author's favor.
107 Bond, Brian, Ed. The First World War and British Military History.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. The essays in this excellent
40 The Battles of the B.E.F.
108 Bond, Brian. The Unquiet Western Front: Britain's Role in Literature
and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Bond's fine overview of how the war has been perceived over
time is an appropriate starting point for any study of it.
109 Bond, Brian. The Victorian Army and the Staff College, 1854-1914.
London: Eyre Methuen, 1972. Although the work is focused on
an earlier period, Bond’s comments about the preparation and
quality of British officers during the first months of the war are
valuable background for understanding the situation.
110 Bond, R. C. History of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the
Great War. Vol.3. London: Percy Lund, Humphries, 1929.
The KOYLI was heavily involved in the battles of the B.E.F. in
1914-15, and this volume of the substantial six volume
regimental history supplies extensive descriptions.
111 Bond, R. L. "The 23rd (Field) Company R.E. in the Great War, 1914-
1918." The Royal Engineers Journal 42 (June, 1928): 205-18;
(Sept., 1928): 390-406; (Dec, 1928): 563-80; 43 (March,
1929): 14-29. These articles are part of a serial unit history in
which the work of the engineers--bridging, trench construction,
wiring, etc.--is discussed. Because it is unusual, this is a very
valuable perspective.
115 Bordeau, Henry. Général Maistre. Paris: Crés, 1923. This biography is
useful for the study of the B.E.F. because Maistre's corps was
next to the British at La Bassée in 1914 and again at Loos in
1915.
119 Bourne, J. M. Britain and the Great War 1914-1918. London: Edward
Arnold, 1989. Bourne does a very good job of reviewing both
the military and domestic aspects of World War I. His portrayal
of the B.E.F. in 1914-15 is clear and informative.
122 Bowyer, Chaz. For Valour. London: William Kimber, 1978; rpt. 1992.
Although Bowyer's focus is really on heroics in the air, he does
give a sense of the significance of aviation to the efforts of the
B.E.F.
123 Boyd, William. With a Field Ambulance at Ypres: Being Letters Written
March 7th to August 15th, 1915. London: George H. Doran,
1916. Much of Boyd's account concerns life behind the B.E.F.
lines, though often close enough to be under artillery fire. His
comments about dealing with the wounded, at Second Ypres for
instance, are eloquent and moving.
124 Brander, Michael. The 10th Royal Hussars (1915-1969). London: Leo
Cooper, 1969. Although too brief to be of great value, this book
does include an account of action in 1914-15.
125 Braun, Julius Ritter von. Das k.b. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 21.
[The k. b. Reserve-Infantry-Regiment No. 21.] München:
Bayerisches Kriegsarchiv, 1923. This regiment opposed the
British in early battles of the war and was involved in gas attacks
on the B.E.F. in 1915.
127 Brereton, F. S. The Great War and the R.A.M.C. London: Constable,
1919. This book was intended to be the first volume of a popular
medical history of the war and covers the first few weeks (from
the Battle of Mons to the Battle of the Aisne). Although the
movement of R.A.M.C. units is followed in detail, the author
often fails to tie the situation of medical units to the larger
tactical picture.
131 Brice, Beatrice. The Battle Book of Ypres. London: John Murray, 1927;
rpt. 1988. Originally a memorial, this compilation of soldiers'
detailed stories includes events in the Ypres Salient throughout
the war. The compiler's organization by specific location and
date makes it a very convenient refernce for details of operations.
133 Bridge, F. Maynard. A Short History of the Great World War. 2nd
Edition. London: H.F.W. Deane & Sons-The Year Book Press,
1920. Bridge provides a clear description of the military
situation, and is quite approving of the B.E.F. Despite the pro-
British inclination, the book is a good introduction to the
campaigns of the B.E.F.
136 A Brief Outline of the Story of the Canadian Grenadier Guards and the
First Months of the Royal Montreal Regiment in the Great War.
Montreal: Gazette Printing Co., 1926. Although this version is
short, it does include verse and sarcasm from the soldiers.
138 Brophy, John. Ed. The Soldier's War, A Prose Anthology. London: J.
M. Dent, 1929. Although the entries in this collection include
fiction, there are also first-hand accounts of the Ypres Salient
during the first two years of the war.
140 Brown, Ian Malcolm. British Logistics on the Western Front, 1914-1919.
Westport: Praeger, 1998. Brown argues that logistics and
administration have been ignored in the traditional focus on
generalship and slaughter and more recently on operational
issues. In reality the B.E.F. could not have become a powerful
modern force without superior logistics and administration. He
has done an excellent job of sustaining his view.
141 Brown, Malcolm. The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front.
London: Sidgwick & Jackson in Association with the Imperial
War Museum, 1993. Drawing heavily from the Imperial War
Museum's extensive collection of unpublished memoirs and
letters, Brown has done a superior job of giving the point-of-view
of the soldiers on the Western Front.
142 Brown, Malcolm. Tommy Goes to War. London: J. M. Dent, 1978; rpt.
1986, 1999. This heavily illustrated volume is quite valuable for
gaining an understanding of what soldiers faced in living and
fighting on the Western Front.
143 Brown, Malcolm and Shirley Seaton. Christmas Truce: The Western
Front December 1914. London: Leo Cooper/Secker &
Warburg, 1984; rpt. 1994. In 1914 Christmas Eve brought an
unofficial truce and that evening and at times during the next day
men from the two sides met in no man's land and exchanged
small items as gifts. This reputedly began with Germans and
men of the B.E.F. singing carols to one another. Such activities
were firmly repressed thereafter.
148 Buchan, John. The History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (1679-1918).
London: Thomas Nelson, 1925. Although Scots Fusiliers were
active at a number of the battles of 1914-15, Buchan's attempt to
trace the regiment over nearly 300 years results in rather limited
coverage.
149 Buchan, John. Nelson's History of the War. 24 vols. London: Thomas
Nelson and Sons, 1915-19; also published in 4 Vols. as History
of the Great War (1921-22). Buchan a novelist and Director of
Information for the British Government during the war, is
eloquent but not necessarily accurate. The four volume version
was revised, but remains untrustworthy.
150 Bucholz, Arden. Moltke, Schlieffen, and Prussian War Planning. New
York: Berg, 1991. This well-researched volume ties planning
and operations together very effectively, showing German
expectation from the initial campaigns.
152 Bülow, Karl Paul Wilhelm von. Mein Bericht zur Marneschlacht. [My
Report of the Marne Battle.] Berlin: A. Scherl, 1919. The
commander of the second army, that with the first, formed the
outer wing of German forces in the Schlieffen Plan, gives his
version of events in which he has at times been accused of being
over cautious.
153 Burnett, C. The Memoirs of the 18th (Queen Mary's Own) Royal Hussars,
1906-1922. Winchester: Warren, 1922. Includes records of
units involved in several of the 1914-15 battles, especially Mons,
the Marne, and the Aisne in 1914.
154 Burrows, A. R. The 1st Battalion the Faugh-A-Ballaghs in the Great War.
Aldershot: Gale & Polden, n.d. Burrows's descriptions are lively
and include coverage of Le Cateau, the Aisne, Armentiéres, and
2nd Ypres. He includes an account of Private Robert Morrow
who won a V.C. for rescuing wounded men while mortally
wounded himself.
156 Burton, F. N. and A. P. Comyns. The War Diary (1914-18) 10th (Service)
Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers. Plymouth: William Brendon
and Sons, 1926. Includes accounts of the first year of the war.
163 Callwell, C. E. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: His Life and Diaries.
2 Vols. London: Cassell, 1927. Wilson was Director of Military
Operations at the beginning of the war and in 1915 became
liaison to the French command. He was involved in much of the
planning and decision making for the B.E.F. His diaries provide
many observations.
166 Cameron, James. 1914. New York: Rinehart, 1959. Cameron's broad-
brush portrayal of Britain in 1914 includes the opening of the
war and provides an effective introduction to the first months of
the war.
171 Canadian War Records Office. The Canadian War Pictorial. 4 Vols.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916-19. These volumes
contain official photographs with narratives of the C.E.F.
172 Canadian War Records Office. Thirty Canadian VCs: 23 April 1915 to
30th March 1918. London: Skeffington, 1918. This volume
includes biographical sketches of Canadian heroes in the battles
of 1915.
174 Carew, Tim. The Glorious Glosters. London: Leo Cooper, 1970. Brief
regimental history with some particulars of the Gloucestershire
Regiment's battalions on the Western Front.
175 Carew, Tim. Wipers: The First Battle of Ypres. London: Hamish
Hamilton, 1974. Carew's portrayal is drawn from accounts by
common soldiers and offers a vivid glimpse of the early
experiences of the B.E.F.
176 Carew, Tim. The Vanished Army. London: William Kimber, 1964; rpt.
1971. Carew's description of original units in the B.E.F., which
were virtually destroyed by the end of 1914, is detailed and
enlivened by numerous tales of individuals. Unfortunately, there
Annotated Bibliography 49
177 Carnock, Lord. The History of the 15th King's Hussars, 1914-1922.
Gloucester: Crypt House Press, 1932. Carnock provides a
narrative of cavalry's role in the early months of the war and
some comment about logistical problems.
181 Carver, Michael. Ed. The War Lords: Military Commanders of the
Twentieth Century. London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
1976. Provides biographical sketches Haig, Allenby, Joffre, and
Foch all of whom played important roles in 1914. Each sketch
is written by a major scholar.
184 Casey, Edward. The Misfit Soldier: Edward Casey's War Story, 1914-
1932. Edited by Joanna Bourke. Cork, Ireland: Cork University
Press, 1999. Casey's descriptions of life on the Western Front
are gritty and seem unusually straight forward. A member of the
Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he was only in France for a short period
50 The Battles of the B.E.F.
in the first years of the war. The published version of his diary
is best for background to the military situation.
185 Cassar, George. Beyond Courage: The Canadians at the Second Battle
of Ypres. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1985. Cassar's study is
thorough and detailed, but lacks adequate context for fully
understanding the Canadian contribution to the overall Battle of
Ypres.
188 Cassar, George H. The Tragedy of Sir John French. Newark: The
University of Delaware Press, 1985. Cassar recounts French’s
career, but his volume is largely focused on World War I. He
acknowledges many good points in French, such as his qualities
of personal leadership, but does not regard him as up to the task
of leading the B.E.F. in 1914.
189 Cave, Nigel. Hill 60: Ypres. London: Pen and Sword, 1998. Although
a visitor's guide, this volume describes the fortifications of the
strategic Hill 60 and the German gas attack there in 1915.
190 Cave, Nigel. Mons. London: Leo Cooper, 1999. This visitor's guide
includes quite a bit of historical information along with
descriptions of the area of the battle. It is a good introduction.
191 Cave, Nigel. Ypres, Sanctuary Wood and Hooge. London; Leo Cooper,
1993. One of a series of very good guidebooks, this volume
provides background concerning the area in which First and
Second Ypres were fought and an outline of events.
193 Chapin, Harold. Soldier and Dramatist, Being the Letters of Harold
Chapin American Citizen Who Died for England at Loos on
September 26th 1915. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head,
1917. Chapin describes his experiences as an enlisted man and
noncommissioned officer in the RAMC.
194 Chapman, Guy, ed. Vain Glory: A Miscellany of the Great War. London:
Cassell, 1937; 2nd ed. 1968. Chapman's collection evokes the
experience and horror of the war very effectively but lacks
context. The account of the gas attack in April, 1915, is
particularly vivid.
195 Chapman, John, et al. Responding to the Call: The Kitchener Battalions
of the Royal Berkshire Regiment at the Battle of Loos 1915. NP:
Dept. of Extended Education (Extramural Studies Section),
University of Reading, 1995. This pamphlet supplies personal
narratives of soldiers of the 5th and 8th battalions of the Royal
Berkshire Regiment who fought at Loos and a description of the
battle.
197 Charteris, John. Field Marshal Earl Haig. London: Cassell, 1929.
Charteris, Haig's intelligence officer, is very supportive of his
chief. He finds no fault with Haig's performance in 1914, and
defends him regarding his disputes with French in 1915 that
ultimately led to Haig becoming commander-in-chief.
198 Charteris, John. Haig. New York: Macmillan, 1933. Short, descriptive,
eulogistic biography.
200 Chevrillon, André England and the War, 1914-1915. Garden City :
Doubleday, 1917. This volume is a collection of articles from
the Revue de Paris, and was published in an effort to encourage
American support for the Allies.
52 The Battles of the B.E.F.
204 Chute, Arthur H. The Real Front. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1918.
Chute's descriptions of the artillery are meticulous, but the rest of
his comments are much more speculative.
206 Clark, Alan. The Donkeys. London: Hutchinson, 1961. Clark's focus is
British command in 1915, especially at Neuve Chapelle, 2nd
Ypres, Aubers Ridge, and Loos. His title makes clear his opinion
of the generals involved, but his opinion that they were
destructively rigid and ignorant has been strongly questioned.
Unfortunately Clark tends to exaggeration, and his book has
some factual errors.
207 Clarke, David. The Angel of Mons: Phantom Soldiers and Ghostly
Guardians. Chichester: Wiley, 2004. The supposed
supernatural intervention at Mons is, of course, a myth, but it be
came quite a symbol to the B.E.F. and to people on the
homefront. As such it is worth some attention when studying the
B.E.F.
210 Clowes, Peter. "Fire Over Mons." Military History 18 (August, 2001):
58-65. Clowes' offers an abbreviated but clear outline of the
B.E.F.'s first encounter of the war.
211 Coate, Les. Ypres, 1914-1918. Brighton: Tressell, 1982. This short
work, little more than a pamphlet, is for students, but it does
cover the battles in the Salient in 1914-15.
213 Coleman, Frederic. From Mons to Ypres with General French. London:
Sampson Low, Marston, 1916. Coleman, an American member
of the Royal Automobile Club, volunteered himself and his car
for war service. Along with twenty-five others he was sent to
France, and spent most of the first year of the war driving
officers and others in the war zone. He was often on the fringes
of combat. His observations, based on notes, taken at the time
are detailed and extensive.
214 Colin, Gen. La Division de Fer. [The Iron Division.] Paris: Payot,
1929. Colin's description of Ferdinand Foch's original command
adds to the understanding of the early battles of the war,
especially the Marne.
219 Committee of Officers Who Served with the Battalion. The War History
of the Sixth Battalion the South Staffordshire Regiment (T.F.).
London: William Heinemann, 1924. Provides a substantial
account of action at Hill 60.
223 Cook, Tim. No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in
the First World War. Vancouver: University of British
Columbia Press, 1999. A truly superior work, No Place to Run
offers new insights into the significance and extent of poison gas
in the war and to the history of the Canadian participation.
225 Cooksley, Peter G. VCs of the First World War: The Air VCs. Thrupp
Stroud: Sutton, 1996; rpt. 1999. The biographical sketches in
this volume relate the experiences of five heroic flyers fighting
in support of the B.E.F. in 1915.
226 Cooper, Alfred Duff. Haig. 2 Vols. London: Faber and Faber, 1935-36.
Duff Cooper is too uncritically supportive of Haig to make his
conclusions of much significance, but he does include significant
extracts from the typed version of Haig's diary. Although this
version was revised when prepared from the handwritten
original, the extracts are useful for gaining an understanding of
Haig's ideas.
229 Corbett-Smith, A. The Retreat From Mons by One Who Shared in It.
London: Cassell, 1916. The author, an officer with the Royal
Field Artillery, offers detailed but often superficial descriptions
of the retreat. His book is of value only for the odd detail.
231 Corrigan, Gordon. Sepoys in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the
Western Front, 1914-1915. Staplehurst: Spellmont, 1999.
Corrigan discusses the performance of Indian troops thoughtfully
and gives credit to their great efforts.
233 Craig, Grace Morris. But This Is Our War. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1981. This memoir is built around letters among
the Morris family of Pembroke, Canada. There are comments
and observations regarding the Western Front, but much of the
material is personal.
235 Creagh, O'Moore, and E.M. Humphris. Eds. The VC and DSO. 3 Vols.
London: Standard Art Book Co., n.d. Listing of every winner of
the VC and DSO from the Crimean War to the end of World War
I with biographical sketches and photos.
236 Cremers, Paul Joseph and Karl Bartz. Die Marneschlacht eine deutsche
Tragödie. [The Battle of the Marne A German Tragedy.]
Stuttgart: Cotta, 1933. The authors submit a German slant
concerning the key Battle of the Marne, but do not focus on the
role of the B.E.F.
237 Crew, Graeme. The Royal Army Service Corps. London: Leo Cooper,
1970. This brief volume gives background to the logistical effort
of the B.E.F. It is a subject about which far too little has been
written.
238 Croft, W. D. Three Years with the 9th (Scottish) Division. London: John
Murray, 1919. Although his account is largely superficial, Croft
does supply some details of living-conditions in the Ypres Salient
during 1915.
239 Crookenden, Arthur. The History of the Cheshire Regiment in the Great
War. 2nd Ed. Chester: W. H. Evans & Sons, n. d. Many of the
Annotated Bibliography 57
241 Cru, Jean Norton. Témoins. [Witnesses.] Paris: Les Etincelles, 1929.
This study of eyewitness accounts of World War I included more
than 300 examples. It was published in a modified and shortened
version as Du Témoignage. Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1931;
and in English as War Books: A Study in Historical Criticism.
Translated and edited by Stanley J. Pincetl, Jr. and Ernest
Marchand. San Diego: San Diego State University Press, 1976.
Cru's analysis of personal accounts from diaries to
autobiographical novels is powerful and deserves attention even
though the number of French accounts of the B.E.F. is low.
244 Cuneo, John R. Winged Mars, II: The Air Weapon, 1914-1916. Vol.2.
58 The Battles of the B.E.F.
245 Cunliffe, Marcus. The Royal Irish Fusiliers, 1793-1950. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1952. Cunliffe furnishes reports on battalions
of the Royal Irish Fusiliers in action from early in the war, and
especially at Le Cateau and the Marne. His book is well done.
246 Currie, J. A. "The Red Watch" With the First Canadian Division in
Flanders. Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, 1916.
Currie served as commander of the 15th Battalion in the CEF, and
gives eyewitness testimony about the Ypres Salient in 1915. He
offers some defense against charges that he panicked and
removed himself from immediate danger during Second Ypres.
247 Curry, Frederick. C. From the St. Lawrence to the Yser With the 1st
Canadian Brigade. Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild &
Stewart, 1916. Curry's personal narrative of involvement in the
CEF includes the struggle in the Ypres Salient, though he was in
reserve during the major battles of 1915 and a casualty before
year's end.
248 Dahlmann, Reinhold. Die Schlacht vor Paris. [The Battle Before Paris.]
Oldenburg: Stalling, 1928. Although the B.E.F. was not directly
involved in the struggle over Paris, the French success in saving
the city set the stage for the Battle of the Marne, where the
B.E.F. was significant. Accounts from the German perspective,
such as this, help set the context.
249 Dahms, R. Der grosse krieg aus der Froschperspektive. [The Great War
From the Frog Point of View.] Berlin: Behr, 1927. Written by
a company commander in the 83rd Reserve Infantry Regiment,
this volume describes the struggles with the B.E.F. at the Marne
and First Ypres.
254 Dane, Edmund. The Battles in Flanders, From Ypres to Neuve Chapelle.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915. Dane's account is
journalistic and lacks perspective.
256 Dartein, F. de. La 56e Division au Feu. [The 56th Division of Fire.]
Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1919. The 56th Division joined
Maunoury's Sixth Army on August 29 and was positioned on the
B.E.F.'s immediate left for the rest of the retreat. Dartein
discusses the problems of coordination, especially in the absence
of a translator.
258 Davis, Richard Harding. With the Allies. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1914; rpt. 1919. Davis, a veteran military correspondent,
60 The Battles of the B.E.F.
260 De Groot, Gerald J. "Ambition, Duty and Doctrine: Haig's Rise to High
Command." In Haig: A Reappraisal 70 Years On. Ed. by Brian
Bond and Nigel Cave. Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1999. DeGroot's
focus is Haig's rise before 1914, but his criticisms of Haig offer
an interpretation of wartime problems.
262 De Lisle, Beauvoir. Reminiscences of Sport and War. London: Eyre &
Spottiswoode, 1939. De Lisle was a cavalry officer who served
in France at the beginning of the war, particularly at Second
Ypres. His account tends to focus on personal issues, however.
264 Devenish, George. A Subaltern's Share in the War, Home Letters of the
Late George Weston Devenish, Lieut. R.A., Attached R. F. C.
London: Constable, 1917. Devenish was on the Western Front
in September and October, 1914, and for the latter half of 1915.
He describes in thoughtful detail living conditions and combat
for an artilleryman.
265 Dixon, Janet and John Dixon. eds. With Rifle and Pick Cardiff: CWM
Press, 1991. This collection of letters, from newspapers by
members of the 3rd Battalion of the Monmouthshire Regiment,
gives a powerful depiction of the terrible casualty rate at 2nd
Ypres and the mining at Hill 60.
266 Dixon, John. Magnificent But Not War: The Second Battle of Ypres.
London: Pen and Sword, 2003. Follows the battle from day to
day and in great detail. A valuable addition to the historiography
of the early part of the war.
Annotated Bibliography 61
270 Donovan, Tom. Ed. Hazy Red Hell: Fighting Experiences on the
Western Front, 1914-1918. Staplehurst: Spellmount, 1999.
Donovan has organized some fifty firsthand accounts of fighting
to show the evolution of combat on the Western Front.
272 Dow, Gene. Ed. World War One Reminiscences of a New Brunswick
Veteran. Hartland: Cummings typesetting, 1990. An account of
a Canadian veteran of experiences on the Western Front.
273 Doyle, Arthur Conan. A History of the Great War. 6 Vols. New York:
George H. Doran, 1917-1920. Doyle tells the story with the skill
of a novelist and the zeal of a patriot. His work does provide
some useful details but on the whole is not particularly valuable
for research.
274 Drake-Brockman, D. H. With the Royal Garhwal Rifles in the Great War
from August, 1914, to November, 1917. NP:NP,n.d. Although
the focus is narrow, this volume does provide details of the unit
and of individuals in all of the significant battles of the B.E.F.
62 The Battles of the B.E.F.
276 Ducan, G. S. Douglas Haig as I Knew Him. London: George Allen &
Unwin, 1966. The author, Haig's chaplain for much of the war,
offers some insights into the character and decision making of
Haig. His memoir is not, however, of great import.
279 Dungan, Myles. Irish Voices From the Great War. Dublin: Irish
Academic Press, 1955. Dungan's collection of comments by
Irish soldiers who served with the B.E.F. allows the troops to tell
their own story of most of the battles of 1914-15.
282 Dupuy, Trevor N. Military History of World War I. 12 Vols. New York:
Annotated Bibliography 63
285 Eastwood, Thomas Ralph and Harry Gordon Parkyn. List of Officers and
Other Ranks of the Rifle Brigade Awarded Decorations or
Mentioned in Despatches During the Great War. London: Rifle
Brigade Club, 1936. Offers little but some factual bits and pieces
concerning individuals.
290 Egremont, Max. Under Two Flags: The Life of Major General Sir
Edward Spears. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997.
Egremont's account of Spears' efforts on the Western Front where
he was the liaison between the B.E.F. and the French Army in
1914 is useful but briefer than World War I scholars would
prefer.
292 Ellinwood, DeWitt C. and S. D. Pradhan. Eds. India and World War I.
New Delhi: Manohar, 1978. Indian forces were an important
factor on the Western Front from late 1914 to the end of 1915.
This book provides details and discussion of the Indian
contribution.
293 Ellis, C. The 4th (Denbighshire) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the
Great War. Wrexham: Woodall, Minshall, Thomas, 1926.
Ellis' depiction of trench life and routine combat in from late
1914 through 1915 is perceptive. He also recounts the actions of
the Battalion at Aubers Ridge and Loos, where it found poison
gas an effective weapon.
294 Ellis, John. Eye Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I. London:
Croom Helm, 1976. Using an excellent balance of photographs
and text, Ellis gives a real sense of what a soldier's life on the
Western Front was like. His book is a valuable supplement to
any study of battle in the war.
298 Essenm, L. van der. The Invasion and the War in Belgium From Liège to
the Yser. London: T. F. Unwin, 1917. The author's comments
offer some discussion of the B.E.F.'s role in the early stages of
the war.
299 Evans, H. K. D. and N. D. Laing. The 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars in the
Great War. Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1920. Includes records
of units with the B.E.F., especially at Mons, Le Cateau, and the
Marne.
300 Evans, M. St. H. Going Across or With the 9th Welch in the Butterfly
Division: Being Extracts from the War Letters and Diary of M.
St. Helier Evans. Edited by Frank Delamain. Newport: R. H.
Johns, 1952. Evans account of service with the 9th Battalion of
the Welch Division includes descriptions of the B.E.F. in the
latter part of 1915.
301 Evans, Martin Manx. Passchendaele and the Battles of Ypres 1914-18.
London: Osprey, 1998. Evans picks up the story of Ypres and
the fighting there in 1914. He includes first-hand accounts and
many illustrations in a volume that provides a good introduction
to the situation in the salient.
302 Ewing, John. The History of the 9th (Scottish) Division, 1914-1918.
London: John Murray, 1921. The 9th was the first of the New
Army or Kitchener Divisions formed, and it played a major role
at Loos. Ewing provides a full chapter concerning the battle with
a detailed description and some analysis of what went wrong.
66 The Battles of the B.E.F.
303 Ewing, John. The Royal Scots, 1914-1919. 2 Vols. Edinburgh: Oliver
and Boyd for the Association of Lowland Scots, 1925. Units of
the Royal Scots were involved in many of the battles in 1914-15.
Ewing's descriptions are detailed and include recognition of
individual accomplishment. He makes little general comment,
however.
305 Falls, Cyril. The Gordon Highlanders in the First World War 1914-1919.
Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1958. Falls, one of the
better historians of World War I, sets the activities of the Gordon
Highlanders in context and includes particulars of activities in
1914-15. The book is the fourth volume in a series entitled The
Life of a Regiment.
306 Falls, Cyril. The Great War. New York: Putnam, 1959. Falls, a veteran
of the war and later part of the official history team, provides an
excellent generally unbiased account of the conflict. His book
was published in England as The First World War.
307 Falls, Cyril. The History of the First Seven Battalions, the Royal Irish
Rifles (Now the Royal Ulster Rifles) in the Great War.
Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1925. An important World War I
scholar, Falls provides both details and context in following these
battalions through the conflict.
308 Falls, Cyril. War Books: A Critical Guide. London: Peter Davies, 1930;
rpt. 1989. Although dated, this discussion of historiography is
both articulate and acute. Falls still deserves to be consulted.
309 Farndale, Martin. The History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: The
Western Front 1914-18. Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution,
1986. No arm was more important than artillery, and the British
shortages of guns and shells in the early months of the war
proved serious problems. Although not particularly critical,
Farndale provides details of artillery units in action and the
difficulties providing support to the infantry.
310 Farrar, Martin. News From the Front: War Correspondents, 1914-1918.
Thrupp Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1998. Farrar's
Annotated Bibliography 67
314 Feilding, Rowland. War Letters to a Wife: France and Flanders, 1915-
1919. London: Medici Society, 1929. Feilding served with the
Cold Stream Guards and arrived in France April 29, 1915. He
describes, first-hand, life in the trenches and combat, including
the Battle of Loos.
315 Fendrich, Anton. Gegen Frankreich und Albion. [Against France and
England.] 4 Vols. Stuttgart: Franckh, 1916-17. Includes
accounts of the drive on Paris, Battle of the Marne, and the
battles of 1915.
316 Ferguson, Niall. The Pity of War: Explaining World War I. London:
Allen Lane, 1998. Ferguson attempts to revise virtually all of the
current assumptions about World War I, not always successfully.
Regarding military operations, he makes a vigorous case for
German superiority.
68 The Battles of the B.E.F.
318 Ferris, John. "The British Army and Signals Intelligence in the Field
During the First World War." Intelligence and National Security
3 (Oct., 1988): 23-48. Ferris examines problems that dogged the
B.E.F. in 1914-15, and for that matter, during the rest of the war.
319 Ferro,Marc. The Great War, 1914-1918. London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 1973. A thorough survey, Ferro's composition has enough
emphasis on military operations to make it particularly
interesting to military historians.
323 Fisher, John J. History of the Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment
(The Iron Duke's Own) During the First Three years of the Great
War From August 1914 to December 1917. Halifax: NP, 1917.
Fisher's text is a relatively brief account of a regiment whose
battalions were involved in the 1914-15 action.
basic details. It was written too soon after the events for the
author to have access to many records, however.
328 Former Officers of the Regiment. The 23rd London Regiment, 1798-1919.
London: Times Publishing, 1936. This volume provides short
factual accounts of members of the regiment involved in the first
stages of the war-particularly the battles of Festubert and Loos.
It is useful mostly for details of individual action by members of
the regiment.
331 Foster, H. C. At Antwerp and the Dardanelles. London: Mills and Boon,
1918. Foster offers a personal portrayal of the vain British
struggle to help the Belgian Army hold Antwerp.
333 Fox, Frank. The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the World War. London:
Constable, 1928. Fox is better than most unit historians about
setting events in context. He provides details of the Marne, the
Aisne, Festubert, and especially Le Cateau, which he regards as
a major British victory.
338 French, Anthony. Gone for a Soldier. Kineton: The Roundwood Press,
1972. French describes enlistment, training, and service on the
Western Front. He says little about combat before the Somme
and fails to give much indication of when and where his
experiences occurred.
339 French, David. British Strategy and War Aims, 1914-1916. London:
Allen and Unwin, 1986. French considers London's policy and
concerning both friend and foe and suggests that it was neither
consistent nor entirely pro-Ally in the first part of the war.
Annotated Bibliography 71
341 French, Field Marshal Lord Ypres. 1914. London: Constable, 1919.
John French's account of his role with the B.E.F. is so defensive,
and at times simply false, that its value is very limited.
342 French, John Denton Pinkstone, Earl of Ypres. The Despatches of Lord
French: Mons, the Marne, the Aisne, Flanders, Neuve Chapelle,
the Second Battle of Ypres, Loos, Hohenzollerin Redoubt, and a
Complete List of the Officers and Men Mentioned. London:
Chapman & Hall, 1917. Although not an entirely adequate
replacement for archival resources, access to this collection of
despatches from the period of French's command on the Western
Front is valuable.
345 French, Gerald. The Life of Field Marshal Sir John French, Earl French
of Ypres. London: Cassell, 1931; rpt. 1966. This biography by
one of the general's sons has the virtue of the author's personal
knowledge but the fault of filial sentiment.
72 The Battles of the B.E.F.
346 French, Gerald. Ed. Some War Diaries, Addresses and Correspondence
of Sir John French. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1937. Although
factual information can be obtained from this volume, the editor
does not seem to have intended the contents to lead to criticism
of the general.
347 Freytag-Lounghoven, Baron von. Deductions from the World War. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1918. The author is a pro-German
Swiss military critic and argues that Germans were not strong
enough in 1914 but accomplished much before the Marne. A
little more push might have carried the day.
351 Fyfe, Albert J. Understanding the First World War: Illusions and
Realities. New York: Peter Lang, 1988. Fyfe provides an
insightful examination of successes and failures on both sides
and in both the political and military arenas.
354 Galet, E. J. Albert, King of the Belgians in the Great War: His Military
Experiences Set Down With His Approval. Trans. by Ernest D.
Swinton. London: Putnam, 1931. The gallant stand of the
Belgians as well as the defense of Antwerp affected the B.E.F. in
the first weeks of the war. The focus of the book is Belgian
Annotated Bibliography 73
360 Gardner, Nikolas. "Command and Control on the 'Great Retreat' of 1914:
The Disintegration of the British Cavalry Division." The Journal
of Military History 63 (Jan., 1999): 29-54. Gardner argues that
the traditions of the British cavalry emphasized independent
action and resulted in poor staff work, which, in turn led to poor
performance in 1914.
362 Gardner, Nikolas. Trial by Fire: Command and the British Expeditionary
Force in 1914. Westport: Praeger, 2003. Gardner does an
excellent critical summary of the command problems faced by
the B.E.F.'s leaders and their responses to those problems. His
analysis is clear and effective.
366 Generalstabler, Einem. Kritik des Weltkrieges: Das Erbe Moltkes und
Schlieffens im Grossen Kriege. [Critique of the World War: The
Heritage of Moltke and Schlieffen in the Great War.] Leipzig:
Koehler, 1920. The author is very critical of German planning
and leadership, but he is not unaware of the role of the B.E.F. in
frustrating the German scheme.
367 Geoghegan, Stannus. The Campaigns and History of the Royal Irish
Regiment. Vol. 2: From 1900 to 1922. London: William
Blackwood & Sons, 1927. Although somewhat episodic due to
following the activities of nine battalions, this volume does have
details of battles of the B.E.F., such as the Marne where the
second battalion was reduced to 400 men.
368 Germains, Victor Wallace. The Truth About Kitchener. London: John
Lane/The Bodley Head, 1925. The "truth," according to
Germains, is that Kitchener made the right decisions at pretty
much every occasion. His lack of a proper staff was due to the
system. The common assertion that William Robertson agreed
Annotated Bibliography 75
375 Gibb, H. Records of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards in the Great
War, 1914-1918. Privately Printed, 1925. Provides records of
cavalry activity in the early battles of the war, particularly in
1914.
376 Gibbs, Philip. The Realities of War. London: Heinemann, 1920. Gibbs
emphasizes the horrors of the war, such as casualties and horrors
of trench life, to drive home his sense of the impact of war.
377 Gibson, Mary. Warneford V.C. Yearilton: Fleet Air Arm Museum, 1979.
Gibson's biography of R. A. Warneford, who served with No. 2
Squadron, offers some information regarding the war in the air
but little about the battles on land.
379 Gilbert, Adrian and John Terraine. World War I in Photographs. New
York: Military Press, 1986. This volume provides pictorial
evidence concerning the battlefields and experiences of the war.
380 Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of World War I. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994. Gilbert's maps are easy to read and
provide an excellent geographic overview of the war.
381 Gilbert, Martin. The First World War: A Complete History. New York:
Henry Holt, 1994. Gilbert's survey is thorough and has a
particular emphasis on presentation of eyewitness comments.
382 Giles, John. The Ypres Salient: Flanders Then and Now. London: Leo
Cooper, 1970; rpt. 1979; rpt. 1987. Giles' descriptions of the
battlefields in the Salient are very informative.
384 Gillon, Stair. The K.O.S.B. in the Great War. London: Thomas Nelson,
n.d. Gillon provides details of the King's Own Scottish
Borderers at the Marne, the Aisne, Le Cateau, Hill 60, St. Julien,
and Loos. His focus is narrowly on the unit, however.
386 Gleichen, Edward (Lord). Doings of the 15th Infantry Brigade, August
1914 to March 1915. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1917.
Provides details of Mons, Le Cateau, and other operations of the
B.E.F.
388 Gliddon, Gerald. V.C.s of the First World War: 1914. Stroud: Sutton,
1994; rpt. 1997. Gliddon's biographical sketches of the forty-six
men who won V. C.s in the first months of the war are
substantive. His volume is also well illustrated.
389 Glogowski, Ernst. Das kgl. sächs. 6 Infanterie-regiment Nr. 105 "König
Wilhelm II von Wüttemberg." [The 6th Saxon Infantry Regiment,
No. 105, King William II of Wüttemberg's.] Dresden:
Buchdruckerei der W. und B. v. Baensch Stiftung, 1929. This
regimental history covers fighting against the B.E.F., including
the use of poison gas in 1915.
390 Glover, Michael. That Astonishing Infantry: Three Hundred Years of the
History of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (23rd Regiment of Foot).
London: Leo Cooper, 1989. Battalions of the Royal Welch
Fusiliers at most of the battles in 1914-15, but in trying to cover
300 years of the regiment's history the author is forced to limit
greatly his accounts.
391 Glover, Michael. Ed. The Fateful Battle Line: The Great War Journals
78 The Battles of the B.E.F.
392 Glover, Michael. A New Guide to the Battlefields of Northern France and
the Low Countries. London: Michael Joseph, 1987. Travel
guides such as this one have significant amounts of information
about the areas over which battles were fought and are often
good introductions to the military situation.
393 Goodinge, Anthony. The Scots Guards. London: Leo Cooper, 1969.
Goodinge's account of the early campaigns is quite brief, and his
book is mostly useful to identify actions in which the Guards
participated and officers who led them. He does assert that the
B.E.F. was fully prepared, trained, and equipped in August,
1914.
395 Goodspeed, D. J. The Road Past Vimy: The Canadian Corps, 1914-
1918. Toronto: Macmillan, 1969. Concerning the first year and
a half of the war, the important role of the Canadians in 1915,
especially at Second Ypres, is effectively presented in this
volume. The author's bitterness toward the British high
command due to the casualties suffered by the Canadians is not
disguised.
396 Gordon, George Stuart. Mons and the Retreat. London: Constable
(Whitefriars Press), 1918. This volume is a short presentation of
the campaign in a popular format.
397 Görlitz, Walter. Ed. The Kaiser and His Court: The Diaries, Note Books,
and Letters of Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller Chief of the
Naval Cabinet. Translated by Mervyn Savill. London:
Macdonald, 1961; rpt. 1964. This diary has comments about
Moltke and communication problems in 1914.
399 Gough, Hubert. The Fifth Army. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1931.
Gough was initially in command of a cavalry battalion but soon
took command of the new 2nd Cavalry Division. He often
comments on the strategic and political aspects of the war and
provides an excellent description of the use of cavalry during the
early months of the war.
400 Gough, Hubert. Soldiering On: Being the Memoirs of General Sir Hubert
Gough. London: Arthur Barker, 1954. Gough was part of the
B.E.F. from the beginning of the war, and describes the first
years from the perspective of a battalion commander. His
comments on the (negative in Gough's eyes) influence of Sir
Henry Wilson are significant.
401 Gould, R. W. Epic Actions of the First World War. Brighton: Tom
Donovan, 1997. Gould's focus is heroic stands, often to the last
man, of small units or occasionally individuals, and he has
examples from most of the battles of the B.E.F. in 1914 and
1915. The episodic nature of the text and lack of references,
however, reduce the value of his book significantly.
402 Graham, Henry. History of the Sixteenth, the Queen's, Light Dragoons
(Lancers), 1912 to 1925. Privately Printed, 1926. The Sixteenth
was part of the B.E.F.'s cavalry contingent, but Graham devotes
most of his account to the general situation and gives few details
of the unit about which he is writing.
405 Graves, Robert. Goodbye to All That. London: Jonathan Cape, 1929;
numerous reprints. Although a classic, Graves' autobiographical
account is over-dramatized and represents, in some respects, an
powerful anti-war statement. His account of Loos, for instance,
portrays the B.E.F. as thoroughly incompetent and hopeless.
80 The Battles of the B.E.F.
406 Gray, Randal and Christopher Argyle. Chronicle of the First World War,
1914-1918. 2 Vols. New York: Facts on File, 1990. The
authors have supplemented a day-by-day account with
commentary and numerous maps.
409 Great Britain. General Staff Studies. The Battle of the Aisne. London:
His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1934. Official histories such as
this offer much detail but cannot be depended upon for serious
criticism of their own side.
410 Great Britain. General Staff Studies. The Battle of the Marne. London:
His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1935. This is a detailed account
written from official sources.
411 Great Britain. War Office. The Battle of Le Cateau: 26 August, 1914.
Tour of the Battlefield. London: His Majesty's Stationery
Office, 1934. Although based on the Official History, this short
official description does include more details in a clear and
thorough description.
412 Great Britain. War Office. General Staff. Geographical Section Report
on Survey on the Western Front, 1914-1918. London: War
Office, 1920. Provides information about the British efforts to
map the Western Front, especially for artillery usage.
413 Great Britain. War Office. Statistics of the British Empire During the
Great War, 1914-1920. London: His Majesty's Stationery
Office, 1922. Extensive compilation of numerical data
concerning all parts of the British military.
415 Green, Howard. The British Army in the First World War: The Regulars,
the Territorials, and Kitchener's Army With Some Campaigns
Into Which They Fitted. NP: NP, 1968. Green mixes a veteran's
reminiscences into an historical narrative that is at times
superficial. Nonetheless his account of the early years of the war
offers some thoughtful comment.
416 Greenhut, Jeffrey. Imperial Reserve: The Indian Infantry on the Western
Front, 1914-1918. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kansas,
1978. Greenhut discusses the important role of Indian troops on
the Western Front, where they served from late 1914 to the end
of 1915. See also the author's article "The Imperial Reserve: The
Indian Corps on the Western Front." The Journal of Imperial
and Commonwealth History. 12 (Oct., 1983): 54-73.
417 Greenhut, Jeffrey. "Race, Sex and War: The Impact of Race and Sec on
Morale and Health Services for the Indian Corps on the Western
Front." Military Affairs. 45 (April, 1981): 71-74. Indian troops
fought bravely on the Western Front until the end of 1915.
Greenhut gives overdue attention to their situation.
419 Grey, W. E. The 2nd City of London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) in the
Great War (1914-19). London: Headquarters of the Regiment,
1929. Although this unit's involvement in the early months of the
war was limited, Grey does include a description of action at
Hooge and life in the Ypres Salient during 1915.
421 Gros, Gaston. 1915 Année Sanglante. [1915: The Bloody Year.] Paris:
Editions Baudinière, 1932. Gros writes more about French
politics than military history, but his focus is Poincaré and Joffre.
82 The Battles of the B.E.F.
429 Haber, L. F. The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World
War. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. Haber provides accounts
of the German introduction of gas, April 15, 1915, and of the
early British effort to use the weapon at Loos.
430 Haldane, Aylmer. A Brigade of the Old Army. London: Edward Arnold,
1920. Haldane, commander of the 10th Brigade and writing at
the front, describes Le Cateau, the subsequent retreat, and then
the advance to the Aisne. His account ends in mid-November,
1914.
433 Hall, Hubert. British Archives and the Sources for the History of the
World War. London: H.Milford, Oxford University Press, 1925.
Hall's focus is more economic and social than military and his
work is dated, but he does provide some guidance for modern
students of the war.
434 Hamilton, Ernest. The First Seven Divisions: Being a Detailed Account
of the Fighting from Mons to Ypres. London: Hurst and
Blackett, 1916. Hamilton, a member of the 11th Hussars,
provides details of the fighting and heroism in the B.E.F. during
the first months of the war.
439 Hammerton, John A. Ed. The Great War: I Was There! 3 Vols.
London: The Amalgamated Press, 1938-39. An anthology of
participants' accounts of the war, including descriptions of the
B.E.F., originally published in fifty-one parts.
445 Hare, Steuart. The Annals of the King's Royal Rifle Corps. Vol. 5: The
Great War. London: John Murray, 1932. Rifle Corps battalions
were involved in most of the significant encounters of the B.E.F.
in 1914-15. This volume traces that involvement.
447 Harris, Henry. The Royal Irish Fusiliers. London: Leo Cooper, 1972.
Although the Royal Irish Fusiliers were involved in a number of
the battles fought by the B.E.F., this short history has only
limited information.
450 Harvey, Basil. The Rifle Brigade. London: Leo Cooper, 1975. Part of
a series of short regimental histories, this volume gives a brief
overview of Rifle Brigade battalions on the Western Front in
1914-15.
86 The Battles of the B.E.F.
452 Hawker, Tyrrel Mann. Hawker V.C.: The Biography of the Late Lanoe
George Hawker. London: Mitre Press, 1965. Hawker was one
of the early British flyers who made the R.F.C. a significant
factor in the first years of the war. This biographer is more
aware of the importance of the air arm to the ground war than
most who write about the air war.
454 Hay, Ian. Carrying On: After the First Hundred Thousand. Edinburgh:
William Blackwood and Sons, n.d. Account devoted to actions
of the 9th (Scottish) Division from Loos through the Somme.
455 Hay, Ian. The First Hundred Thousand Being the Unofficial Chronicle of
a Unit of "K(I)". Edinburgh: William Blackwell and Sons,
1915; rpt. 1967. Hay's dramatic account, openly called fiction by
some, of the first British divisions on the Western Front does
give a sense of the B.E.F.'s achievement in the face of the
emerging horror of trench warfare.
456 Hayes, Carlton J. H. A Brief History of the Great War. New York:
Macmillan, 1921. Hayes provides a dependable narrative
history, but with only limited attention to military operations.
459 Haythornthwaite, Philip J. The World War One Source Book. London:
Brockhampton Press, 1998. This encyclopedic volume is a
convenient source for factual details about the B.E.F. and its
battles.
460 Headlam, Cuthbert. History of the Guards Division in the Great War,
1915-1918. 2 Vols. London: John Murray, 1924. Loos is the
only Battle of the B.E.F. in 1915 given significant attention here,
but Headlam does a very effective job of setting the context in
which the Guards saw action.
462 Helfferich, Karl. Der Weltkrieg. [The World War.] Karlsruhe: Schille,
1919. Although basically diplomatic, this study provides valuable
background for understanding the role of the B. E. F.'s
commitment to the initial struggle on the Western Front.
465 [Herbert, Aubrey N. H.] Mons, Anzac and Kut by an MP. London:
Edward Arnold, 1919; rpt. 1930. Herbert's account of the retreat
from Mons is graphic and detailed. He was wounded and
captured but exchanged so that his involvement in the war
continued.
467 Herwig, Holger, H. The First World War: Germany and Austria-
Hungary, 1914-1918. London: Arnold, 1997. Herwig's account
of campaigning is detailed, and he is more critical of German
strategic and tactical efforts than most.
469 Herzfeld, Hans. Der Erste Weltkrieg. [The First World War.] München:
Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1968. Thorough military and
political history valuable for giving a sense of the German
attitude about the war.
471 Higham, Robin. Ed. A Guide to the Sources of British Military History.
Berkeley. University of California Press, 1971. This excellent
resource deserves the attention of anyone studying World War I.
It was, of course, not intended to be exhaustive and is now
beginning to be out of date.
475 Hills, R. J. T. The Life Guards. London: Leo Cooper, 1971. Although
short, this history does follow the regiment's contribution to the
Annotated Bibliography 89
476 Hills, R. J. T. The Royal Dragoons. London: Leo Cooper, 1972. Brief
account including some facts about the B.E.F. in 1914-15.
477 Hills, R. J. T. The Royal Horse Guards. London: Leo Cooper, 1970.
Although brief, this account does include battles of 1914-15.
480 History of the1st and 2nd Battalions the North Staffordshire Regiment (The
Prince of Wales') 1914-1923. Longton, Staffordshire: Hughes
and Harper/The Royal Press, n.d. The account of the early
months of the war in this volume is limited, but it does include
some description of trench life and a few battles, including
Hooge and 2nd Ypres.
481 The History of the Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles. London:
Wyman & Sons for P. W. O. Civil Service Rifles, 1921. Provides
details of the unit and of individual heroics in action at Givenchy
and reserve at Festubert and Loos.
485 Hoeppner, Ernst von. Deutschlands Krieg in der Luft; ein Rückblick auf
die Entwichlung und die Leistungen unserer Heers
Luffstreitkräfte im Weltkrieg. Leipzig: Koehler, 1921;
Translation German's War in the Air: The Development and
Operations of German Military Aviation in the World War.
Trans. by J. Howley Larned. Nashville: Battery Press, 1994.
The struggle for control in the air began early in the war because
of the need for artillery observation. Although the Germans were
at times dominant, ultimately the Allies won this aspect of the
contest.
487 Hogg, Ian. Gas. New York: Balantine, 1975. Hogg's account of gas
warfare, particularly, at Loos, helps make clear the problems with
this new technology.
489 Holmes, Richard. The Little Field Marshall: Sir John French. London:
Jonathan Cape, 1981. This excellent biography, while
sympathetic to its subject, does not pull punches. French's
problems and failures in 1914 are exposed and critiqued.
490 Holmes, Richard. Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914 Revisited.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1995. Holmes, a retired colonel, rode,
actually on horseback, over the route followed by the B.E.F.
during the 1914 retreat from Mons. He mixes travel stories,
geographical observations, and local history into an account of
Annotated Bibliography 91
491 Holmes, Richard. The Western Front: Ordinary Soldiers and the
Defining Battles of World War I. New York: TV Books, 1999.
This volume is the companion to "The Western Front," which
was produced by the BBC and the History Channel. Holmes
masterfully translates the visual sense of the war given in the
video account into written description. Reading this volume is
an excellent way to get an overview of the events and experience
of the Western Front. It does not provide extensive details,
however.
492 Holt, Tonie and Valmai. Battlefields of the First World War: A
Traveller's Guide. London: Pavilion, 1993. The Holts'
depiction of the B.E.F.'s battlefields are an informative
introduction to the region in which the battles of 1914-15 were
conducted.
493 Holt, Tonie and Valmai. Major and Mrs. Holt's Battlefield Guide to the
Ypres Salient. London: Leo Cooper, 1999. Although intended
for travelers, the Holt's guide is a clear and well written
introduction to the battles of the B.E.F.
498 Home, Charles F. et al. Eds. Source Records of the Great War. 7 Vols.
N.P.: National Alumni, 1923. The accounts in these volumes
are written by a mix of eyewitnesses, journalists, and historians
from both sides. The approach provides balance while providing
strongly expressed points-of-view.
499 Howard, Michael. The First World War. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2002. This brief volume is intended as an introduction to
the war and succeeds quite well as such.
500 Howard, Michael. "Men Against Fire: The Doctrine of the Offensive in
1914." In Makers of Modern Strategy. Ed. by Peter Paret with
Gordon Craig and Felix Gilbert. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1986. Howard explains the nature of combat in 1914.
503 Hunt, M. S. Nova Scotia's Part in the Great War. Halifax: Nova Scotia
Veteran Publishing Co., 1920. Hunt includes much unusual and
obscure information about the war, but the organization of his
book, which lacks an index, makes extracting it difficult.
505 Hussey, A. H. and Inman, D. S. The Fifth Division in the Great War.
Annotated Bibliography 93
508 Hyndson, J. G. W. From Mons to the First Battle of Ypres. N.P.: N.P.,
n.d. (Printed by Wyman & Sons, London, 1932). This bare
bones diary of service with the 1st battalion of the Loyal North
Lancashire Regiment in the 2nd Infantry Brigade covers the first
seven month of the war. It provides useful details of life at the
front.
509 In Spite of All Rejoicing: A Soldier's Diary of the Great War. New York:
Duffield, 1929. The descriptions of life on the Western Front in
1914 and 1915 in this diary are detailed and show a keen eye for
observation. Not very much about combat is included, however.
510 "Incidents of the Great War: No. 3 Two Minor Operations: The 6th
Battalion the Gloucester Regiment in Front of Hébuterne,
November, 1915, and the 17th H. L. I. Southwest of Thiepval,
April 1916, April 1916." Army Quarterly 8 (1924): 365-70.
Provides an example of the daily struggles on the Western Front.
513 Isaac, Jules. Joffre et Lanrezac: etude critique des témoignages sur le
rôle de la 5e Armée (Août 1914). [Joffre and Lanrezac: Critical
Study of Evidence about the Role of the 5th Army (August 1914.]
Paris: Chiron, 1922. Isaac includes a discussion of the problems
between John French and General Lanrezac. He generally
praises the Frenchman, but he does acknowledge that his
temperament was a problem in dealing with the British
commander.
brigade level in each battle of the war. This small volume was
originally published as articles in the Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution in August and November, 1923.
521 James, Lawrence. Imperial Warrior: The Life and Times of Field-
Marshal Viscount Allenby, 1861-1936. London: Weidenfield
and Nicolson, 1993. James' report of Allenby and his cavalry in
1914-15 credits the importance of intelligence gathering. He has
high praise for Allenby's intelligence officer Colonel George
Barrow. He defends Allenby for command and control problems
because his units were very scattered, and condemns Hubert
Gough, a brigade commander, for attaching himself to Haig and
not being a good subordinate to Allenby. Although he admits
Allenby was not a fast learner, James gives him good marks.
522 James, Lionel. Ed. The History of King Edward's Horse. London:
Sifton, Praed, 1921. The battalions of this unit were split up as
divisional cavalry after arriving in France in April, 1915. The
accounts of this period are, therefore, episodic.
523 Jerrold, Douglas. The Hawke Battalion: Some Personal Records of Four
Years, 1914-1918. London: Ernest Benn, 1925. Although the
Hawke Battalion did not serve with the B.E.F. in France, it was
at Antwerp as part of the effort to hold that port. Jerrold
describes the unit's experiences with little comment.
524 Jervis, H. S. The 2nd Munsters in France. Aldershot: Gale and Polden,
1922. Jervis provides short factual accounts of the Munsters in
the retreat from Mons, Etraux (August 27), Hooge (November 9-
15), Festubert, and Loos.
528 Johnson, Douglas Wilson. Battlefields of the World War: Western and
Southern Fronts. A Study in Military Geography. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1921. Johnson does an excellent job of
relating the geography of France and Belgium to the events of
battles. He focuses on 1st and 2nd Ypres in his discussion of the
early part of the war, but one can extrapolate from his comments
to judge the impact of geography on other battles.
529 Johnson, Douglas Wilson. Topography and Strategy in the War. New
York: Henry Holt, 1917. Johnson's discussion of topography
helps clarify the decisions made by commanders during 1914-15,
and includes examples such as the influence on the Battle of the
Marne of the river's tributaries (Ourcq, Petit Morin, and Grand
Morin) that guide readers to an understanding the geography of
the Western Front and how that geography influenced strategic
thinking.
530 Johnston, Charles. Famous Generals of the Great War Who Led the
United States and Her Allies to a Glorious Victory. Freeport,
NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970. Johnston includes French,
Joffre, and several other generals who were significant in the
battles of the B.E.F. in 1914-15. His analysis is, however, far
from critical.
532 Johnstone, Tom. Orange, Green and Khaki: The Story of the Irish
Regiments in the Great War, 1914-18. Dublin: Gill and
Macmillan, 1992. There were numerous Irish units among the
"Old Contemptibles," and Johnstone provides detailed
descriptions of their activities.
Annotated Bibliography 97
533 Jones, I. Air Fighter's Scrapbook. London: Nicolson and Watson, 1938.
Although more attention is given to the knights of the air than to
fighting on the ground in this volume, there is information
concerning the significance of the air war to the B.E.F. in it.
534 Jones, Nigel. The War Walk: A Journey Along the Western Front.
London: Robert Hale, 1983. Jones actually walked the entire
front line and mixes first-hand observations of the locales with
accounts of the battles.
535 Kabisch, Ernst. Die Marneschlacht, 1914: Eine Deutsche Tragödie. [The
Battle of the Marne, 1914: A German Tragedy.] Berlin: Schlegel,
1934. Looking at the initial battles of the war from the German
point-of-view, Kabisch argues that the failure to carry the
Schlieffen Plan to success doomed the Germans to defeat.
539 Keene, Louis. "Crumps": The Plain Story of a Canadian Who Went.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917. This personal narrative
describes the experiences of a Canadian who was unwilling to
wait for his own army to get into action and accepted a
commission from the British. He was wounded and out of action
before the end of 1915.
547 King, Jere Clemons. Ed. The First World War. New York: Walker,
1972. King includes an account of the Marne taken from Joffre's
memoirs.
550 Kipling, Rudyard. Ed. The Irish Guards in the Great War. 2 Vols.
London: Macmillan, 1923; rpt. 1996-97. Although well-written
and filled with details, Kipling's bitterness over the loss of his
son on the Western Front peaks out from the pages. Concerning
the B.E.F. he touches particularly on Mons, Neuve Chapelle,
Festubert, and Loos.
551 Kirchberger, Joe H. The First World War: An Eyewitness History. New
York: Facts on File, 1992. Provides an wealth of excerpts from
firsthand accounts but lacks interpretative commentary.
552 Kircheisen, Friedrich Max. Die Schlachten bei Ypren und Dixmude
(Oktober Und November 1914). [The Battles of Ypres and
Dixmude (October and November 1914).] Aarau: H. R.
Sauerländer, 1916. Provides a short account of the Battle of First
Ypres and the situation at Dixmude, which was inundated when
the Belgians cut dykes to allow the sea to block German
advances.
554 Klein, Fritz, Willibald Gutsche, and Joachim Petzoid. Eds. Deutschland
im ersten Krieg. [Germany in the First War.] 3 Vols. Berlin:
Akademie-Verlag, 1968-69. Although more political than
military in focus, these authors do devote some attention to the
conduct of the war.
556 Kluck, Alexander von. The March on Paris and the Battle of the Marne,
1914. London: Edward Arnold, 1920. Originally Der Marsch
auf Paris und die Marneschlacht 1914. Berlin: Mittler, 1920.
General von Kluck commanded the German 1st army on the far
right of the sweep envisioned by the Schlieffen Plan. He
maintains that his force, if left to do so, could have flanked the
B.E.F. and driven on to Paris. He is critical of von Bülow to his
left for being too cautious and von Moltke for drawing back from
100 The Battles of the B.E.F.
the original scheme of attack. Von Kluck was one of the best of
the German commanders and his account is well worth reading.
It seem clear, however, that he is defending his tendency to
arrogance and insubordination in some parts.
557 Knieling, Lutz and Arnold Bölsche. R.I.R. 234; ein Querschnitt durch
Deutschlands Schicksalsringen. [R.I.R. 234; An Example of
Germany's Fate.] Zweulenroda-Thür: Bernhard Sporn, 1931.
This history of the 234th Reserve Regiment includes its struggles
against the B.E.F. and involvement in the use of poison gas in
1915.
562 Kolbe, Walther von. Die Marneschlacht. [The Battle of the Marne.]
Bielefeld: Velhagen & Klasing, 1917. Short account of the
battle that determined the outcome of the war.
563 Köppen, Hans. "The Battle of the Marne, 8th and 9th September, 1914."
Army Quarterly 28 (July, 1934): 297-303. The author, a
German officer, accompanied Hentsch, who was dispatched by
Moltke to review the situation in September and ordered the
retreat that resulted in the Battle of the Marne. He maintains that
Hentsch was depressed and foolishly ordered the Second Army
to retreat thus costing Germany its chance to win the war.
Annotated Bibliography 101
564 Krämer, Max. Die Geschichte des Reserve Infanterie Regiments 245 im
Weltkrieg, 1914-1918. [The History of Reserve Infantry
Regiment 245 in the World War, 1914-1918.] Liepzig: Verlag
Ehemalige Offiziere des R. I. R., 1922. This unit was at 1st
Ypres, where its historian notes the devastating effect of British
fire, and at 2nd Ypres, where it suffered from its own gas and its
officers misjudged the effects of the new weapon on the enemy.
566 Kuhl, Herman von. Der Marnefeldzug. [The Marne Campaign]. Berlin:
Mittler, 1921; French Translation La Campagne de la Marne
(1927). Von Kuhl was Chief of Staff to General Alexander von
Kluck, commander of the German 1st Army and the extreme
right of the German line in 1914. His position provides an
excellent view of the initial success and ultimate failure of the
Schlieffen Plan. Unfortunately, he does not clear up the role of
Lieutennant-Colonel Hentsch, who authorized the withdrawal of
the German right without, it has been charged, adequate
authority, though he does note that Hentsch's orders were treated
as coming directly from the supreme command. Concerning the
Marne, Kuhl credits the threat of a breakthrough by the B.E.F.
and French 5th Army as the crucial turning point.
567 Kuhl, Hermann von. Der Weltkrieg, 1914-1918. [The World War, 1914-
1918.] 2 Vols. Berlin: Weller, 1929; rpt. 1995. Kuhl provides
a comprehensive if somewhat pro-German overview of the war.
568 Laffin, John. Letters From the Front, 1914-1918. London: J. M. Dent
& Sons, 1973. Although reading the letters in this volume will
provide little information directly about the battles fought by the
B.E.F. in 1914-15, the descriptions of life on the Western Front
are excellent context for understanding the military situation.
569 Laffin, John. Swifter Than Eagles: The Biography of Marshal of the
Royal Air Force, Sir John Maitland Salmond. Edinburgh:
William Blackwood & Sons, 1964. Laffin describes the
experiences of Salmond, who was one of the first RFC officers
on the Western Front and involved in the early battles.
570 Laffin, John. The Western Front Companion, 1914-1918; A-Z Source to
the Battles, Weapons, People, Places, and Air Combat. London:
102 The Battles of the B.E.F.
571 Laffin, John. The Western Front Illustrated, 1914-1918. London: Alan
Sutton, 1997. Laffin's collection pictures provides a powerful
sense of the horrors, combat, and daily life of the war.
572 Langley, M. The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire): The 47th and 81st
Regiments of Foot. London: Leo Cooper, 1976. This short
history of the North Lancashire Regiment has only a few facts
concerning its involvement in the early battles of the B.E.F.
576 Lee, Albert. History of the Thirty-Third Foot, Duke of Wellington's (West
Riding) Regiment. Norwich: Jarrold & Sons, The Empire Press,
1922. This regiment was represented at a number of the battles
in 1914-15, and the regimental history provides particulars and
background.
580 Leinveber, Adolf. Mit Clausewitz durch die Rätsel und Fragen, Irrungen
und Wirrungen des Weltkrieges. [With Clausewitz Through the
Riddles and questions, Mistakes and Muddles of the World
War.] Berlin: B. Behrs/F. Feddersen, 1926. Leinveber gives
more attention and praise to the B.E.F. at Mons and Le Cateau
than most German authors.
583 Letters from the Front: Being a Record of the Part Played by Officers of
the Bank in the Great War, 1914-1919. 2 Vols. Edited by C. L.
Foster and W. S. Duthie. Toronto: Canadian Bank of
Commerce, 1920-21. The first volume of this set is comprised
of letters from bank employees serving with CEF, including
powerful tales of Second Ypres, and the second is a roll of those
employees.
584 Liddell Hart, Basil H. Foch: Man of Orleans. London: Eyre and
Spottiswoode, 1931;rpt. 1980. Liddell Hart emphasizes Foch on
Sir John French, and argues that the Frenchman's aggressiveness
led to more B.E.F. casualties as the first two battles of Ypres than
were necessary. He analyzes the battles to prove his point.
585 Liddell Hart, Basil H. The Memoirs of Captain Liddell Hart. 2 Vols.
London: Cassell, 1965. Although Liddell Hart does not provide
104 The Battles of the B.E.F.
586 Liddell Hart, Basil H. The Real War, 1914-1918. Boston: Little Brown,
1930; enlarged edition entitled A History of the World War
(1934; rpt. 1964). Liddell Hart established the historiographical
school that regards British strategy as foolish, rigid, and
destructive. His survey of the war is certainly intended to further
that view, but it is nonetheless factually accurate and well-
written.
587 Liddell Hart, Basil H. Reputations Ten Years After. London: John
Murray, 1928; rpt. 1968, 1980. Although his criticism of British
generalship would grow substantially in later works, in this book
Liddell Hart credits Haig with much skill when on the defensive.
He suggests significant problems with the general's offensive
thinking, however.
588 Liddell Hart, Basil H. Through the Fog of War. London: Faber and
Faber, 1938. Liddell Hart, perhaps the greatest critic of the
Western strategy, has a low opinion of French and Haig who
designed that strategy. He blames French for the separation of
the B.E.F.'s two corps resulting in II Corps having to fight alone
at Le Cateau. He also condemns French's failure to exploit initial
successes at Neuve Chapelle and rejects his claim to have
released reserve units appropriately during the Battle of Loos,
though he believes Haig overstated this problem. He also credits
Haig with having opposed attacking at Loos from the beginning
due to the shortage of artillery. Overall his treatment of the
generals seems more moderate than in many of his later works.
589 Liddle, Peter H. The Airman's War 1914-18. Poole: Bradford Press,
1987. Comprehension of the B.E.F.'s campaigns requires an
understanding of the emerging struggle in the air, and Liddle's
focus helps significantly with that understanding.
591 Ligny, Hurault de. La Division du Maroc aux Marais de Saint-Gond (5-
10 Septembre, 1914). [The Moroccan Division at the Marshes
of Saint-Gond (5-10 September, 1914).] Paris: Charles
Annotated Bibliography 105
593 Livesey, Anthony. Great Battles of World War I. New York: Macmillan,
1989; rpt. 1996. This heavily illustrated volume gives a visual
sense of what the B.E.F. faced on the Western Front.
594 Livesey, Anthony. The Historical Atlas of World War I. New York:
Henry Holt, 1994. Livsey includes maps showing the battles and
helps make clear both the size and geographical limits for armies
on the Western Front.
595 Lloyd, Alan. The War in the Trenches. London: Hart-Davis MacGibbon,
1976. Using numerous illustrations, Lloyd depicts life and
combat on the Western Front.
597 Lloyd George, David (Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor). War Memoirs. 6
Vols. London: Nicolson and Watson, 1933-36; numerous rpts.
A prominent member of the government, Lloyd George has much
to say about the B.E.F. In 1914-15, he was particularly
interested in logistics, for he was on his way to being Minister of
Munitions.
598 Lomas, David and Ed Dovey First Ypres 1914: The Graveyard of the
Old Contemptibles. London: Osprey, 1999. A volume in the
Osprey Campaign Series, this short work is well-illustrated and
has a clear, simple description of First Ypres. It is a good
introduction.
599 Lomas, David and Ed Dovey. Mons 1914: The B.E.F.'s Tactical
Triumph. London: Osprey, 1997. This volume in the Osprey
Campaign Series is a typically well-illustrated, clear description
of the battle and an excellent introduction.
106 The Battles of the B.E.F.
604 Lucas, Charles. Ed. The Empire at War. 5 Vols. London: Humphrey
Milford/Oxford University Press, 1921-26. Lucas provides some
details of Canadians in the 1915 battles such as Festubert, but is
particularly useful for statistical details of Imperial forces and
financial contributions to the British war effort.
605 Lucy, John. There's a Devil in the Drum. London: Faber & Faber, 1938;
rpt. 1992. Lucy was a corporal in the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, and
first saw action at Le Cateau. He later fought at Neuve Chapelle.
His book is a good source for the attitudes of the common
soldier in the B.E.F.
611 McCudden, James Thomas Byford. Five Years in the Royal Flying
Corps. London: The Aeroplane and General Publishing Co.,
1919; rpt. 1987 & 2000. The author served in France from the
beginning of the war, and follows the development and
involvement of the R.F.C. in the first years of the contest.
612 MacDonagh, Michael. The Irish at the Front. London: Hodder and
Stoughton, 1916. Although it does contain some details of Irish
troops with the B.E.F., this book is romanticized and histrionic.
It was apparently an effort to support recruiting in Ireland.
614 Macdonald, Lyn. 1915: The Death of Innocence. New York: Henry Holt,
1995. Macdonald's amazing use of oral sources to provide the
soldier's eye view of the war is continued in this volume.
108 The Battles of the B.E.F.
615 Macdonald, Lyn. 1914. New York: Atheneum, 1987. No one outdoes
Macdonald in her use of oral sources to recreate the experiences
of soldier's in World War I. This volume is the first of a series
that covers the entire war.
616 Macdonald, Lyn. 1914-1918: Voices and Images of the Great War.
London: Michael Joseph, 1988; rpt. 1991, 1999. Macdonald's
collection of eye-witness accounts, photography, poetry, and
other comments convey's a sense of the foolishness of World
War I and gives a very personal and humane perception of the
soldiers who were caught up in it.
618 McEntee, Girard Lindsley. Military History of the World War. New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937. McEntee focuses tightly on
military operations with clear descriptions of each battle and
numerous maps. Unfortunately, he offers very little comment or
analysis beyond indicating what did and did not work for the
units involved. His bibliography is excellent.
620 MacGill, Patrick. The Great Push London: Herbert Jenkins, 1916.
Unusually vivid account of the Battle of Loos by a stretcher-
bearer.
622 McKeown, J. D. From Otterpool to the Rhine With the 23rd Battery,
Canadian Field Artillery, Via Caestre, St. Eloi, Ypres, The
Somme, Vimy, Hill 70, Cinnabar Trench, Passchendaele, Arras,
Amiens, Cambria, Valenciennes, Mons. London: Charles and
Son, n.d. Very short account of Canadian unit in France.
Annotated Bibliography 109
623 McKinley, Albert E. Collected Materials for the Study of the War.
Philadelphia: McKinley Publishing, 1918. The bibliography in
this volume is heavily concerned with the early part of the war
and dominated by anti-German propaganda.
625 MacMunn, George with A. R. Spurgin. The History of the Sikh Pioneers
(23rd, 32nd, and 34th). London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1936.
MacMunn tells the story of part of the Indian forces that worked
on the Western Front from the end of 1914 through much of
1915.
628 MacPhail, Andrew. Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great
War, 1914-1919: The Medical Services. Ottawa: Canadian
Ministry of National Defense, 1925. This volume includes
details of the difficulties and heroics of the medical services in
helping Canadian soldiers in all of their battles as well as
addressing general medical issues.
629 McPherson, William L. A Short History of the Great War. New York: G.
P. Putnam's Sons, 1920. McPherson provides a narrative history
with reasonable amounts of detail about military operations in
1914-15.
630 McPherson, William L. The Strategy of the Great War. New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1919. McPherson is quite critical of the
leadership on both sides in 1914. He asserts that there was no
"miracle" at the Marne, a battle that he perceives, somewhat
oddly, as really a French trap that was only partially successful.
He minimizes the British contribution. He is more favorable to
110 The Battles of the B.E.F.
631 Macready, Nevil. Annals of an Active Life. 2 Vols. New York: George
H. Doran, 1925. As Adjutant-General to Sir John French,
Macready handled many aspects of logistics for the B.E.F., and
he does a good job in focusing on his own activities rather than
writing an overall history of the war. His book is very valuable
background for understanding the problems of the first year and
a half of the war.
632 McWilliams, James L. and R. James Steel. Gas! The Battle for Ypres,
1915. St. Catherine's, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing, 1985. This
description of the Battle of Second Ypres is detailed and
thorough.
634 Mangin, Général. Des Hommes et des faits. [Men and Events.] Paris:
Plon-Nourrit, 1923. Although Mangin's account of the Marne is
quite good, he tends to credit the efforts of the B.E.F. to the
French under General d'Esperey.
636 Mann, Michael. The Regimental History of 1st the Queen's Dragoon
Guards. Wilby: The Dragoon Guards, 1993. Mann's long
history of the Queen's Dragoon Guards follows elements of the
unit on the Western Front.
639 Marling, Percival. Rifleman and Hussar. London: John Murray, 1931;
rpt. 1935. Marling served on the Western Front in 1914 as
commander of interpreters for Indian troops. He provides some
details of life for soldiers and problems for a multilingual force,
but few about the fighting.
645 Martin, George and Wally. Echoes From Hell: Letters From the Western
Front. Hitchin, Hertfordshire: Dodman Press, 1982. This
112 The Battles of the B.E.F.
646 Martin, Stuart. The Story of the Thirteenth Battalion, 1914-1917. Edited
by T. G. Roberts. London: Charles and Son for the Canadian
War Records Office, 1918. Very short account of a battalion that
as part of the Third Brigade was involved in Second Ypres and
the struggles in the Ypres Salient in 1915. The volume's limited
value arises from its foundation on official sources.
648 Masefield, John. The Old Front Line. London: Heinemann, 1917.
Masefield shows his skill as a poet in his lyrical descriptions of
the Western Front and gives a powerful sense of what the
soldiers faced.
651 Maude, Alan H. Ed. The 47th (London) Division, 1914-1919. London:
Amalgamated Press, 1922. This volume has details of the Battles
of Festubert and Loos, including some vignettes of heroics by
members of the Division. The discussion of learning the use of
gas for Loos is particularly notable.
653 Maurice, Frederick. Forty Days in 1914. New York: George D. Doran,
1919. Maurice attempts to piece together the movements of the
Germans during the retreat from Mons and thus to deduce their
plans. Written without access to German records, this book
includes a great deal of speculation. He credits the B.E.F. with
saving the French 5th Army and preventing the Germans from
rolling up the French line.
654 Maurice, Frederick. The History of the London Rifle Brigade, 1859-1919.
London: Constable, 1921. Maurice's work as regimental
historian is better than most.
656 Maurice, Frederick. The 16th Foot: A History of the Bedfordshire and
Hertfordshire Regiment. London: Constable, 1930. Though the
section about World War I is brief, Maruice does outline the
regiment's efforts as part of the B.E.F. in 1914-15.
657 Maurice, Frederick. Soldier, Artist, Sportsman: The Life of General Lord
Rawlinson of Trent. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928.
Rawlinson, already a major-general in 1914, was initially
assigned to the War Office when the war broke out. In mid-
September he was given command first of the Forth Division and
then of IV Corps, though he missed the initial battles of the
B.E.F. In 1915 he was involved in the planning of the Battles of
Neuve Chapelle and Loos. Maurice's account of his subject's
activities is thorough though sometimes overly sympathetic.
658 Maxwell, Frank. VC: A Memoir and Some Letters. Edited by His Wife.
London: John Murray, 1921. Personal comments and narrative
make this volume significant.
659 Mayer, S.L., and W. J. Koenig. The Two World Wars: A Guide to the
Manuscript Collections in the United Kingdom. London:
Booker, 1976. Despite some gaps this is an excellent reference
for manuscript sources held by museums and archives, large and
small, public and private.
660 Mead, Peter. The Eye in the Air: History of Air Observation and
Reconnaissance for the Army, 1785-1945. London: Her
114 The Battles of the B.E.F.
Majesty's Stationery Office, 1983. Even very early in the war the
airplane was proving itself a valuable observation platform.
Mead illustrates this by showing that poor weather before Aubers
Ridge limited aerial observation and thus limited the success of
the artillery with the result that the attack failed.
666 Michelin. Ypres and the Battles for Ypres, 1914-1918. London:
Michelin, 1919. One of the Michelin travel guides, this volume
is informative and well illustrated. It is a good introduction to
the battle areas.
668 Middleton, Edgar. The Great War in the Air. 4 Vols. London: Waverley,
1920. Middleton provides extensive coverage of the air war and
makes clear the significance of air power from the beginning of
the conflict.
671 Mitchell, T. J., and G. M. Smith. Casualties and Medical Statistics of the
Great War: Official Medical History of the War. London: His
Majesty's Stationery Office, 1931. This is a useful collection of
information, but John Terraine argues forcefully that the casualty
numbers are not reliable.
672 Mole, W. R. Ed. Historical Record of the 4th Battalion 16th Punjab
Regiment. Privately Published, n.d. Mole includes accounts of
the unit at Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and Second Ypres.
673 Molesworth, G. N. Ed. A Soldier's War: Being the Diary of the Late
Arthur Henry Cook, D.C.M., M.M., B.E.M., Written During Four
Years' Service With the 1st Battalion, The Somerset Light
Infantry, on the Western Front, France, During the Great War,
1914-18. Taunton: E. Goodman and Son, n.d. Molesworth's
unit was with the 11th Brigade in the 4th Division in the initial
campaigns of the war.
674 Molony, C. V. "Invicta ": With the First Battalion the Queen's Own Royal
West Kent Regiment in the Great War. London: Nisbet, 1923.
Drawn from the author's and other soldier's diaries the accounts
in this volume vary in quality but often include useful first-hand
details. Most of the battles of 1914-15 are covered, but the
description of the battalion's stand at Neuve Chapelle is
particularly good.
116 The Battles of the B.E.F.
676 Money, R. R. Flying and Soldiering. London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson,
1936. Money was involved in the Loos campaign and provides
personal observations of the involvement of British air forces.
681 Moody, R. S. H. Historical Records of the Buffs East Kent regiment (3rd
Foot) Formerly Designated the Holland Regiment and Prince
George of Denmark’s Regiment, 1914-1919. London: Medici
Society, 1922. Although the author’s choice of organizing by
battalion results in information about particular battles being
scattered, he does provide a narrowly focused but detailed
description, especially of Second Ypres.
detailed account of the tactics in the first days of the war and
includes some effort to show how plans failed or succeeded.
Moore's book is a good introduction to the early tactics of the
B.E.F.
685 Moorhouse, Brendon. Forged by Fire: The Battle Tactics and Soldiers of
a WWI Battalion, The 7th Somerset Light Infantry. Spellmount,
2003. Moorhouse shows the evolution of the B.E.F. from a small
professional force to a large-scale conscripted army. The trends
identifiable during the early months of fighting come to fruition
by the time of victory.
687 Morgan, Frederick. Peace and War: A Soldier's Life. London: Hodder
and Stoughton, 1961. Morgan was with the Lahore Division
artillery and describes the battles of Neuve Chapelle and 2nd
Ypres at which being in an explosion forced him to staff duties
for the rest of the war.
689 Morrow, John H., Jr. The Great War in the Air: Military Aviation from
1909 to 1921. Washington: Smithsonian, 1993. Although
Morrow discusses the tactical importance of aviation, his main
focus is on technological development.
690 Morton, Desmond. "A Canadian Soldier in the Great War: The
118 The Battles of the B.E.F.
691 Morton, Desmond. When Your Number's Up: The Canadian Soldier in
the First World War. Toronto: Random House, 1993. Although
mostly valuable for background, Morton does draw examples
from the 1915 battles in which Canadians fought.
693 Moser, Otto von. Ernsthafte Plauderein über den Weltkrieg. [Serious
Talk About the World War.] Stuttgart: Belser, 1924. Moser
argues that the Germans should have been more innovative in
1914, especially as the Schlieffen Plan began to break down.
Then in 1915 their focus should have been the British.
694 Moser, Otto von. Kürzer strategischer Überblick über den Weltkrieg. [A
Short Strategic Overview of the World War.] Berlin: Mittler,
1921. Moser comments extensively about battles against the
B.E.F. arguing that the Germans were too cautious after the
Marne and that they should have put all possible effort against
the British, the greatest enemy, in 1915.
696 Mottram, R. H., John Easton, and Eric Partridge. Three Personal Records
of the War. London: Scholartis Press, 1929. These accounts
include detailed descriptions of the Ypres Salient in 1915 and the
Battle of Loos.
697 Moyer, Laurence V. Victory Must Be Ours: Germany in the Great War:
1914-1918. New York: Hippocrene, 1995. Although more
political and social than military history, this volume provides
excellent background to the German situation during the war and
makes military strategies and tactics easier to understand.
699 Moynihan, Michael. Ed. A Place Called Armageddon: Letters From the
Great War. Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1975. The
letters, all written by private soldiers, in this volume are useful
for individual details but must be set into context to have much
value for historical analysis. Of the early battles, only Loos gets
much individual attention.
700 Muller, Commandant Joffre et la Marne. [Joffre and the Marne.] Paris:
Crès, 1931. The author examines the French commander-in-
chief and his decisions that led the B.E.F. into the Battle of the
Marne.
704 Munro, Jack. A Dog Story of the Princess "Pats": Mopping Up!
Through the Eyes of Bobbie Burns, Regimental Mascot. New
York: H. K. Fly, 1918. Although initially told as if written by
the regiment's pet dog, this memoir is actually a quite well-
written narrative of the members of the unit and their experiences
until June, 1915, when the author was invalided home.
707 Murray, W. W. The History of the 2nd Canadian Battalion (East Ontario
Regiment) Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War,
1914-1919. Ottawa: Historical Committee, 2nd Battalion, C. E.
F., 1947. Part of the First Brigade, the Second Battalion,
described in this volume, was part of the First Canadian Division
that was in France by early 1915 and involved in Second Ypres.
708 Nasmith, George. Canada's Sons and Great Britain in the World War.
Toronto: John C. Winston, 1919. Nasmith was with the original
C.E.F., and his book is based on personal observation.
Unfortunately, he allows his nationalist sentiments to color his
commentary.
710 Neillands, Robin. The Great War Generals on the Western Front.
London: Robinson, 1998. Although Neillands starts with a
declaration of strong revisionism regarding criticisms of generals
in World War I, the body of his book is quite even-handed
criticizing and defending as seems appropriate. Unfortunately
his bibliography does not suggest a very strong basis for
comment on the leadership of any army other than the British.
715 Newton, W. Douglas. The Undying Story: The Work of the British
Expeditionary Force on the Continent from Mons, August 23rd,
1914, to Ypres, November 15th, 1914. London: Jarold & Sons,
1915. Provides a popular, descriptive account of the first battles
of the B.E.F.
718 Nicolson, Nigel. Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of
Tunis. New York: Atheneum, 1973. Nicolson attempts to show
the events of Mons, the Aisne, 1st Ypres, and especially Loos as
Alexander would have perceived them. He hopes to show a
young officer learning to be a soldier, and in doing so, provides
such a young man's perspective of the B.E.F.
723 Oatts, L. B. Proud Heritage. The Story of the Highland Light Infantry,
1882-1918. 4 Vols. London: Thomas Nelson, 1953-
59/Glasgow: House of Grant, 1961-63. Oatts describes the
activity of regimental battalions starting at Mons and continuing
through the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line.
725 Officers of the Battalion. "The Robin Hoods," 1/7 th, 2/7th &3/7 Battns.,
Sherwood Foresters, 1914-1918. Nottingham: J. & H. Bell,
1921. Portrayals of trench life and fighting in this book are quite
detailed. None of the major battles of 1914-15 is included,
however.
726 Omissi, David. Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers' Letters 1914-
1918. London: Macmillan, 1999. Letters written by Indian
soldiers in France between late 1914 and late 1915 are presented
in this volume.
728 On the Road From Mons With an Army Service Corps Train. London:
Hurst & Blackett, 1916. This is an eye-witness account of
logistical problems by the commander of the 19th Infantry
Annotated Bibliography 123
Brigade Train.
730 O'Neill, H. C. The Royal Fusiliers in the Great War. London: William
Heinemann, 1922. O'Neill follows the battalions of the Royal
Fusiliers through all of the major battles of the B.E.F., and
although episodic his coverage is reasonable.
731 Osburn, Arthur. Unwilling Passenger. London: Faber & Faber, 1932.
Osburn was an RAMC doctor, and his eloquent account of the
difficulties in caring for casualties in the first years of the war
offers insight into the suffering of the men as well as the
evolution of the RAMC in the heat of modern war.
732 Otto, Helmut, Karl Schmiedel, and Helmut Schnitter, Der erste
Weltkrieg. [The First World War.] Berlin: Beutscher
Militärverlag, 1968. This thorough survey devotes significant
attention to military operations.
733 Owen, Edward. 1914: Glory Departing. London: Buchan & Enright,
1986. Although his account is often superficial, Owen provides
a clear description of the B.E.F.'s activities in the first months of
the war.
737 Palazzo, Albert. Seeking Victory on the Western Front: The British Army
and Chemical Warfare in World War I. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 2000. Palazzo establishes that the British used
poison gas much more commonly than has usually been
suggested, and uses the development of this weapon as a
paradigm for the growth of technological sophistication that
resulted in victory. Early in the war gas was intended to have a
major role at the Battle of Loos, and despite failing the high
command realized its potential. Palazzo's work is meticulously
researched, and his prose is easy to read.
738 Panichas, George A. Ed. The Promise of Greatness: The War of 1914-
1918. London: Cassell, 1968. This collection of essays is, at
times powerful and moving, and provides fine descriptions of the
war. The lack of an index, however, limits is use for specific
topics.
741 Parks, Edwin. Diex Aïx: The Guernseymen Who Marched Away, 1914-
1918. Candie Gardens, Gurnsey: Guernsey Museums &
Galleries, 1992. This is the sort of book that is of most value to
those seeking very specific and detailed information. It does
provide some details about the B.E.F. in 1915, however.
742 Parkyn,H. G. A Short History of the 16th/5th Lancers. Aldershot: Gale &
Polden, n.d. In a very short account, Parkyn provides a few
details of action in 1914-15 when the 16th/5th was part of Gough's
cavalry brigade.
743 Peat, Harold R. Private Peat. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1917. Peat
describes his experiences with the Canadian forces in the Ypres
Salient in 1915.
Annotated Bibliography 125
745 Penrose, John. "Survey for Batteries." Journal of the Royal Artillery 49
(1922-23): 253-70. This study of the process for aiming does
not discuss specific battles but gives very illuminating
information about the technical elements in the use of artillery
that was central to fighting on the Western Front.
748 Perris, George Herbert. The Battle of the Marne. London: Methuen,
1920. Perris, who was The Daily Chronicle's correspondent with
the French Armies during the war, includes much detail, but is
limited by the lack of sources available when he wrote.
751 Petre, F. Lorraine, Wilfrid Ewart, and Cecil Lowther. The Scots Guards
126 The Battles of the B.E.F.
753 Piers, Charles. "A Corps in the Making: The Canadian Expeditionary
Force, 1914-1919." Army Quarterly 3 (1921-22): 36-46.
Although brief, this overview does allow the reader to follow the
actions of the CEF.
757 Pollard, Hugh B. C. The Story of Ypres. New York: Robert M. McBride,
1917. Although his account of military activity is quite brief,
Pollard presents an elaborate description of conditions in the
town of Ypres and the area around it during the war.
758 Pomeroy, Ralph Legge. The Story of a Regiment of Horse (5th Princess
of Wales's Dragoon Guards) 1685-1922. 2 Vols. Edinburgh:
William Blackwood & Sons, 1924. The 5th Dragoon Guards
Annotated Bibliography 127
759 Ponsonby, Frederick. The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-
1919. 3 Vols. London: Macmillan, 1920. Ponsonby does a
better job than most unit historians about setting the details of his
story into context. He includes all of the major battles of the
B.E.F.
762 Powell, G. The Green Howards. London: Hamilton, 1968; rpt. 1983.
Green Howard units fought in a number of the early battles of the
war and distinguished themselves at Ypres in 1914 and 1915.
Powell's account is, however, limited.
766 Priestley, R. E. The Signal Service in the European War of 1914 to 1918
(France). Chatham: Mackay, 1921. Part of the official history
of the Royal Engineering Corps, this volume provides important
background on the problems of communications that dogged
every operation on the Western Front.
767 Prior, Robin and Trevor Wilson. Command on the Western Front: The
Military Career of Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1914-1918. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1992. Rawlinson's involvement in the war
really began with the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, and from that
point on Prior and Wilson provide an illuminating analysis of
command problems as the British learned about the nature of
modern war.
768 Prior, Robin and Trevor Wilson. The First World War. London: Cassell,
1999. This heavily illustrated survey shows the evolution of the
war in strategy, tactics, and technology. Its emphasis on the
evolution of technology as central to the outcome of the war
supports an interpretation the authors' prior work has done much
to establish.
769 Puaux, René. Marshal Foch: His Life, His Work, His Faith. London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 1918. Although the B.E.F.'s efforts are
noted, Foch is clearly the hero of this book and nothing is
allowed to dim his limelight.
770 Puleston, William Dilworth. High Command in the World War. New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. Puleston is critical of
French for his mercurial nature, and asserts that the British role
at the Marne, which he calls Joffre's trap, was much less
significant that is usually reported. His comments about the
B.E.F. are relatively brief.
772 Rae, Herbert. [Gibson, George Herbert Rae.] Maple Leaves in Flanders
Fields. London: Smith Elder, 1916. Although names have been
changed, this volume is an account by a medical man of the
Seventh Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force which
was active in the Ypres Salient from early 1915.
Annotated Bibliography 129
773 Raimes, A. L. The Fifth Battalion The Durham Light Infantry, 1914-
1918. Privately Published, n.d. The Fifth Battalion of the
Durhams reached France in April, 1915, in time to participate at
Second Ypres.
774 Raleigh, Walter, and H. A. Jones. History of the Great War Based on
Official Documents: The War in the Air. 6 Vols. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1922-37. Although the number of British
aviators was small at the beginning of the war, they proved their
enormous value as observers and artillery spotters from the very
first campaigns. The authors, in one of the best Official
Histories, do an excellent job of describing the evolution of
military aviation during the war.
775 Rattray, M. J. 107th Field Company, R.E. Darlington: Wm. Dresser and
Sons, 1920. The 107th was with the B.E.F. for several months at
the end of 1915, and Rattray describes the unit's experiences.
776 Rawling, Bill. Surviving Trench Warfare: Technology and the Canadian
Corps, 1914-1918. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
Rawling is impressed with the ultimate sophistication of
Canadian forces in the new technological warfare. He discusses
the early battles as part of the learning process.
778 Rawlinson, H. G. Napier's Rifles: The History of the 5th Battalion 6th
Rajputahna Rifles. NP: Humphrey Milford/Oxford University
Press, 1929. Provides a brief account of the battle of Givenchy,
but the unit did not spend much time on the Western Front.
780 Recouly, Raymond. Joffre. Paris: Les Éditons des portiques, 1931.
Joffre, the supreme French commander, was so significant in the
development of the situation on the Western Front that even an
overly pro-French account such as Recouly's makes a
130 The Battles of the B.E.F.
781 Recouly, Raymond. Marshal Foch: His Own Words on Many Subjects.
Translated by Joyce Davis. London: Thornton Butterworth,
1929. This volume is valuable mostly as a source of comments
by Foch, including remarks about the B.E.F. and the Marne.
787 Reid, Gordon. Ed. Poor Bloody Murder: Personal Memoirs of the First
World War. Oakville: Mosaic Press, 1980. Includes personal
accounts of Canadians on the Western Front.
Annotated Bibliography 131
789 Repington, Charles à Court. The First World War, 1914-1918. 2 Vols.
London: Constable, 1920. Repington, correspondent for The
Times and a veteran, seems more interested in showing his own
involvement with powerful people than in detailing the war.
Nonetheless he does include details and observations worth
attention.
790 Revell, Alex. Victoria Cross: WWI Airmen and Their Aircraft. NP:
Flying Machines Press, 1997. Among the nineteen airmen whose
biographies are sketched by Revell are several who fought over
the B.E.F.'s trenches in 1914-15. The accounts are superficial,
but the numerous illustrations add value.
791 Reynolds, Francis Joseph. The Story of the Great War. 16 Vols. New
York: P. F. Collier and Son. 1915-20. Although a complete
history, these volumes were completed rapidly and are more
journalism than history.
792 Richards, Frank. Old Soldiers Never Die. London: Faber and Faber,
1933; rpt. 1966, 1983. Richards was a private with the 2nd Royal
Welch Fusiliers. His account of Le Cateau, among the early
battles, is particularly vivid.
793 Richards, John. Ed. Wales on the Western Front. Cardiff: University of
Wales Press, 1994. Richards' collection of Welshmen's
comments includes descriptions of Loos, 2nd Ypres, and Le
Cateau.
795 Richter, Donald. Chemical Soldiers: British Gas Warfare in World War
I. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1992. Richter tells the
story of the development of the British Special Brigade, which
was responsible for the use of poison gas. He tends to emphasize
132 The Battles of the B.E.F.
796 Richter, Donald C. ed. Lionel Sotheby's Great War: Diaries and Letters
from the Western Front. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997.
Sotheby crossed to France as a young lieutenant at the very end
of 1914 and survived almost ten months. His accounts of life on
the Western Front in 1915 are vivid and make clear how difficult
a situation the soldiers faced.
797 Rickard, Mrs. Victor. The Story of the Munsters at Etraux, Festubert,
Rue de Bois and Hulloch. London: Hodder and Stoughton,
1918. Rickard provides details of the 2nd Royal Munster
Fusiliers, who were badly battered during the early fighting.
801 Rifleman, A. [Smith, Aubrey.] Four Years on the Western Front: Being
the Experiences of a Ranker in the London Rifle Brigade.
London: Oldhams, 1922. The author's account of the war,
including 2nd Ypres, is filled with dramatic, sometimes
fascinating details. It is particularly valuable because it comes
from the ranks. He was in the London Rifle Brigade.
Annotated Bibliography 133
802 Ritter, Gerhard. The Schlieffen Plan. New York: Praeger, 1958. The
Schlieffen Plan was a key element in bringing the B.E.F. to
France in 1914. Ritter's view is that the effort to move such a
vast force in a relatively confined area posed both military and
political dangers and was unlikely of success.
803 Ritter, Hans. Der Luftkrieg. [The Air War.] Leipzig: K. F. Koehler,
1926. Ritter devotes significant attention to the development of
air support for the ground forces, and so is a valuable source for
the study of the overall situation.
804 Roberts, Craig. "Taking Aim from the Trenches: World War I Sniper."
Military History 18 (June, 2000): 54-60. Roberts' account of
Herbert McBride, an American serving with the Canadian forces,
shows the development of sniping during the first years of the
war.
806 Robertson, Bruce. Ed. Air Aces of the 1914-1918 War. Letchworth:
Harleyford Publications, 1959. Although "Aces" were relatively
few in the first year of the war, the role of the airplane as an
observation tool was already clear. Although observation was
more important, the romantic "knight of the air" tends to be the
focus of books about the Royal Flying Corps, as is the case with
Robertson.
809 Robson, Stuart. The First World War. London: Longman, 1998.
134 The Battles of the B.E.F.
816 Rowlands, D. H. For the Duration: The Story of the Thirteenth Battalion
the Rifle Brigade. London: Simpkin Marshall for the Thirteenth
Battalion the Rifle Brigade, 1932. The battalion reached France
in late July, 1915, and was not involved in major action during
the rest of that year. The volume does include some details of
life in the trenches during the period, however.
818 Royal Engineers Institution, The. The Work of the Royal Engineers in the
European War, 1914-1919. 9 Vols. Chatham: R. E. Institution,
1921-27. This detailed account of a vital aspect of the war is
informative but not insightful.
820 Royle, Trevor. The Kitchener Enigma. London: Michael Joseph, 1985.
Royle's version of Kitchener's role in the war is generally
positive. He credits Kitchener with recognizing the long-range
issues of the war and keeping John French from pulling the
B.E.F. out of the line unnecessarily. His account is readable and
persuasive.
821 Roze, Anne. Fields of Memory: A Testimony to the Great War. London:
Cassell, 1999. Roze had produced an odd mixture of
contemporary views and photographs of important places in the
war, cemeteries, and relics with historical descriptions.
of battles against the B.E.F. and the use of poison gas against the
British.
825 Samuels, Martin. Doctrine and Dogma: German and British Infantry
Tactics in the First World War. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press, 1992. Samuels traces the evolution of tactics from early
in the war, and despite the ultimate Allied victory, he argues that
the Germans were superior tacticians, though he gives the British
more credit for innovation than do many.
827 Sargent, Herbert Howland. The Strategy on the Western Front (1914-
1918). Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1920. Sargent's focus is
German offensive, and he provides some comment regarding
their situation in 1914. His work is not particularly scholarly,
however.
831 Schmitt, Bernadotte E. and Harold C. Veder. The World in the Crucible,
1914-1919. New York: Harper and Row, 1984. This is one of
the best surveys of the war, but it does not concentrate on
military operations in great detail.
832 Schneider, Benno, and Ulrich Haacke. Das Buck vom Kriege 1914-1918:
Urkunden, Berichte, Briefe, Erinnerungen. [The Book of the
War 1914-1918: Documents, Reports, Letters, Memories.]
München: Langewiesche-Brand, 1932; rpt. 1939. The primary
sources in this volume include information about the Battle of the
Marne and other aspects of the struggle against the B.E.F.
833 Schnitler, Gudmund. Der Weltkrieg, 1914-1918. [The World War, 1914-
1918.] Berlin: Verlag für Kulturpolitik, 1926. Schnitler is
accurate and has much praise for the B.E.F. at the Marne.
836 Schwarte, Max. Ed. Der deutsche Landkrieg. [The German Land War.]
3 Vols. Leipzig: J. A. Barth, 1921-25. Schwarte includes an
account of the early campaigns and is quite critical of English
tactical leadership.
837 Schwink, Otto. Die Schlacht an der Yser und bei Ypren im Herbst 1914,
138 The Battles of the B.E.F.
838 Scott, Arthur B. Ed. History of the 12th (Eastern) Division in the Great
War, 1914-1918. London: Nisbet, 1923. Scott provides a
description of the Battle of Loos, but little comment beyond the
tactical situation of the battalions being described.
839 Scott, F. G. The Great War as I Saw It. Toronto: Goodchild, 1922; rpt.
1934, 1999. Scott was a Canadian chaplain, who, despite orders
to the contrary, had attached himself to the 16th Battalion and
describes his experiences at 2nd Ypres and in the Salient in 1915.
841 Scott, Peter. Ed. "The View from GHQ: The Second Part of the Diary of
General Sir Charles Deeds, K. C. B., C. M. G., D. S. O." Stand
To! 11 (Summer, 1984): 8-17; and "The View from GHQ: The
Third Part of the Diary of General Sir Charles Deeds, K. C. B.,
C. M. G., D. S. O." Stand To! 12 (Winter, 1984): 27-33. Deeds
served with the B.E.F.'s Operations Staff in 1914 and comments
about the problems of command and control in the early part of
the war.
842 Scott, Peter T. "The Staff of the B.E.F." Stand To! 12 (December,
1985): 44-61. Useful article which adds to the knowledge
available concerning the staff of B.E.F., a subject that has been
poorly served by historians.
843 Scrap Book of the 7th Bn. Somerset Light Infantry (13th Foot). Aylesbury:
Printed by Fredk. Samuels, n.d. This volume is a compilation of
short personal accounts, and although it includes only limited
comments on 1915, the primary nature of them makes it worth
consulting.
845 Secrett, T. Twenty-Five Years with Earl Haig. New York: Duffield,
1929. Secrett was Haig's personal servant who joined him in
1900. He is hardly critical, but he does provide observations
about Haig's ideas, behavior, and relations with other people.
846 Sedgwick, F. R. The Great War in 1914. London: Forster, Groom, 1921.
Sedgwick's short book is marred by factual errors and a failure to
consult available sources.
847 Severn, Mark. The Gambardier: Giving Some Account of the Heavy and
Siege Artillery in France, 1914-1918. London: Benn, 1930.
Severn attempts to analyze some of the problems that influenced
the performance of artillery and artillery shells. His work is
useful for showing the learning of the British over the course of
the war.
848 Shakespear, L. W. History of the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha
Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles). 2 Vols. Aldershot: Gale & Polden,
1912-24. The Gurkhas were part of the Indian forces rushed to
France early in the war and performed distinguished service in
1914 and part of 1915, when the unit was moved to Egypt.
853 Short History of the Border Regiment, A. 5th ed. Aldershot: Gale &
Polden, 1938. This short volume provides a few details of
service with Haig's I Corps in 1914.
140 The Battles of the B.E.F.
854 Short History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, A. Woolwich: Gale &
Polden, 1923. Regrettably, the coverage of World War I in this
volume is marred by frequent errors.
855 Simonds, Frank H. History of the World War. 4 Vols. Garden City:
Doubleday Page for The Review of Reviews, 1917-19. Simonds,
a correspondent, provides detailed descriptions of battles and
offers his sometimes questionable comments. He asserts that
Joffre sent the B.E.F. to Mons, where it ran into trouble because
of French failure to notify its leaders promptly of the plan to
withdraw and because it was slow to move when the word came.
Although the public was told the B.E.F. won the Battle of the
Marne, in fact it failed, allowing General von Kluck to counter
key parts of the French plan to envelop his forces. It did better
in the subsequent pursuit, however. Simonds also claims that
there was no gap in the Allied line due to the use of gas at
Second Ypres thanks to the efforts of Canadian forces, though
most authorities say the Canadians filled the gap. On the whole
Simonds work is adequate narrative history, with some bias
against what he regards as German militarism.
858 Simpson, Frank. The Cheshire Regiment or 22nd Regiment of Foot: The
First Battalion at Mons and the Miniature Colour. 2nd Ed. N.P.:
N.P., n.d. The account give of the first battalion at mons is brief
but detailed. The narrow focus, however, limits the value of the
book.
859 Simpson, Keith. "Capper and the Offensive Spirit." Royal United
Services Institute Journal for Defense Studies 118 (June, 1973):
51-52. Simpson discusses the British General Capper, who died
Annotated Bibliography 141
864 Skennerton, Ian D. The British Service Lee: The Lee-Metford and Lee-
Enfield Rifles and Carbines, 1880-1980. Ashmore City: I.
Skennerton, 1982; rpt. 1993. Skennerton's fund of technical
information about the basic weapon of the B.E.F. can be very
helpful in assessing the success of the British Army.
865 Slessor, J. C. Air Power and Armies. London: Oxford University Press,
1936; rpt. 1982. Slessor was one of the first to do a serious
analysis of the use of air power on the Western Front. He makes
clear its value from the beginning of the war.
867 Slow, Peter and Richard Woods. Fields of Death: Battle Scenes of the
First World War. London: Robert Hale, 1986. The soldiers'
reminiscences in this volume are a good introduction to the
experience of the Western Front.
869 Smith, Myron J., Jr. World War I in the Air: A Bibliography and
Chronology. Metachen: Scarecrow Press, 1977. This
meticulous reference work remains valuable despite being
somewhat out of date. Unfortunately the index does not allow
the tracing of references to specific battles.
871 Smithers, A. J. The Man Who Disobeyed: Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien and
his Enemies. London: Leo Cooper, 1970. A solid biography,
which, as the title suggests, defends Smith-Dorrien against the
controversial charges made against him by Sir John French.
872 Smyth, John. Leadership in Battle, 1914-1918. Newton Abbot: David &
Charles, 1975. Smyth provides details of the battles at Mons, Le
Cateau, and especially Neuve Chapelle with the goal of showing
individual heroism and leadership at all ranks. He particularly
praises Smith-Dorrien, but also credits Haig for careful planning
at Neuve Chapelle which was foiled by the late arrival of some
Annotated Bibliography 143
873 Soldier's Diary of the Great War, A. London: Faber & Gwyer, 1929.
The anonymous author was in a Territorial battalion and
commissioned in 1915. He was wounded twice and transferred
to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916. His diary is a useful but not
unusual account of the B.E.F.
875 Spagnoly, Tony and Ted Smith. Salient Points Two: Cameos of the
Western Front Ypres Sector 1914-1918. London: Pen and
Sword, 1998. Although essentially a visitor's guide, this volume
does include some details of the fighting in the salient.
877 Spears, Edward. Liaison 1914. London: Erye & Spottiswoode, 1930; rpt.
1968, 2000. Spears served as a liaison officer between the
British and French commands. His account of the first months
of the war is very detailed and addresses the levels of both the
common soldiers and the officer corps. His book is one of the
classic accounts of the early part of the war.
878 Spears, Edward. The Picnic Basket. New York: W. W. Norton, 1967.
This idiosyncratic memoir has observations about the nature of
the B.E.F. at Mons, mostly a soldier remembered by a civilian,
an account of the fighting at Nery (September 1, 1914), and a
French woman's memories of 1914.
880 Stacke, Harry FritzMaurice. The Worcester Regiment in the Great War.
Kidderminster: G. T. Cheshire & Sons, 1928. This regimental
history is substantial and well written but relatively rare. The
author follows battalions of the regiment through a number of the
B.E.F.'s battles in 1914-15.
881 Stallings, Laurence. Ed. The First World War: A Photographic History.
London: Daily Express, 1933; rpt. 1960. Provides visual
evidence of the B.E.F.
884 Steel, Nigel and Peter Hart. Tumult in the Clouds: The British
Experience of the War in the Air 1914-1918. London: Hodder
and Stoughton, 1997. This scholarly volume includes
examinations of the role of air power as both an offensive tool
and for observations and intelligence gathering.
887 Steppler, Glenn A. Britons To Arms! The Story of the British Volunteer
Soldier. Thrupp Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1992. Steppler focuses
particularly on the Leicestershire and Rutland units in World
Annotated Bibliography 145
888 Stewart, Herbert A. From Mons to Loos: Being the Diary of a Supply
Officer. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1916.
Stewart's diary provides descriptions of the battles as well as
observations regarding logistics.
890 Stewart, Patrick F. The History of the XII Royal Lancers (Prince of
Wales's). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950. Includes
records of units active with the B.E.F., especially in 1914.
892 Strachan, Hew. The First World War. New York: Viking, 2004. An
excellent one volume history, this may be a preview of the
author's monumental planned three volume history of the war.
893 Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Vol. I: To Arms. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2001. Strachan's work covers the Western
Front only in 1914. It is a detailed and thoughtful account, and
if the other volumes are completed will be the definitive account
of the war for some time.
896 Swettenham, John. To Seize the Victory. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1965.
Swettenham traces the growth of sophistication about modern
war in the Canadian forces and their eventual commander Sir
146 The Battles of the B.E.F.
Arthur Currie.
897 Swinton, E. D. and the Earl Percy. A Year Ago: Eyewitness's Narrative
of the War From March 20th to July 19th, 1915. London:
Edward Arnold, 1916. These authors give an eyewitness account
of the early fighting, particularly in the area around Ypres.
898 Sykes, F. H. Aviation in Peace and War. London: Edward Arnold, 1922.
Sykes covers the war in the second half of his book, but his
information was quite limited. He is too critical of the German
air force and at times in error concerning the British.
899 Szczepanski, Max von. Die Marneschlacht 1914. [The Battle of the
Marne 1914.] Leipzig: Teubner, 1929. Although German
perspectives concerning battles such as the Marne are important
for understanding the situation, most like this one offer little
direct discussion of the B.E.F.
901 Tappen, Gehard. Bis zur Marne 1914. [To the Battle of the Marne.]
Oldenburg: Stalling, 1920. Tappen was Moltke's chief of staff
and offers some insight on the early battles of the war from the
German upper ranks.
902 Tascona, Bruce and Eric Wells. Little Black Devils: A History of the
Royal Winnipeg Rifles. Winnipeg: Royal Winnipeg Rifles,
1983. This unit history contains a narrative of the harrowing
struggle at Second Ypres.
907 Terraine, John. The First World War, 1914-1918. London: Hutchinson,
1965; rpt. 1983. Well-written short survey with a good
description of the situation of 1914-15. The analysis show's
Terraine's revisionist ideas.
908 Terraine, John. Mons: The Retreat to Victory. New York: Macmillan,
1960. Terraine's account, which emphasizes the importance of
the B.E.F. in the defeat of the Schlieffen plan, is a clear and
generally judicious presentation of the initial campaigns of the
war.
909 Terraine, John. The Smoke and the Fire: Myths and Anti-Myths of War.
London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1980. Terraine's account of the
new warfare provides a useful context in which to consider the
performance of the B.E.F. This volume, however, does not have
much direct information about the battles of 1914-15.
913 Thomsen, Herman. "Die Luftwaffe vor und im Weltkriege." [The Air
Force B.E.F.ore and In the World War.] In Die deutsche
Wehrmacht, 1914-1939. [The German Armed Forces, 1914-
1939.] Edited by Georg Wentzell. Berlin: N.P., 1939. Account
of the German air force and the struggle for air superiority over
the Western Front.
914 Thornton, L. H. and Pamela Fraser. The Congreves: Father and Son.
London: John Murray, 1930. This volume combines a biography
of General Sir Walter Norris Congreve who served as a
divisional and corps commander with the B.E.F. with extracts
from the diary of his son, Bt.-Major William La Touche
Congreve who served in the Rifle Brigade until his death in
1915.
915 Thoumin, Richard. The First World War. Translated by Martin Kieffer.
London: Martin Secker & Warburg and G. P. Putnam's Sons,
1963; orig. La Grande Guerre. Paris: Payot, 1931. Thoumin
includes numerous extracts from first-hand accounts to recreate
the experience of the war. Although a useful source of details,
his tendency to treat fictionalized works with the same respect as
primary sources requires some caution in use.
916 Thuiller, Henry F. Gas in the Next War. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1939.
Although the author, who commanded some aspects of British
gas warfare on the Western Front, is interested in future use of
the weapon, he devotes several chapters to describing its use in
World War I.
917 Travers, Tim. The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front,
and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918. London:
Allen and Unwin, 1987. An excellent analysis of the war, with
a good chapter on the doctrine of the offensive which was
dominant in 1914.
918 Tredwell, Terry C. and Alan C. Wood. The First Air War: A Pictorial
History 1914-1919. London: Brassy's, 1996. Although mostly
valuable for images, this volume does include some commentary.
919 Tucker, A. B. The Battle Glory of Canada: Being the Story of the
Canadians at the Front, Including the Battle of Ypres. London:
Cassell, 1915. This narrative is somewhat exaggerated but does
quote letters and describe Second Ypres.
Annotated Bibliography 149
920 Tucker, Spencer C. Ed. The European Powers in the First World War:
An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1996. This
encyclopedia is a convenient reference for a variety of topics
including battles, weapons, tactics, and strategy.
921 Tyng, Sewell. The Campaign of the Marne 1914. New York: Longmans,
Green, 1935. Tyng actually covers the history of the war from
beginning through the Battle of the Marne. His is a thorough and
elaborate version.
926 Van Der Essen, Léon. The Invasion & the War in Belgium From Liege to
the Yser, With a Sketch of the Diplomatic Negotiations
Preceding the Conflict. London: Fisher Unwin, 1917. Includes
discussion of the situation and struggle in Belgium of which the
B.E.F. became a significant part.
928 Veitch, E. Hardinge. 8th Battalion the Durham Light Infantry, 1793-
1926. Durham: J. H. Veitch & Sons, n.d. The 8th Battalion saw
action at 2nd Ypres but was not in the other battles of the B.E.F.
Veitch's account is limited and narrowly focused but does include
some details.
933 Walker, G. "From the Aisne to Ypres, 1914: Further Incidents in the
Story of the 59th Field Company, R.E." The Royal Engineers
Journal 32 (July, 1920): 25-36. In addition to his portrayal of
life in the trenches, Walker offers more technical details of
engineering work such as preparing the defensive system of the
B.E.F.
934 Walker, G. Goold. Ed. The Honourable Artillery Company in the Great
War, 1914-1919. London: Seeley, Service, 1930. Units of the
Annotated Bibliography 151
935 War History of the Sixth Battalion the South Staffordshire Regiment.
(T.F.), The. London: William Heinemann, 1924. This well-
written unit history describes the experiences of the sixth
battalion in France from early March, 1915.
939 Warner, Philip. The Battle of Loos. London: William Kimber, 1976; rpt.
2000. Warner wrote a brief overview of the battle and then
added a number of contemporary accounts. His books has much
information, but his failure to tie events in the eye witness
accounts to the big picture leads to some confusion about the
relationship of details to one another and the overall situation.
940 Warren, Arnold. Wait for the Waggon: The Story of the Royal Canadian
Army Service Corps. NP: McClelland and Stewart, 1961.
Warren's chapter concerning World War I discusses the C. E. F.'s
logistics and especially Second Ypres. Information given is quite
limited, however.
943 Watteville, H. G. de. "A Legend of the Marne, 1914." Army Quarterly
4 (1922): 85-91. The author rejects claims that Foch's 42nd
Division won the battle, and argues that the decisions to
withdraw was made due to the influence of Colonel Hentsch's
intervention and the Anglo-French threat to the German flank.
The action of Foch's unit came after the decision had been taken.
944 Wauchope, A. G. Ed. A History of the Black Watch in the Great War,
1914-1918. 3 Vols. London: Medici Society, 1925-26. These
volumes deal with each battalion of the regiment and thus include
discussion of virtually every battle of the war. The accounts are
detailed but so narrowly focused that it is sometimes hard to
connect the events to the overall situation.
946 Weaver, Lawrence. The Story of the Royal Scots (The Lothian Regiment).
Formerly the First or Royal Regiment of Foot. London:
Country Life, 1915. Weaver briefly describes the Royal Scots
involvement in the early battles of the war including Mons, Le
Cateau, and the Ypres Salient.
949 Weintraub, Stanley. Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas
Truce. New York: The Free Press, 2001. Weintraub presents
the 1914 impromptu cessation of fighting on Christmas eve and
day as muck more significant and pervasive that have earlier
scholars. He seems to believe that it represented an actual
opportunity to find a peaceful solution to the war.
950 Wells, Clifford Almon. From Montreal to Vimy Ridge and Beyond, The
Correspondence of Lieut. Clifford Almon Wells of the 8th
Battalion, Canadians, B.E.F., November, 1915-April, 1917.
Edited by O. C. S. Wallace. Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild
& Stewart, 1917. Wells comments in his correspondence about
the B.E.F. only concerning the very end of the period covered in
this volume. Nonetheless the volume has some value for
descriptions of conditions.
962 Willcocks, James. With the Indians in France. London: Constable, 1920.
Willcocks, the commander of the Indian Corps supplements
official records with material from his own diary and letters. His
focus is events before Neuve Chapelle, after which the Indian
Corps was shifted to the 1st Army, and he had less contact.
963 Willcox, Walter Temple. The 3rd (King's Own) Hussars in the Great War.
London: John Murray, 1925; rpt. 1988. The 3rd Hussars were
part of the original B.E.F., and were heavily engaged at the
Annotated Bibliography 155
965 Williamson, H. J. The Roll of Honour: Royal Flying Corps and Royal
Air Force for the Great War, 1914-18. Dallington: Naval &
Military Press, 1992. This volume is mostly useful for
identifying individuals involved in the air war but does have
information about aerial operations.
966 Williamson, Henry. The Wet Flanders Plain. London: Faber & Faber,
1929; rpt. 1987. Williamson's descriptions of the ground of
Flanders gives a powerful sense of what the soldiers faced.
967 Willson, Beckles. Ypres, The Holy Ground of British Arms. Burges:
Chas. Beyaert, 1920. Willson is at pains to describe the beauties
of the city of Ypres destroyed by the Germans, but he does
provide chapters specifically about the battles of First and
Second Ypres. These are unfortunately superficial and have
some errors.
969 Wing Adjutant. [Blake, Wilfred.] The Royal Flying Corps in the War.
London: Cassell, 1918. Although he does not focus on specific
battles, the author does discuss the role and methods of the
Flying Corps in artillery observation, bombing, and other means
of support that were very important to the B.E.F.
970 Winnifrith, Douglas P. The Church in the Fighting Line with General
Smith-Dorrien at the Front: Being the Experiences of a
156 The Battles of the B.E.F.
972 Wirth, Hauptmann A. Von der Saale zur Aisne. [From the Saale to the
Aisne.] Leipzig: Kriegstagbiätter, 1915; rpt. 1920. This German
narrative by a member of the 7th Reserve Division staff has a very
good account of Le Cateau.
973 Wise, S. F. Canadian Airmen and the First World War: The Official
History of The Royal Canadian Air Force Volume I. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press with Dept. of National Defense,
1980. Although few Canadian airmen reached the Western Front
before the end of 1915, Wise incorporates information about the
few that did into a chapter outlining the growth of the Royal
Flying Corps and its importance, especially for artillery
observation, in the early battles of the B.E.F.
976 Witt-Guizot, Lieut. Colonel de. Les grandes Étapes de la Victorie 1914-
1918. [The Great March to Victory 1914-1918.] Paris: Berger-
Levrault, 1923. The author is excessively critical of the B.E.F.
asserting that it was not in place at Mons, defeated at Le Cateau,
and lagged behind at the Marne.
977 Wolff, Anne. Ed. Subalterns of the Foot: Three World War I Diaries of
Officers of the Cheshire Regiment. Worchester: Square One,
1992. These first hand accounts begin in 1915 and afford a vivid
Annotated Bibliography 157
978 Wood, H. F. The King's Royal Rifle Corps. London: Hamish Hamilton,
1967. Provides details of battalions active in most of the B.E.F.'s
actions in 1914-14.
979 Wood, W. de B. Ed. The History of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry
in the Great War, 1914-1918. London: Medici Society, 1925.
The editor has included accounts of each of the regiment's eight
battalions, and so although several battles are described, the
accounts are short and episodic.
980 Woodward, Llewellyn. Great Britain and the War 1914-1918. London:
Methuen, 1967. In this well-written, scholarly survey,
Woodward praises the B.E.F. for its "decisive contribution" to
stopping the initial German drive. He does not think that
performance was sustained through 1915, and is quite critical of
Sir John French at Loos, asserting that after the battle French was
no longer able to command.
981 Woodyatt, Nigel G. Ed. The Regimental History of the 3rd Queen
Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles. London: Philip Allan, 1929.
Although this work includes accounts of the regiment's battalions
at Givenchy and Neuve Chapelle, the focus is so narrow that it is
of little value other than for details of the units themselves.
982 "The Work of the Royal Engineers in the European War, 1914-1919:
Chemical Warfare." The Royal Engineers Journal 23 (Feb.,
1921): 105-120. This article traces the British effort to develop
chemical munitions and briefly relates their use in 1915.
983 Worthington, Larry. Amid the Guns Below: The Story of the Canadian
Corps (1914-1919). Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965.
Although popular in format and not extensively researched, this
book does have the virtue of focusing on the development of the
Canadian machine gun corps, an unusual theme.
984 Wrede, Edmund Fürst von. Stimme aus der Front. Bülow's Vormarsch,
Rückzug und Rettung seiner und der I Armee. [A Voice from the
Front. Billow's Advance, Retreat and Saving of His Own and the
First Army.] Bamberg: Hübscher, 1925. This defense of
General Bülow's handling of German forces on the right wing in
1914 delineates the situation in which the B.E.F. found itself in
the first months of the war.
158 The Battles of the B.E.F.
986 Wylly, H. C. The Border Regiment in the Great War. Aldershot: Gale
and Polden, 1925. This regiment had a battalion in the Salient
from 1914, and Wylly does an effective job of describing it's
situation.
987 Wylly, H. C. The Ist and 2nd Battalions the Sherwood Foresters
(Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment) in the Great War.
Aldershot: Gale & Polden, n.d. Wylly provides a limited
description of action at the tactical level of the Aisne, Hooge,
Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge, and Loos, and a more valuable
description of life in the trenches early in the war.
989 Wylly, H. C. History of the 1st and 2nd Battalions The Leicestershire
Regiment in the Great War. Aldershot: Gale & Polden, n.d.
These battalions were involved at the Aisne, 1st and 2nd Ypres,
Hooge, La Bassée, Festubert, Neuve Chapelle, and Loos.
Wylly's focus is particularly narrow in this book, and he offers
little analysis or comment beyond the tactical level.
990 Wylly, H. C, et al. History of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
6 Vols. London: Percy Lund, Humphries, n.d. The volume
concerning 1914-18 includes an effective use fo context for
battles in which the units of the regiment fought so that their
efforts fit into the larger picture of the war. Most of the B.E.F.'s
engagements are covered.
998 [Wynne, G. C] "The Other Side of the Hill, No. III: The Fight for Hill
70, 25th-26th of September 1915." Army Quarterly 8 (July,
1924): 261 -73. An account of the German activity by an English
officer and scholar.
999 [Wynne, G. C] "The Other Side of the Hill, No. XII: The Night Attack at
Landrecies, 25th August, 1914." Army Quarterly 28 (July,
1934): 247-54. An account of the German activity by an English
officer and scholar.
1000 [Wynne, G. C] "The Other Side of the Hill, No. XVI: Aubers Ridge, 9th
of May, 1915." Army Quarterly 36 (July, 1938): 242-48. An
account of the German activity by an English officer and scholar.
1001 [Wynne, G. C] "The Other Side of the Hill, No. XVII: Neuve Chapelle,
10th-12th March, 1915." Army Quarterly 37 (Oct., 1938): 30-
46. An account of the German activity by an English officer and
160 The Battles of the B.E.F.
scholar.
1002 Wynne, G. C. "Pattern for Limited (Nuclear) War: The Riddle of the
Schlieffen Plan." (Part 1.) Royal United Service Institution
Journal 102 (Nov., 1957): 488-99. Wynne argues that
Schlieffen understood that firepower, especially machine guns,
could be substituted for manpower. The British command never
gained a real understanding of this tactical reality. Thus British
attacks--Wynne cites all of the major battles of 1915--were
bloody failures. Parts two and three of this series of essays,
though interesting, are not relevant to the study of World War I.
1004 Wyrall, Everard. The Die-Hards in the Great War: A History of the Duke
of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), 1914-1919.
London: Harrison & Sons, n.d. Wyrall, a prolific unit historian,
provides some campaign context and quite detailed tactical
accounts of most of the battles in the first years of the war.
1005 Wyrall, Everard. The East Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War, 1914-
1918. London: Harrison & Sons, 1928. Wyrall provides
accounts of action in most of the battles from late 1914 through
1915, but he acknowledges that in the confused fighting in the
salient it is very difficult to follow the battalions of a particular
regiment.
1007 Wyrall, Everard. The History of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry,
1914-1919. London: Methuen, 1932. This volume includes
details of virtually all the battles of the B.E.F. in 1914-15, and
although the focus is narrow, the author does a reasonable job of
supplying context.
1008 Wyrall, Everard. The History of the King's Regiment (Liverpool), 1914-
1919. 3 Vols. London: Edward Arnold, 1928-35. The detailed
coverage of battalions that comes from unit histories is very
valuable. Wyrall does a better job than most unit historians,
Annotated Bibliography 161
1009 Wyrall, Everard. The History of the 19th Division. London: Edward
Arnold; Bradford: Lund, Humphries, n.d. Wyrall's description
of the 19th Division's difficult situation in the second stage of the
battle of Loos is quite clear and detailed. Unfortunately, he does
not draw any conclusions about why, after initial success,
problems developed for the second stage attack.
1011 Wyrall, Everard. The History of the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince
Albert's), 1914-1919. London: Methuen, 1927. Wyrall follows
battalions from this regiment through a number of battles in
1914-15, including Le Cateau, the retreat from Mons, and Loos.
1012 Wyrall, Everard. The West Yorkshire Regiment in the War, 1914-1918.
2 Vols. London: John Lane the Bodley Head, n.d. Wyrall
includes descriptions of the battles of the Aisne, Armentières,
Neuve Chapelle, and Bellewaerde, noting the growing tactical
sophistication of the B.E.F.
1013 Young, B. K. "The Diary of An R.E. Subaltern with the B.E.F, 1914."
The Royal Engineers Journal 47 (Dec, 1933): 549-71; 48
(March, 1934): 1-19. Young was in the 9th Field Company.
Although technical at times, he is eloquent in his treatment of his
experiences.
1014 Young, Peter. Great Battles of the World on Land, Sea & Air. New
York: Bookthrift Publications, 1978. The Battle of the Marne
is included in this volume, but it offers no more than a brief
introduction.
1015 Ypres and the Battles for Ypres. London: Michelin, 1920; rpt. n.d.
Although the Michelin Guides are intended for travelers, those,
like this one, focused on battlefields provide much useful
information about the locality and about the battle itself.
1017 Zwehl, General von. Erich von Falkenhayn, General der Infanterie. Eine
Biographische Studie. [Erich von Falkenhayn, General of
Infantry. A Biographical Study.] Berlin: Mittler, 1925. This
biography, sympathetic to its subject, provides some analysis of
German strategic thinking concerning the B.E.F.
Numbers show in regular type refer to entry numbers in the annotated bibliography. Numbers in
bold type refer to pages in the historiographical essay. Numerals have been treated as if they were
spelled out. Names with prefixes such as van and de, have been alphabetized according to
customary usage. Thus van Kluck, for instance, appears under "K."
and Ludendorff Conduct World Gough, Hubert, 8, 24, 312, 359, 399-400,
War I, The, 27 521, 742
German high command, 27, 281, 304, 325, Goughie: The Life of General Sir Hubert
366, 565, 675 Gough, 312
German Students' War Letters, 975 Gould, R. W., 401
Germany in Defeat: A Strategic History of Graf Schlieffen und der Weltkrieg, 326
the War--First Phase, 874 Graham, Dominick, 95
Germany. Reichsarchiv, 370-74 Graham, Henry, 402
Geschichte des Grössen Krieges, 1914-1918, Granatstein, J. L., 692
Zur 20 Grande Guerre des Français: Le
Geschichte des Krieges, 886 Incompréhensible, Le, 283
Geschichte des Reserve Infanterie Regiments Grande Guerre, 1914-1918, La, 911
245 im Weltkrieg, 1914-1918, Grande Guerre, La, 915
Die, 564 Grande Guerre sur le front occidental, La,
Geschichte des 3 Oberelsässich 735
Feldartillerie-Regiments Nr. 80, grandes Étapes de la Victorie 1914-1918,
650 Les, 976
Gibb, H., 375 Grant, Reginald, 403
Gibbs, Philip, 376 Grant, W., 404
Gibson, George Herbert Rae, 772 Graves, Robert, 17, 405
Gibson, Mary, 377 Gray, Randal, 406
Gibson, W. L., 378 Grazebrook, R. M., 407
Gilbert, Adrian, 379 Greacen, Lavinia, 408
Gilbert, Felix, 500 Great Battles of the World on Land, Sea &
Gilbert, Martin, 308-81 Air, 1014
Giles, John, 382 Great Battles of World War I, 593
Gillespie, A. D., 383 Great Britain and the War 1914-1918, 980
Gillon, Stair, 384 Great Britain. General Staff Studies, 409-10
Giraud, Victor, 385 Great Britain. War Office, 411-13
Givenchy, Battle of, 3, 30, 257, 432, 481, Great Push, The, 620
592, 662, 778, 840, 981 Great War and the R.A.M.C., The, 127
Gleichen, Edward (Lord), 386 Great War as I Saw It, 839
Gleichen-Russwurm, Heinrich von, 387 Great War Generals on the Western Front,
Gliddon, Gerald, 388 The, 710
Glogowski, Ernst, 389 Great War: I Was There!, The 439
Glorious Glosters, The, 174 Great War in 1914, The, 846
Gloucestershire Regiment in the War, 1914- Great War in the Air: Military Aviation from
1918, The, 1006 1909 to 1921, The, 689
Gloucestershire Regiment: War Narratives, Great War in the Air, The, 668
1914-1915, The, 407 Great War, 1914-1918, The, 319
Glover, Michael, 390-92 Great War, 1914-1918, The, 324
Going Across or With the 9th Welch in the Great War of 1914-1918, The, 29
Butterfly Division: Being Great War, The, 306
Extracts from the War Letters and Green Howards in the Great War, 1914-
Diary of M. St. Helier Evans, 300 1919, The, 988
Gone for a Soldier, 338 Green Howards, The, 762
Goodbye to All That, 17, 405 Green, Horace, 414
Goodinge, Anthony, 393 Green, Howard, 415
Goodspeed, D. J., 394-95 Greenhut, Jeffrey, 416-17
Gordon, George Stuart, 396 Greenwell, Graham, 418
Gordon Highlanders in the First World War Gregory, E. C., 905
1914-1919, The, 305 Grenadier-Regiment Prinz Karl von
Gordon-Smith, Gordon, 760 Preussen (2 Brandenburgishes)
Görlitz, Walter, 397 Nr. 12, Das, 834
Goschen, A. A., 398 Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-
Index 177
History of the 19th Division, The, 1009 (Prince Albert's), 1914-1919, The,
History of the 9th (Scottish) Division, 1914- 1011
1918, The, 302 History of the South Staffordshire Regiment,
History of the Norfolk Regiment, 1685-1919, 924
The, 750 History of the South Wales Borderers, 1914-
History of the Northamptonshire Regiment, 1918, The, 32
1742-1934, 427 History of the Suffolk Regiment, 1914-1927,
History of No 1 General Hospital Canadian The, 705
Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, History of the Thirty-First Battalion C. E. F.,
167 From Its Organization, November
History of the Ordnance Services, A, 327 1914, to Its Demobilization, June
History of the Prince of Wales' Own Civil 1919, With Nominal Roll and
Service Rifles, The, 481 Information as to All Members of
History of the Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon the Unit, 861
Guards), A, 959 History of the Thirty-Third Foot, Duke of
History of the Queen's Royal Regiment, 992 Wellington's (West Riding)
History of the Royal Dragoons, 1661-1934, Regiment, 576
31. "History of the 12th Company Royal
History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Engineers," 161
The Western Front 1914-18, The, History of the 12th (Eastern) Division in the
309 Great War, 1914-1918, 838
History of the Royal Regiment of Wales History of the XII Royal Lancers (Prince of
(24/41st Foot) 1689-1989, A, 129 Wales's), 890
History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (1679- History of the Twentieth (Light) Division,
1918), The, 148 The, 512
History of the 2nd Battalion The History of the Welch Regiment, The, 956
Monmouthshire Regiment,A, 130 History of the Welsh Guards, 936
History of the 2nd Canadian Battalion (East History of the World War, 90
Ontario Regiment) Canadian History of the World War, 855
Expeditionary Force in the Great History of the World War, A, 586
War, 1914-1919, The, 707 History of the World War: An Authentic
History of the Second Division, 1914-1918, Narrative of the World's Greatest
The, 1010 War, 637
History of the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Hitchcock, F. C., 482
Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Hodder-Williams, Ralph, 483
Rifles), 848 Hodges, Arthur, 484
History of the 17th Lancers, 1895-1924. A, Hoeppner, Ernst von, 485
667 Hogg, Ian, 486-87
History of the 17th (Northern) Division, 36 "Holding the Line", 50
"History of the 7th Field Company, R.E. Holland, J. A., 488
During the War 1914-1918," 46 Hollier, H. M. , 44
History of the Seventh South Staffordshire Holmes, Richard, 10-11, 19, 22, 489-91, 852
Regiment, The, 24 Holt, Tonie and Valmai, 492-93
History of the Sikh Pioneers (23rd, 32nd, and Home, Archibald, 494
34th), 625 Hommes de la Grande Guerre: Histoires
History of the 16th Battalion (The Canadian vraies, Les, 670
Scottish) Canadian Expeditionary Hommes et des faits, Des, 634
Force in the Great War, 1914- Honourable Artillery Company in the Great
1919, The, 222 War, 1914-1919, The, 934
History of the Sixteenth , the Queen's, Light Hooge, 88, 191, 419, 480, 524, 987, 989
Dragoons (Lancers), 1912 to Hopkins, J. Castell, 495
1925, 402 Hopkinson, E. C., 496
History of the Sixth Battalion, West Horne, Alistair, 497
Yorkshire Regiment, 905 Horne, Charles F., 498
History of the Somerset Light Infantry Howard, Michael, 499-500
180 The Battles of the B.E.F.
"Major-General J. F. C. Fuller and the Marsch auf Paris und die Marneschlacht
Decline of Generalship: The 1914, Der, 556
Lessons of 1914-18," 786 Marshal Ferdinand Foch: His Life and His
Man Who Disobeyed: Sir Horace Smith- Theory of Modern War, 37
Dorrien and his Enemies, The, Marshal Foch: A Study in Leadership, 504
871 Marshal Foch: His Life, His Work, His
Mangin, Général, 634 Faith, 769
Mann, Michael, 636 Marshal Foch: His Own Words on Many
Manoeuvre et Victoire de la Marne, 358 Subjects, 781
Maple Leaves in Flanders Fields, 772 Marshall, S. L. A., 640
March, Francis A., 637 Marshall-Cornwall, James, 641-42
March on Paris and the Battle of the Marne, Martin, A. G., 644
1914, The, 556 Martin, Arthur Anderson, 643
Marchand, Ernest, 241 Martin, George and Wally, 645
Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and Martin, Stuart, 646
the Great War 1914-1919, 692 Marx, Lieut-General, 647
Marden, T. O., 638 Masefield, John, 648
Marden, Thomas O., 956 "Massacre of the Innocents," 232
Marling, Percival, 639 Masters, John, 649
Marne à la mer du Nord (10 septembre-15 Mathies, Otto, 650
novembre 1914), De la, 102 Matson, Christopher, 65
Marne--and After, The, 228 Maubeuge-Aisne-Verdun, 1018
Marne Battle and Tannenberg, 335 Maude, Alan H., 651
Marne, Battle of, 2, 10, 22, 7, 26-28, 37, 40, Maunoy, General Michael-Joseph, 256
69, 82, 84, 98, 102, 104, 106, 118, Maurice, Frederick, 653-57
144, 153, 168, 173, 192, 221, 228, Maxwell, Frank, 658
236, 245, 247, 249, 297, 299, 315, Mayer, S.L., 659
333, 335, 337, 342, 347, 355, 357, McBride, Herbert W., 610
367, 373, 384, 410, 423, 442-43, McCance, Stouppe, 182
451, 479, 505, 514, 524-26, 529, McCrae, John, 627
535, 547, 558-59, 562-63, 575, McCudden, James Thomas Byford, 611
578-79, 581, 591, 630, 633-34, McEntee, Girard Lindsley, 618
643-44, 647, 665, 670, 694, 700- McGilchrist, A. M., 619
02, 722, 748, 750, 758, 770, 830, McKeown, J. D., 622
832-33, 855, 874, 899, 901, 921, McKinley, Albert E., 623
924, 929, 937, 957, 962, 976, McNaughton, 895
1014 McNaughton, Andrew G. L., 620
Marne Campaign, The, 957 McPherson, William L., 629-30
Marne-Deutschlands Schicksal?, Die, 647 McWilliams, James L., 632
Marne-Drama. Der Fall Moltke-Hentsch, Mead, Peter, 660
Das, 606 "Meaning of Attrition 1914-1916," "The, 340
Marne-Feldzug 1914, Der, 961 Medicine and Duty: A War Diary, 259
Marne, La, 104 Medico's Luck in the War Being
Marne, The, 104 Reminiscences of R.A.M.C. Work
Marnefeldzug, Der, 566 with the 51st (Highland) Division,
Marneschlacht, Die, 562 A, 812
Marneschlacht eine deutsche Tragödie, Die, Mein Bericht zur Marneschlacht, 152
236 Mein Kriegstagebuch, 823
Marneschlacht 1914, Die, 899 Meine Tätigkeit im Weltkrieg, 1914-1918,
Marneschlacht, 1914: Eine Deutsche 601
Tragödie, Die, 535 Memoir of Lieut.-Colonel E. A. Steel, A, 883
Marneschlacht und Tannenberg: Mémoires du Général Galliéni, 355
Betrachtungen zur deutschen Memoirs of a Young Lieutenant, 1898-1917,
Kriegsführung der ersten sechs 178
Kriegswochen, 335 Memoirs of Captain Liddell Hart, The, 585
184 The Battles of the B.E.F.
Memoirs of the 18th (Queen Mary's Own) 408, 434, 465, 508, 573, 580, 582,
Royal Hussars, 1906-1922, The, 599, 715, 718, 722-23, 744, 750,
153 758, 855, 858, 872, 878, 888, 908,
Memoirs of Field-Marshal the Viscount 924, 930, 942, 946, 957, 962, 976,
Montgomery of Alamein, The, 679 995
Memoirs of Lord Chandos, The, 609 Mons 1914: The B.E.F. 's Tactical Triumph,
Memoirs of Marshal Joffre, 527 7, 599
Memoirs of Raymond Poincaré, The, 755 Mons, Retreat from, 9-10, 20, 75, 82, 103,
Memories of Forty-Eight Years Service, 870 106, 116, 151, 229, 361, 364,
"Men Against Fire: The Doctrine of the 386-87, 396, 438, 490, 505, 524,
Offensive in 1914," 500 574, 653, 815, 819, 1011
Menzel, E., 661 Mons Star: The British Expeditionary Force
Menzies, Lucy, 578 5th Aug.-22nd Nov. 1914, The, 7,
Merewether, J. W. B., 662 21
Mermeix, 663 Mons: The Retreat to Victory, 3, 7, 9-11, 908
Messenger, Charles, 664 Montague, C. E., 677
Michelin, 665-66 Montague-Marsden, Maurice Arthur, 678
Micholls, G. A., 667 Montgomery: A Biography, 684
Middleton, Edgar, 668 Montgomery, Bernard Law, 435, 679, 718
Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, 669 Montgomery-Cunninghame, Thomas, 680
Military Atlas of the First World War, A, 54 Monty: The Making of a General, 1887-
Military History of the War, From the 1942, 435
Declaration of War to the Close Moody, R. S. H., 681
of the Campaign of August 1914, Moore, W., 682
A, 66 Moore, William, 683
Military History of the World War, 618 Moorehead, Alan, 684
Military History of the World War, A, 501 Moorhouse, Brendon, 685
Military History of World War I, 282 Morale: A Study of Men and Courage: The
Military Operations: France and Belgium, Second Scottish Rifles at the
288 Battle of Neuve Chapelle, 73
Mills, Arthur Frederick Hobart, 754 Mordacq, H., 686
Miquel, Pierre, 670 Morgan, Frederick, 687
Misfit Soldier: Edward Casey's War Story, Morrow, Ian F. D., 96
1914-1932, 184 Morgan, J. H., 688
Mit Clausewitz durch die Rätsel und Fragen, Morrow, John H., Jr., 689
Irrungen und Wirrungen des Morton, Desmond, 690-92
Weltkrieges, 581 Moser, Otto von, 693-95
Mit der Garde im Westen, 68 Mother Country Fatherland: The Story of a
Mitchell, Donald G., 799 British-Born German Soldier, 644
Mitchell, T. J., 671 Mott, T. Bentley, 527
Modern Guns and Gunnery, 91 Mottram, R. H., 696
Mole, W. R., 672 Moyer, Laurence V., 697
Molesworth, G. N., 673 Moynihan, Michael, 698-99
Molony, C. V., 674 Mud and Khaki: The Memories of an
Moltke, Helmuth von, 26-27, 67, 150, 304, Incomplete Soldier, 205
397, 556, 563, 606, 701, 901, 925 Muller, Commandant, 700
Moltke, Schlieffen, and Prussian War Müller-Loebnitz, Wilhelm von, 701-02
Planning, 151 Munro, Ion S., 703
Money, R. R., 676 Munro, Jack, 704
Mons, 190 Murphy, C. R. R., 705
Mons and the Retreat, 396 Murray, A. M., 706
Mons, Anzac and Kut by an MP, 465 Murray, Archibald, 7, 9, 21, 359
Mons, Battle of, 2, 5 7-9, 21, 6, 59, 61, 106, Murray, W. W., 707
127, 135, 153, 190, 192, 207, 210, My Bit: A Lancashire Fusilier at War 1914-
239, 268, 295, 299, 342-43, 396, 1918, 25
Index 185
My War Experiences in Two Continents, 626 Notes on the Campaign in France, 1914, 338
Napier's Rifles: The History of the 5th Notes on the Operations of the British
Battalion 6th Rajputahna Rifles, Expeditionary Force, August
778 22nd to September 9, 1914, 682
Narrative on the Formation and Operation Nova Scotia's Part in the Great War, 503
of the First Canadian Division to Oatts, L. B., 722-23
the Second Battle of Ypres, 169 Occleshaw, Michael, 724
Nasmith, George, 708-09 Officers of the Battalion, 725
Neillands, Robin, 710 Officers of the Green Howards, Alexandra,
Nelson's History of the War, 149 Princess of Wales's Own
Neuburg, Victor E., 711 (Yorkshire Regiment), (formerly
Neumann, Georg Paul, 712 the 19th Foot) 1688 to 1920, 317
Neuve Chapelle, 134 Official History of the Canadian Army in the
Neuve Chapelle, Battle of, 13-17, 23, 9, 44, First World War: The Canadian
88. 114, 134, 205-06, 257, 313, Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918,
342, 363, 432, 473, 497, 588, 592, 716
605, 652, 662, 672, 687, 767, 819, Official History of the Canadian Forces in
872, 905, 910, 924, 962, 968, 981, the Great War, 1914-1915, 278
987, 989, 994, 1001, 1003, 1012 Official History of the Canadian Forces in
Nevinson, Henry W., 713 the Great War, 1914-1919: The
New Guide to the Battlefields of Northern Medical Services, 628
France and the Low Countries, Ogle, Henry, 391
392 Old Contemptible, 75
Newman, Bernard , 404, 714 Old Contemptibles: A Photographic History
News From the Front: War Correspondents, of the British Expeditionary
310 Force, August to December 1914,
Newton, W. Douglas, 715 The, 860
Nicolson, G. W. L., 716 Old Front Line, The, 648
Nicolson, Lothian, 717 Old Soldiers Never Die, 792
Nicolson, Nigel, 718 Omissi, David, 726
Nieman, Johannes, 719 Ommannney, C. H., 727
1915 Campaign in France: The Battles of On Artillery, 425
Aubers Ridge, Festubert & Loos On the Fringe of the Great Fight, 709
Considered in Relation to the On the Psychology of Military Incompetence,
Field Service Regulations, 537 267
1915 Année Sanglante, 421 On the Road From Mons With an Army
1915: The Death of Innocence, 614 Service Corps Train, 728
"1915: The Realities of Trench Warfare On the Western Front (1st/3rd Battalion
Revealed," 313 Monmouthshire Regiment), 729
1914, 166 107th Field Company, R.E., 775
1914, 10-11, 21, 24, 341 O'Neill, H. C., 730
1914, 615 operationen und rückwärtigen Verbindungen
1914: Glory Departing, 733 der deutschen I Armee in der
1914-1918: Voices and Images of the Great Marneschlacht, 1914, Die, 525
War, 616 Orange, Green and Khaki: The Story of the
Ninth Queen's Royal Lancers, 1715-1936, Irish Regiments in the Great War,
The, 851 1914-18, 532
No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Order of Battle of Divisions, The, 76
Gas Warfare in the First World Origines de la Victoire: Histoire Raisonnée
War, 223 de la Guerre Mondiale, Les, 118
Noftsinger, James Philip, 720 Osburn, Arthur, 731
Norman, Terry, 220 "Other Side of the Hill, No. III: The Fight for
Norris, Geoffrey, 721 Hill 70, 25th-26th of September
North Staffordshire Regiment, The, 222 1915, The," 998
Not Worth Reading, 18 "Other Side of the Hill, No. XII: The Night
186 The Battles of the B.E.F.
"Race to the Sea, September to October, The, Reid, Brian Holden, 786
1914," 851 Reid, Gordon, 787
"Race, Sex and War: The Impact of Race and Reinhardt, Ernst, 788
Sec on Morale and Health Reminiscences of a Grenadier, 349
Services for the Indian Corps on Reminiscences of Sport and War, 262
the Western Front," 417 Repington, Charles à Court, 23, 789
Rae, Herbert, 772 Reputations Ten Years After, 587
Raimes, A. L., 773 Reserve-Ersatz-Regiment nr. 3; im Auftrage
Raleigh, Walter, 774 der Kameradschaft ehemaliger
Rattray, M. J., 775 Angehöriger des Res.-Ers. Regts.
Rawling, Bill, 776 3, 157
Rawlinson, A., 777 Responding to the Call: The Kitchener
Rawlinson, H. G., 13, 15, 17, 778 Battalions of the Royal Berkshire
Rawlinson, Henry, 657, 767 Regiment at the Battle of Loos
Real Front, The, 204 1915, 195
Real War, 1914-1918, The, 586 Revell, Alex, 790
Realities of War, The, 376 Reynolds, Francis Joseph, 791
Recollections of an Airman, 894 Richards, Frank, 792
Recollections of Three Manchesters in the Richards, John, 793
Great War: Mike Lally of the Old Richards, R. , 794
Contemptibles, Joe Horgan of the Richardson, Sue, 461
Territorials, John Hallows of the Richter, Donald, 795-96
Pals, The, 461 Rickard, Mrs. Victor, 797
Record of the Battles and Engagements of Riddell, E., 798
the British Armies in France and Riddle, David K., 799
Flanders, 1914-1918, A, 519 "Riddle of Schlieffen: Some Comments on
Records of the Fourth Canadian Infantry Captain Wynne's Analysis of
Battalion in the Great War, 1914- British Tactical Failures in the
1918, 378 First World War,The," 968
Records of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Riddle of the Rhine--Chemical Strategy in
Guards in the Great War, 1914- Peace and War, The, 577
1918, 375 Riddles of Wipers, The, 515
Records of the Seventh Dragoon Guards Riding the Retreat: Mons to the Marne 1914
(Princess Royal's) During the Revisited, 10, 490
Great War, 840 Riebensahm, Gustav, 800
Recouly, Raymond, 779-81 Rifle Brigade, The, 450
Red Watch" With the First Canadian Rifleman, A., 801
Division in Flanders, "The, 246 Rifleman and Hussar, 639
"Reflections on Neuve Chapelle, March, Rifleman Went to War; Being a Narrative of
1915," 1003 the Author's Experiences and
Regimental Committee, 782 Observations While With the
Regimental History Committee, 783 Canadian Corps in France and
Regimental History of 1st the Queen's Belgium, September 1915-April
Dragoon Guards, The, 635 1917, With Particular Emphasis
Regimental History of the 3rd Queen Upon the Use of the Military Rifle
Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles, in Sniping, Its Place in Modern
The, 981 Armament, and the Work of the
Regimental Officers, 784 Individual Solder, A, 610
Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Ritter, Gerhard, 802
Fusiliers, 182 Ritter, Hans, 803
Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Road Past Vimy: The Canadian Corps,
Fusiliers, 1914-1918, 937 1914-1918, The, 395
Regimental Surgeon in War and Prison, A, Roberts, Charles G. D., 9
268 Roberts, Craig, 804
Reicharchiv, 785 Roberts, T. G., 805
188 The Battles of the B.E.F.