Digging the Trenches

Author: Andrew Robertshaw
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 178303369X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
This comprehensive, illustrated survey of the latest in battlefield archaeology reveals “intimate insight into the realities of life” during WWI (Current Archaeology). Modern methods of archaeological, historical, and forensic research have transformed our understanding of the Great War. In Digging the Trenches, battlefield archaeologists Andrew Robertshaw and David Kenyon introduce the reader to this exciting new field and explore many of the remarkable projects that have been undertaken. Robertshaw and Kenyon show how archaeology can be used to reveal the positions of trenches, dugouts and other battlefield features, as well as what life on the Western Front was really like. They also show how individual soldiers are coming into focus as forensic investigation is so highly developed that individuals can be identified and their fates discovered. “An excellent introduction to the subject…Digging the Trenches is essential reading.”—Gary Sheffield, Military Illustrated “What a splendid book this is.”—Neil Faulkner, Current Archaeology

Beneath the Killing Fields

Author: Matthew Leonard
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 147388411X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
Beneath the Killing Fields of the Western Front still lies a hidden landscape of industrialised conflict virtually untouched since 1918. This subterranean world is an ambiguous environment filled with material culture that that objectifies the scope and depth of human interaction with the diverse conflict landscapes of modern war. Covering the military reasoning for taking the war underground, as well as exploring the way that human beings interacted with these extraordinary alien environments, this book provides a more all-encompassing overview of the Western Front. The underground war was intrinsic to trench warfare and involved far more than simply trying to destroy the enemys trenches from below. It also served as a home to thousands of men, protecting them from the metallic landscapes of the surface. With the aid of cutting edge fieldwork conducted by the author in these subterranean locales, this book combines military history, archaeology and anthropology together with primary data and unique imagery of British, French, German and American underground defences in order to explore the realities of subterranean warfare on the Western Front, and the effects on the human body and mind that living and fighting underground inevitably entailed.

Killing Time

Author: Nicholas J Saunders
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752476181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Book Description
The Great War of 1914-1918 now stands at the furthest edge of living memory. And yet, hardly a month passes without some dramatic and sometimes tragic discovery being made along the old killing fields of the Western Front. Graves of British soldiers buried during battle – still lying in rows seemingly arm in arm or found crouching at the entrance to a dugout; whole 'underground cities' of trenches, dugouts and shelters have been preserved in the mud; field hospitals carved out of the chalk country of the Somme marked with graffiti; unexploded bombs and gas canisters – all of these are the poignant and sometimes deadly legacies of a war we can never forget. Killing Time digs beneath the surface of war to uncover the living reality left behind. Nicholas J. Saunders brings together a wealth of discoveries to offer fresh insights into the human and often barbaric aspect of warfare. He uses discoveries in the trenches, family photographs, diaries and souvenirs to give the dead a voice. You cannot fail to be fascinated and moved by what he unearths.

1918

Author: Barrie Pitt
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473834767
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Book Description
This vividly detailed history examines the battles and politics in the final year of WWI—includes trench diagrams, photographs, and maps of battles. Three years into the Great War, Europe found itself in a stalemate on the Western Front. The Russian Front had collapsed and the United States had abandoned neutrality, joining the Allied cause. These developments set the stage for the climactic events of 1918, the year that would finally see an end to the war. In 1918: The Last Act, acclaimed military historian Barrie Pitt “analyses with great lucidity the broad outlines of German and Allied Strategy” (The Sunday Telegraph). With an expert eye, Pitt looks into the policies of the warring powers, the men who led them, and the resulting battles along the Western Front. From the German onslaught of March 21, 1918, to the struggles in Champagne and the Second Battle of the Marne, to the turning point in August and the final, hard-won victory, 1918 The Last Act traces “the blunders at the top and the filth and stench and misery of the trenches” in order to deliver “a compelling narrative” of World War I (Daily Mail).

The Western Front

Author: Stephen Miles
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473884705
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 159

Book Description
The Western Front has become, once again, and after 100 years, an important and increasingly popular tourist destination. The Centenary is already encouraging large numbers of visitors to engage with this highly poignant landscape of war and to commemorate the sacrifice and loss of a previous generation. Interest is also being sharpened in the places of war as battle-sites, trench-systems, bunkers and mine craters gain a clearer identity as war heritage. For the first time this book brings together the three strands of heritage, landscape and tourism to provide a fresh understanding of the multi-layered nature of the Western Front. The book approaches the area as a rich dynamic landscape which can be viewed in a startling variety of ways: historically, materially, culturally, and perceptually. To illustrate these two dominant interpretations of the regions landscape commemorative and heritage are highlighted and their relationship to tourism explored. Tourism is a lens through which these layers can be peeled away, and each understood and interacted with according to the individuals own knowledge, motivation, and degree of emotional engagement. Tourism is not regarded here as a passive phenomenon, but as an active agent that can determine, dictate and inscribe this evocative landscape. The Western Front: Heritage, Landscape and Tourism is a timely addition to our increasing interest in the First World War and the places where it was fought. It will be indispensable to those who seek a deeper understanding of the conflict from previously undervalued perspectives.

Disputed Earth

Author: Peter Doyle
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910500873
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description

Trench

Author: Stephen Bull
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472808622
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Book Description
A complete guide to trench warfare on the Western Front from an authority on the subject. Even now, 100 years on from the conflict, the image of trenches stretching across Western Europe – packed with young men clinging to life in horrendous conditions – remains a powerful reminder of one of the darkest moments in human history. In this excellent study of trench warfare on the Western Front, expert Dr Stephen Bull reveals the experience of life in the trenches, from length of service and coping with death and disease, to the uniforms and equipment given to soldiers on both sides of the conflict. He reveals how the trenches were constructed, the weaponry which was developed specifically for this new form of warfare, the tactics employed in mass attacks and the increasingly adept defensive methods designed to hold ground at all cost. Packed with photographs, illustrations, annotated trench maps, documents and first-hand accounts, this compelling narrative provides a richly detailed account of World War I, providing a soldier's-eye-view of life in the ominous trenches that scarred the land.

Beneath Flanders Fields

Author: Peter Barton
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773529496
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Book Description
"The product of over twenty-five years of research, Beneath Flanders Fields illustrates the evolution of military mining, leading to its deployment in the greatest siege in military history - in the trenches of the Western Front." "In the words of the tunnellers themselves, and through previously unpublished photographs - many in colour - as well as contemporary plans and drawings, this book reveals how this most intense of battles was fought - and won. Few on the surface knew the horrific details of the tunnellers' work, yet this silent, claustrophobic conflict was a barbaric struggle that raged day and night for almost two and a half years, and one which generated mental and physical stresses often far beyond those suffered by the infantry in the trenches. On 7 June 1917 at Messines Ridge, the tension was broken with the opening of the most dramatic mine offensive in history."--BOOK JACKET.

Sniping in France, with Notes on the Scientific Training of Scouts, Observers, and Snipers

Author: Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473359449
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
This early work by Hesketh-Prichard was originally published in 1920 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Sniping in France, with Notes on the Scientific Training of Scouts, Observers, and Snipers' is a manual on the art of warfare. Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard was born on 17th November 1876 in Jhansi, India. Hesketh-Prichard's first published work was 'Tammer's Duel' in 1896, which he sold to Pall Mall Magazine for a guinea. He often wrote with his mother under the pseudonyms "H. Heron" and "E. Heron", and together they created a popular psychic detective series around a character named "Flaxman Low".

Eye-Deep in Hell

Author: John Ellis
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801839474
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
A detailed reconstruction of life and death in the trenches of World War I, describing the construction and physical and spiritual environment of the trenches and the soldiers' daily routine.