History Of The Twentieth Light Division

The last of Kitchener s Second New Army divisions the 20th was, apart from the 36th Ulster and 38th Welsh, also the last division to have a title. It was formed in September 1914 and , as its title suggests, it was composed of battalions of Rifle and Light Infantry regiments, its brigades were numbered 59th, 60th and 61st. In January 1915 one of the battalions, 11th DLI, became the divisional pioneer battalion and its place in 61st Brigade was taken by 12th King s (Liverpool), an army troops battalion attached to the division. The first GOC was Sir E.O.F Hamilton, a sixty year old who had retired in April 1914 and whose last appointment had been commanding troops in Jersey and Guernsey. He was replaced within a month and does not rate a mention in the book, his successor was a New Zealand officer R.H Davies; in all the division was to have six GOCs. The division moved to France in July 1915 and in the two weeks prior to embarkation all three brigade commanders were replaced, probably on grounds of age - the youngest was 58. Its first major action was a subsidiary attack in support of the Loos offensive, an action that brought the first of its six VCs to Lieut G.A. Maling RAMC of 61st Field Ambulance. During the first half of 1916 the division was in the Ypres salient where it played a supporting role during the German attack on the Canadians at Mount Sorrel; at the end of July it moved down to the Somme where it remained till March 1917, taking part in several of the battles, particularly Guillemont where the divisional memorial can be seen. It then moved back north for the Third Ypres offensive in which it suffered 4,600 casualties, distinguishing itself in the capture of Langemark where another divisional memorial located. It was at Cambrai and during the German offensive of 1918 it fought a rearguard action, continuously in action for twelve days. That it was a good division is testified by the fact that the Earl of Cavan specifically asked for it as GOC the newly formed XIV Corps, and after the Somme he made a point of asking the Army commander and C in C for not to transfer the division if they can help it. In his introduction to this history he says: The 20th Division never failed me, and never failed its neighbours during the time I had the honour to of commanding the XIVth Corps. The total casualty list numbered 35,470. This history is a straightforward account, devoid of heroics or emotive descriptions. Operations are adequately described, including minor and individual actions, and changes in senior commanders and staff are noted. There are useful maps to support the narrative, a good index but no appendices giving such relevant reference material as honours and awards, casualty summaries and staff lists.

No conflict of the Great War excites stronger emotions than the war in Flanders in the autumn of 1917, and no name better encapsulates the horror and apparent futility of the Western Front than Passchendaele. By its end there had been 275,000 Allied and 200,000 German casualties. Yet the territorial gains made by the Allies in four desperate months were won back by Germany in only three days the following March. The devastation at Passchendaele, the authors argue, was neither inevitable nor inescapable; perhaps it was not necessary at all. Using a substantial archive of official and private records, much of which has never been previously consulted, Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior provide the fullest account of the campaign ever published. The book examines the political dimension at a level which has hitherto been absent from accounts of "Third Ypres." It establishes what did occur, the options for alternative action, and the fundamental responsibility for the carnage. Prior and Wilson consider the shifting ambitions and stratagems of the high command, examine the logistics of war, and assess what the available manpower, weaponry, technology, and intelligence could realistically have hoped to achieve. And, most powerfully of all, they explore the experience of the soldiers in the light—whether they knew it or not—of what would never be accomplished.

Numbering over five million men, Britain's army in the First World War was the biggest in the country's history. Remarkably, nearly half those men who served in it were volunteers. 2,466,719 men enlisted between August 1914 and December 1915, many in response to the appeals of the Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. How did Britain succeed in creating a mass army, almost from scratch, in the middle of a major war ? What compelled so many men to volunteer ' and what happened to them once they had taken the King's shilling ? Peter Simkins describes how Kitchener's New Armies were raised and reviews the main political, economic and social effects of the recruiting campaign. He examines the experiences and impressions of the officers and men who made up the New Armies. As well as analysing their motives for enlisting, he explores how they were fed, housed, equipped and trained before they set off for active service abroad. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, ranging from government papers to the diaries and letters of individual soldiers, he questions long-held assumptions about the 'rush to the colours' and the nature of patriotism in 1914. The book will be of interest not only to those studying social, political and economic history, but also to general readers who wish to know more about the story of Britain's citizen soldiers in the Great War.

By Christmas 1914, the wild wave of enthusiasm that had sent men flocking to join up a few months earlier began to tail off, and though the original British Expeditionary Force had suffered 90 percent casualties, most people, particularly the soldiers themselves, still believed that 1915 would see the breaking of the deadlock. But their hopes were shattered on the bloody battlefields of Neuve Chapelle, Ypres, Loos, and far away on the shores of Gallipoli. Lyn Macdonald's story of 1915 is stark, brutal, frank, sometimes painfully funny, always human. Never before has any writer collected so many firsthand accounts of the experiences of ordinary soldiers, through diaries, letters, and interviews with survivors—and it is the dogged heroism and sardonic humor of the soldiers that shine through the pages of this epic narrative. 1915 is a uniquely compelling blend of military history and poignant memories of the fighters who survived the ordeal.

Pioneer battalions, created as an expedient in 1914, were a new concept in the British Army. Intended to provide the Royal Engineers, with skilled labour and to relieve the infantry from some of its non-combatant duties, Pioneers became the work horses of the Expedentiary Forces. The Coldstream Guards and over three dozen Country regiments, each created at least one pioneer battalion. Several New Army battalions were raised specifically as Pioneers, while others were converted Territorials or Kitchener units formed originally as conventional infantry. Adopting a badge of a cross rifle and pick, these battalions wired, dug and reverted in all weathers and in all terrain. On many occasions they abandoned their working tools and fought alongside the infantry in repelling enemy attacks. In their efforts to stem the German offensives of 1918, several Pioneer units fought themselves to virtual annihilation. Often confused with the Pioneer Corps of the Second World War, the work of the Pioneer battalions has been largely ignored or misunderstood. Far from being the units of the ages and inform, these sixty-eight battalions played a major role in the Allied victory. Pioneer Battalions in the Great War traces the reasons behind the creation of these units, the work they performed and the dramatic transitions many of them had to undergo. It also examines how and why Pioneers have never received the recognition they deserve.

'Hers is a formidable achievement.' - Sebastian Faulks This is the account of the battle, the retreat and the stand at Amiens which saved the city, secured the line, and caused Ludendorff to call off his offensive in the spring of 1918. But mostly it is the story of the men who took part: the Commanders, the weary, resolute British Tommies, the exultant Germans, the French poilus rushed up to stiffen the defence and the still unblooded Doughboys from the U.S.