The Coldstream Guards 1914 1918 Vol Ii Illustrated Edition

Includes 27 maps “History of the four active service battalions in the Great War with details of officers’ services during the war. The Coldstream Guards had three battalions in August 1914, all three committed to the BEF: the 1st Battalion was in the 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division; the 2nd and 3rd were both in 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division. As soon as war broke out a Reserve battalion (the 4th) was formed which provided drafts of 16,860 all ranks during the course of the war. In July 1915 a further battalion was raised as the Guards Pioneer Battalion for the Guards Division which was then being formed. This battalion was numbered 4th and the reserve battalion became the 5th. In all the Regiment suffered 14,137 casualties of which the dead numbered 180 officers and 3,860 other ranks. Seven VCs were won and 36 Battle Honours awarded. Volume I takes the story to the end of the Somme offensive, volume II begins with the situation at the end of 1916 after the Somme and carries through to the return of the Regiment to London in March 1919 and the Royal Review on the 22nd of that month when the Guards Division marched past their Colonel in Chief, the King. This is a well written history in which the author gives a good and detailed account of the Regiment’s actions, often with casualty details following various battles and nominal rolls of officers present for duty. He also comments on the wider issues, some of which had nothing to do with the Coldstream, not only on higher strategy on the Western Front but also on other campaigns such as Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Italy where no Guards battalions served, and it is in discussing these wider issues that he is sometimes frankly critical, allocating blame where he feels it belongs.Print ed.

Includes 27 maps “History of the four active service battalions in the Great War with details of officers’ services during the war. The Coldstream Guards had three battalions in August 1914, all three committed to the BEF: the 1st Battalion was in the 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division; the 2nd and 3rd were both in 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division. As soon as war broke out a Reserve battalion (the 4th) was formed which provided drafts of 16,860 all ranks during the course of the war. In July 1915 a further battalion was raised as the Guards Pioneer Battalion for the Guards Division which was then being formed. This battalion was numbered 4th and the reserve battalion became the 5th. In all the Regiment suffered 14,137 casualties of which the dead numbered 180 officers and 3,860 other ranks. Seven VCs were won and 36 Battle Honours awarded. Volume I takes the story to the end of the Somme offensive, volume II begins with the situation at the end of 1916 after the Somme and carries through to the return of the Regiment to London in March 1919 and the Royal Review on the 22nd of that month when the Guards Division marched past their Colonel in Chief, the King. This is a well written history in which the author gives a good and detailed account of the Regiment’s actions, often with casualty details following various battles and nominal rolls of officers present for duty. He also comments on the wider issues, some of which had nothing to do with the Coldstream, not only on higher strategy on the Western Front but also on other campaigns such as Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Italy where no Guards battalions served, and it is in discussing these wider issues that he is sometimes frankly critical, allocating blame where he feels it belongs.Print ed.

Includes 15 maps and plans. “In 1914 the Scots Guards (Third Regiment of Foot Guards) consisted of two battalions, both in England and two week after the outbreak of war the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion was formed; this battalion did not go abroad but during the course of the war it provided drafts of 11,201 all ranks for the 1st and 2nd Battalions. The 1st Battalion went to France with the 1st (Gds) Brigade, 1st Division on 14 August and served on the Western Front throughout the war; the 2nd Battalion joined the 20th Brigade of the 7th Division when it formed in September 1914, and landed in Belgium on 7 October 1914 and also served on the Western front for the whole of the war. Losses numbered 111 Officers and 2730 Other Ranks; 30 battle honours and 5 VCs were awarded. In August 1915 the Guards Division was formed in France and both battalions were transferred to it, the 1st to the 2nd Guards Brigade, the 2nd to 3rd Guards Brigade. ...This book is set out in chronological order, and though the battalions were not in the same division during the first twelve months of the war their actions are not recorded under separate headings. Thus both battalions were in action during First Ypres and they both appear in the chapter covering that battle. Apart from war diaries, there are extracts from letters and other contributions from those who were there making up the narrative and the result is a plain, straightforward account. From time to time the list of officers present in both battalions is given as are the names of those who became casualties during any specific action.”-Print ed.