What Tommy Took To War

On the centenary of the Great War comes this poignant look at fifty objects never far from Tommy's side – official uniform, good-luck charms, phrasebooks, a sweetheart's letter, some unexpected and others more familiar. With sumptuous original photography and thoughtful text, this is life as the ordinary First World War soldier knew it. Inside front: What Tommy Took To War tells sobering, fascinating stories that bring the ordinary Tommy's experiences back to life with poignant immediacy. With striking original photography by Chris Foster and expert text from noted historian Peter Doyle, it looks in detail at fifty objects that Tommy would have had in his kit and which would have accompanied, equipped and comforted him during his wartime ordeals: official uniform, training manual, cigarettes, good-luck charms, sweethearts' letters, foreign phrasebook and myriad others. Together, these artefacts give us a serious and informative, yet touching and even occasionally amusing, picture of the ordinary soldier's experience of the First World War.

The image of the innocent British soldier (or Tommy) setting off with a spring in his step in 1914 to fight the Great War would not last long.Indeed that initial euphoria would soon give way to a deep-seated bitterness as these young men endured the horror of the First World War.In a new edition of this extraordinary book, the uncensored letters, diaries, documents and many photographs tell the story of the British soldier (nicknamed Tommy) in their own words.While there are flashes of their wit and humour, the overwhelming feeling is that of a generation who felt let down by their superiors and left to perish.There are visceral, terrifying insights into life in the trenches and agonising descriptions of the squalor and privations of war.This haunting account also looks at the aggressive drive to recruit more soldiers through the Pals Battalion or Chums Battalion. Friends from the same town or village; professional bodies, or work colleagues among others were encouraged to enlist en masse. They would fight together alongside their friends or colleagues. Many of them would sadly die together and leave communities wild with grief for a lost generation, robbed of a future having barely had a past.With a concise analysis of the British Army in the First World War, we are reminded of the terror of war, the fury, the fear and the frustration of what has been described by some as a war typified by the devastating assessment: lions led by donkeys.

The First World War has left an almost indelible mark on history, with battles such as the Somme and Passchendaele becoming watchwords for suffering unsurpassed. The dreadful fighting on the Western Front, and elsewhere in the world, remains vivid in the public imagination. Over the years dozens of books have been published dealing with the soldier's experience, the military history and the weapons and vehicles of the war, but there has been little devoted to the objects associated with those hard years in the trenches. This book (new in paperback) redresses that balance. With hundreds of carefully captioned photographs of items that would have been part of the everyday life for the British Tommy; from recruiting posters, uniforms and entrenching equipment to games, postcards and pieces of 'trench art', this book brings to life the experience of the Great War soldier through the objects with which he would have been surrounded.

Shares excerpts from the personal diaries and photographs of British soldiers to depict the daily life of a Tommy in the trenches between 1914 and 1918.

The British soldier of the Great War has been depicted in many books. Invariably, a pen picture paints him as stoic, joining the army in a wave of patriotic fervour, and destined to serve four years on the Western Front in some of the most costly battles in history. Yet often the picture is difficult to resolve for the reader. What was it like in the trenches? How did the soldier live, where did he sleep? What was it like to go over the top, and when he did, what did he carry with him? For many, the idea of trench life is hazy, and usually involves ‘drowning in mud’, in, as one writer put it, ‘the pitiless misery’ of Passchendaele. Recently, military historians have presented an alternative picture, a picture in which the hopelessness of the First World War is given new life and purpose. Remembering Tommy pays tribute to the real life British soldier of the Great War from the moment of joining up to their final homecoming. Using original artefacts in historic settings, the men and their words are brought to life. The uniforms they wore, the equipment they carried, the letters they wrote home, their personal possessions, mementos and photographs come together in a powerful tribute to the indomitable Tommy. Each one of these precious artefacts bears witness to the men who left them behind – allowing us to almost reach out and touch history.

Fritz and Tommy: Across the Barbed Wire takes a unique look at the experiences of the German soldier – in direct comparison with those of his British counterpart. While other books plot out the battles and examine the participation of the German divisions on the Westfront, there are no books that discuss the shared experience of both sides. Uniquely, Fritz and Tommy examines the commonality of frontline experience. Significantly the book is the result of a close collaboration between a British and a German military historian, both well-placed to draw comparisons and highlight differences. Drawing upon unique archives, Peter Doyle and Robin Schäfer examine the soldiers’ lives, and examine cultural and military nuances that have so far been left untouched. Mapping out the lives of the men in the trenches, ultimately it concludes that Fritz and Tommy were not that far apart, geographically, physically, or emotionally. The soldiers on both sides went to war with high ideals; they experienced horror and misery, but also comradeship/kameradschaft. And with increasing alienation from the people at home, they drew closer together, the Hun transformed into ‘good old Gerry’ by the war’s end.

Groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed, Tommy is the first history of World War I to place the British soldier who fought in the trenches centre-stage.

Tommy McGee at War is set in the Port of Fremantle during WWII and shows how teenagers and adults interact during such times of stress. The characters in the story are Tommy McGee and his gang, the Holy Smokes, who are in constant war with the opposition gang, the Stinking Head Shea Gang, led by Stinking Head Shea himself. There is also Sergeant Major John Daly, who is known to Tommy as Uncle Jack and is the founder and leader of Z Force, which is based on the mysterious and forbidding Garden Island. Finally, there is Poacher Kenworthy, who, with his reputation of being a very bad man, strikes terror in the hearts of the boys. There are also general characters filling in the story to help create the atmosphere of wartime. The story starts out by establishing the area of operations, how the Holy Smokes got their name, and the details about their meeting place, the Place, which is a large flat rock on the edge of the Swan River and is overlooked by the lookout tree, which is strategically placed on the corner of Poacher Kenworthys five-acre orchard; this enables the boys to keep tabs on the Stinking Heads and also on any ripening fruits in the orchard. There are skirmishes as the defences of the Place are tested and how, after retaliating by the Stinking Heads, a girl named Ingrid is inducted into the Holy Smokes. It is during one of their meetings at the Place that they discover that Poacher has found a way into the heavily defended Port of Fremantle. Uncle Jack, with Z Force, is having troubles when his navigator goes ack-willy (an army term for AWL) and puts in jeopardy an operation in Java to attack the Japanese-held Port of Padang. The navigator is caught by the civilian police and put into Fremantle Gaol. This sets in motion a series of events which leads to the discovery of a tunnel built by the original convicts, which leads directly to Fremantle Gaol, and with the help of the Holy Smokes, the navigator is retrieved. During this operation, they are seen, and because of a lack of communications, a battle between the home guard and the civil defence unit takes place almost on top of where they are all hiding. It would appear that it would be almost impossible to get the navigator back to Garden Island using existing transport. They decided to take him out through Fremantle Harbour, and much to the boys horror, Poacher is co-opted to lead. The rescue is successful after a great deal of effort but with the loss of Tommys dinghy, which was blown to bits by the defence guns. Some time later, Uncle Jack gathers all the Holy Smokes together and gives a very detailed description of the successful attack on Padang Harbour and how they had escaped back to Australia, hotly pursued by the Japanese all the way down the coast of Sumatra, through the Sunda Strait, and back to Broome, which had just been bombed by the Japanese. Finally, Tommy is presented with a dinghy which had been captured from a Japanese destroyer.