Walking Arras

Download or read book Walking Arras written by Paul Reed and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2007-07-19 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The historic background and present-day battleground of a great—but often overlooked—battle fought by the British Expeditionary Force in World War I. Walking Arras marks the final volume in a trilogy of walking books about the British sector of the Western Front, following Walking the Somme and Walking the Salient. Paul Reed once more takes us over paths trodden by men who were asked to make a huge and, for all too many, the ultimate sacrifice. The Battle of Arras falls between the Somme and Third Ypres; it marked the first British attempt to storm the Hindenburg Line defenses, and the first use of lessons learned from the events of 1916. But it remains a forgotten part of the Western Front. It also remains one of the great killing battles of the Great War, with such a high fatal casualty rate that a soldier’s chances of surviving Arras were much slimmer than even the Somme or Passchendaele. Most soldiers who served in the Great War served at Arras at some point; it was a name very much in the consciousness of the survivors of the Great War. Ninety years later, while there has been development at Arras, it is still an impressive battlefield and one worthy of the attention of any Great War enthusiast. This book will give a lead in seeing the ground connected with the fighting in 1917. Making a slight departure from the style of the previous two walking books, the chapters look at the historical background of an area and then separately describe a walk; with supplementary notes about the associated cemeteries in that region.

Download or read book Cambrai written by Jack Horsfall and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cambrai is most well known for the tank battle which took place in 1917. Although initially successful it soon became disastrous, and, as on other occasions throughout the War, the area changed hands many times. Illustrated with then and now pictures, this book unravels the history of the area for those either visiting or exploring it from their armchairs.

Download or read book St Quentin written by Philip Guest and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2000-09-12 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the First World War, how many thousands of British families would have proud or bitter reason to remember the name St Quentin? At least eight Divisions, 23 Brigades, 74 Battalions an enormous number of fighting men, a weight of experience, courage, defeat and victory, all to be traced through these fields and villages round the city. There is much to honour here: exhausted British troops marching south in the Retreat from Mons in August 1914, resistance attacks on the Hindenburg Line in 1917, desperate feats of arms in the final German onslaught in the Spring of 1918. Many impressive individual and collective achievements, captured guns, Victoria Crosses richly earned. The ancient city itself suffered too - bombardment by French and British artillery, its citizens subjected and exploited by the occupying German forces, then evacuated ahead of the withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line - before its final liberation in October 1918. The book gives details of positions, redoubts, attacks, lines of advance and retreat, with many illustrations provided from local sources. Most of the positions described can still be traced and the sites of some epic events located.

Download or read book The Somme 1916 written by David O'Mara and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a few notable exceptions, the French efforts on the Somme have been largely missing or minimized in British accounts of the Battle of the Somme. And yet they held this sector of the Front from the outbreak of the war until well into 1915 and, indeed, in parts into 1916. It does not hurt to be reminded that the French army suffered some 200,000 casualties in the 1916 offensive.David OMaras book provides an outline narrative describing the arrival of the war on the Somme and some of the notable and quite fierce actions that took place that autumn and, indeed, into December of 1914. Extensive mine warfare was a feature of 1915 and beyond on the Somme; for example under Redan Ridge and before Dompierre and Fay. The French limited offensive at Serre in June 1915 is reasonably well known, but there was fighting elsewhere for example the Germans launched a short, sharp, limited attack at Frise in January 1916, part of the diversionary action before the Germans launched their ill-fated offensive at Verdun.The book covers the Somme front from Gommecourt, north of the Somme, to Chaulnes, at the southern end of the battle zone of 1916. The reader is taken around key points in various tours. For many British visitors the battlefields south of the Somme will be a revelation; there is much to see, both of cemeteries and memorials, but also substantial traces of the fighting remain on the ground, some of which is accessible to the public.It has always been something of a disgrace that there is so little available, even in French, to educate the public in an accessible written form about the substantial effort made by Frances army on the Somme; this book and subsequent, more detailed volumes to be published in the coming years will go some way to rectify this. British visitors should be fascinated by the story of these forgotten men of France and the largely unknown part of the Somme battlefield.

Download or read book Hitler's Atlantic Wall written by Paul Williams and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This well-illustrated book describes the massive effort that the occupying Nazi forces put into the construction of the Eastern section of the Atlantic Wall. While the D-Day invasion was unaffected by the fortifications in this area, they still posed a significant threat. This came from the mighty gun batteries (such as Batteries Todt and Lindemann) that threatened Channel shipping and the South Coast of England, and, while isolated from the main Allied advance, the Festung ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk were denied to Allied use. This was of major strategic significance as the lines of supply were becoming ever longer and more vulnerable.Using rare archive material, this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey along the coast that Hitler was wrongly convinced would be the site of the Allied landings. Hitler's Atlantic Wall - Pas de Calais tells the history of how and why the giant batteries were built, the origins of their weaponry and the ingenious engineering and military operations that defeated them finally.

Download or read book Retreat of I Corps 1914 written by Jerry Murland and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 23 August 1914 it was only the two divisions of General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps that were directly engaged with the German First Army along the line of the Mons-Conde Canal. As the British Expeditionary Force withdrew from Mons and bivouacked around Bavay on 25 August, Sir John French and his GHQ advisors _ unsure of the condition of the routes through the Fort de Mormal - ordered the British Expeditionary Force to continue their retirement the next day and to avoid the 35 square miles of forest roads. Consequently II Corps used the roads to the west of the Fort de Mormal and Sir Douglas Haig's I Corps those to the east _ with the intention that the four divisions should meet again at Le Cateau. It was an intention that was ambushed by circumstance as I Corps encountered units of the German 7th Division at Landrecies on 25/26 August. Unsure of the weight of the German attack at Landrecies, Douglas Haig hurriedly left for Grand Fayt and ordered his two divisions to immediately begin their retirement along a route that would take them west of Le Cateau. It was this decision that kept the by now five divisions of the BEF apart until 1 September and is the subject of this book. I Corps was now coming under attack from the German Second Army and the resulting rearguard actions that Haig's men were involved in are covered in this volume:

Download or read book Mametz Wood written by Michael Renshaw and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2012-02-20 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle for Mametz Wood is normally associated with the endeavors of the 38th Welsh Division and was the first of those great battles to secure possession of the woodlands of the Somme. The author looks at events after the 1st July, but also relates the story of the 17th Northern Division who attacked the quadrangle, a defensive system guarding the western approaches to the wood. Also related is the demise of both generals commanding these divisions who were sent home.