eBooks de I Guerra Mundial y entreguerras, página 2 de 23

The poetry of the First World War has determined our perception of the war itself. This volume features poetry drawn from old newspapers and journals, trench and hospital magazines, individual volumes of verse, gift books, postcards, and a manuscript magazine put together by conscientious objectors.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, over 200,000 prisoners of war of many nationalities were brought to Britain to be held in the infamous prison hulks, land prisons and parole depots. Many prisoners languished in captivity for over eleven years. This book tells the story of these men and women. Hell Upon Water examines how prisoners of war were acquired by the British, how they were fed, clothed and accommodated by the Transport Board of the Admiralty. The larger prisons such as Dartmoor, Portchester Castle and Norman Cross are described in detail, alongside the smaller lesser known depots of Forton, Stapleton, and Mill Bay. It compares the treatment of French prisoners with that of Britons in France, and also tells the stories of officers who fell in love with local girls and married, and those who fought to escape.

The First World War began in East Africa in August 1914 and did not end until 13 November 1918. In its scale and impact, it was the largest conflict yet to take place on African soil. Four empires and their subject peoples were engaged in a conflict that ranged from modern Kenya in the north to Mozambique in the south. The campaign combined heroic human endeavour and terrible suffering, set in some of the most difficult terrain in the world. The troops had to cope with extremes that ranged from arid deserts to tropical jungles and formidable mountains, and almost always on inadequate rations. Yet the East African campaign has languished in undeserved obscurity over the years, with many people only vaguely aware of its course of events. Indeed, Humphrey Bogarts famous film, The African Queen, inspired by an episode of the campaign, often provides its only lasting image. The Forgotten Front is the first full-scale history of this neglected campaign. Ross Anderson details the fighting and the strategic and political background to the war and the differing viewpoints of the principal protagonists.

In August 1914 the German main attack was conducted by the 2nd Army. It had the missions of taking the vital fortresses of Liege and Namur, and then defeating the Anglo- French-Belgian forces in the open plains of northern Belgium. The German attack on the Belgian fortress at Liege from 5 to 16 August 1914 had tremendous political and military importance, and yet there has never been a complete account of the siege. The German and Belgian sources are fragmentary and biased. The short descriptions in English are general, use a few Belgian sources and are filled with inaccuracies. Making use of both German and Belgian sources, and supported by tactical maps, this book for the first time describes and evaluates the construction of the fortress, its military purpose, the German plan and the conduct of the attack. Previous accounts emphasise the importance of the huge German Big Bertha cannon, to the virtual exclusion of everything else; Ten Days in August shows that the effect of this gun was a myth, and reveals how the Germans really took the fortress and thus set the scene for perhaps the most destructive conflict in history.

The First World War is famous for the unprecedented loss of life on a global scale; it was a conflict that affected the world forever. However, it wasnt only in terms of bloodshed that the war rocked the nation: it also massively impacted the industrial integrity of Britain. This was a war not just of fighting, but of technological and industrial advances. All areas of industry, from aviation to food production, leapt ahead in terms of development over the four-year period: from the Wright Brothers in 1903 to the Sopwith Camel in 1917, and from the first motorcars to the tank within twenty years. On a social level, working Britain experienced change as well: with the men at war, it fell to the women of the country to keep the factories going, challenging preconceptions as they did. Here Anthony Burton shows how the First World War produced fundamental changes in British society.

Ulster, Ireland and the Somme tells the story of the relationship between Ulster, Ireland and the Somme area of northern France, which has now endured for nearly a century. The 1916 Battle of the Somme is a key event in Irish memory of the Great War, and thousands of people from both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic visit the area each year, but the history of the landscape and the memorials they see has never been told in any detail until now.

Conventional histories of the Battles of Mons and Le Cateau describe how, although the British were massively outnumbered, precise and rapid rifle fire mowed down rows of German troops: the staggering casualties inflicted made both British victories, and set the stage for the Battle of the Marne. But neither encounter has ever been described in English from the German point of view. Using German tactics manuals and regimental histories, Terence Zuber re-examines the battles at Mons and Le Cateau, subjecting British tactics to a critique that goes beyond admiration for rapid rifle fire and presenting new and startling perspectives, showing how the Germans employed a high degree of tactical sophistication in conducting combined-arms operations. The odds were, in fact, even, and German casualties never reached the levels described in the standard histories. The Mons Myth is the first history of these battles to take this approach in ninety years, and completely changes our understanding of what actually happened.

In the early days of the First World War, Lord Kitchener made his famous appeal for volunteers to join the New Army. Men flocked to recruiting offices to enlist, and on some days tens of thousands of potential soldiers responded to his call. Men had to be at least eighteen years old to join up, and nineteen to serve overseas, but in the flurry of activity many younger boys came to enlist: some were only thirteen or fourteen. Many were turned away, but a lot were illegally conscripted, and as many as 250,000 underage boys found themselves fighting for King and Country in the First World War. Over half would never return home. In this groundbreaking new book, John Oakes - whose own father-in-law walked out of the Welsh valleys to join the Royal Navy at the age of fourteen - delves into the complex history of Britains youngest Great War recruits. Focusing on the recruitment crisis of 1914, he reveals why boys joined up, what their experiences were and how they survived to endure a lifetime of memories. For those who didnt, an unknown grave awaited, and in some cases their mothers never knew what had become of their children.

From the heat and dust of the Dardanelles to the mud of the Western Front, Corporal Angus Mackay had one constant companion, his diary. He wrote of the battles and campaigns he fought in, names that would go down in history: Gallipoli, the Somme, Ypres and Arras. Serving in the 1st/5th Battalion (Queens Edinburgh Rifles) Royal Scots and later the 88th Brigade Machine Gun Corps, he left a record of one mans extraordinary and tragic war. In Somewhere in Blood Soaked France, Alasdair Sutherland reveals this previously unpublished account of the First World War, complete with historical context, orders of battle and extracts from official war diaries. This rare source it was an offence to keep a record in case of capture offers a stirring insight into the bravery of Mackay and his companions, who were not afraid to die for their country. If I go under it will be in a good cause, so roll on the adventure.

On Easter Monday, between 1,000 and 1,500 Irish Volunteers and members of the Irish Citizen Army seized the General Post Office and other key locations in Dublin. The intention of their leaders, including Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, was to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent thirty-two county Irish republic. For a week battle raged in the Irish capital until the Rising collapsed. The rebel leaders were executed soon afterwards, though in death their ideals quickly triumphed.lluminating every aspect of that fateful Easter week, The Easter Rising is based on an impressive range of original sources. It has been fully revised, expanded and updated in the light of a wealth of new material and extensive use has been made of almost 2,000 witness statements that the Bureau of Military History in Dublin gathered from participants in the Rising. The result is a vivid depiction of the personalities and actions not just of the leaders on both sides but the rank and file and civilians as well. The book brings the reader closer to the events of 1916 than has previously been possible and provides an exceptional account of a city at war.

The siege of Kut is a story of blunders, sacrifice, imprisonment and escape. The allied campaign in Mesopotamia began in 1914 as a relatively simple operation to secure the oilfields in the Shatt-al-Arab delta and Basra area. Initially it was a great success, but as the army pressed towards Baghdad its poor logistic support, training, equipment and command left it isolated and besieged by the Turks. By 1916 the army had not been relieved, and on 29 April 1916, the British Army suffered one of the worst defeats in its military history. Major-General Sir Charles Townshend surrendered his allied force to the Turks in the Mesopotamian (now Iraq) town of Kut-al-Amara. Over 13,000 troops, British and Indian, went into captivity; many would not survive their incarceration.In Kut 1916, Colonel Crowley recounts this dramatic tale and its terrible aftermath.

Approaching World War I as an adventure with the high spirits of many of his age and background, Sir Morgan Crofton soon discovered the combination of terror and tedium afforded by static warfare in the machine-gun age. His diary describes the bewildering pace of technological change as new weapons like gas and hand grenades entered the fray.

Una obra imprescindible que, con elegancia y rigor histórico, redefine nuestra visión del mundo, a menudo idealizado, previo a la Primera Guerra Mundial.La torre del orgullo se ha constituido como la obra historica de referencia sobre los años previos al estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial, un periodo que, lejos de la belleza que sugiere su denominacion como Epoca Dorada, o Belle Epoque, supuso la eclosion de profundos conflictos y tensiones que se habian ido gestando a lo largo de las decadas anteriores. Y es que ha sido una mirada nostalgica la que ha condicionado nuestra percepcion de aquellos tiempos: la vida pacifica y segura no era tan comun, y mientras proliferaban las brillantes fiestas del naciente ballet ruso, estallaba el escandalo del caso Dreyfus y crecia el descontento obrero. Barbara W. Tuchman, doblemente galardonada con el Premio Pulitzer y experta en la Gran Guerra, revela en esta obra la compleja realidad historica que provoco un conflicto que dividio aquella epoca de la nuestra, que disolvio cosmovisiones y que hirio irremediablemente al conjunto de la sociedad.

En contra del mito asentado, España no fue neutral durantela Primera Guerra Mundial. Al contrario, fue económicamente beligerante desde agosto de 1914 y, por tanto, se convirtióen un escenario más del conflicto belico con un papel importante, y en algunos momentos hasta decisivo. Por ello, sus comunicaciones fueron interceptadas por los alemanesy los aliados, su produccion y redes de transporte controladas, sus costas y aguas territoriales se convirtieron en escenario de la lucha submarina, sus medios de prensase vendieron a uno y otro bando, y su territorio resulto invadido por centenares de agentes dedicados al espionajey al contraespionaje.Mientras tanto, a la Corona y a los sucesivos gobiernos españoles les preocupaba sobre todo la supervivencia del regimen, manteniendo la apariencia de neutralidad y soñando con que Alfonso XIII pudiera convertirse en el gran mediadorde la paz. La España oficial construyo su propio mito sobreel papel que habia jugado en la Gran Guerra, pero la realidad no tenia nada que ver con un supuesto gran beneficio parasu prestigio internacional. España y los españoles ganaron poco o nada con la guerra y, a cambio, se acentuarontodos los conflictos internos.El presente libro, fruto de mas de una decada de investigaciones, expone con todo detalle y abundante documentacion lo ocurrido en España durante los años de la Gran Guerra, el papel del Rey, los gobernantes y las elites economicas y sociales; quien se enriquecio con la guerra mientras la mayoria de los españoles sufrian el hambrey restricciones de todo tipo; los intereses en España de los paises en guerra, principalmente Alemania, Gran Bretaña, Francia e Italia; la lucha sorda de los servicios secretos que llego a convertir a Barcelona y Madrid en los mayores centros de espionaje del mundo. En definitiva, un libro deslumbrante por lo que aporta y fascinante por lo que narra que significara, sin duda, un antes y un despues en los estudios sobreel papel de España en la Primera Guerra Mundial.

El mundo de ayer es uno de los más conmovedores y atractivos testimonios de nuestro pasado reciente, escrito además con mano maestra por un europeo empapado de civilización y nostalgia por un mundo, el suyo, que se iba desintegrando a pasos agigantados. Escritor extraordinariamente popular y testigo de excepcion de los cambios que convulsionaron la Europa del siglo XX entre las dos guerras mundiales, Zweig recuerda, desposeido y en tierra extraña-en unas circunstancias personales de insospechado dramatismo-, los momentos fundamentales de su vida, paralela en mucho a la desmembracion de aquella Europa central que se queria mas libre y segura, al abrigo de la locura y la tormenta. El resultado es un libro capital, uno de los mejores de Zweig y referencia inexcusable para entender los desvarios de un siglo devastador."Gran radiografia de la cultura europea moderna."Rafael Argullol, El Pais"El libro prende y no suelta, quiza porque uno lo asume como la memoria de nuestro pasado cercano exprimida por la sensibilidad de un gran escritor que lo vivio con absoluta intensidad."Robert Saladrigas, La Vanguardia

February 1912: Harry Pennell and his Terra Nova shipmates brave storms and ice to bring supplies to Antarctica. They hope to celebrate Captain Scotts conquest of the South Pole, but are forced by ice to return north before Scotts party returns. In New Zealand a reporter tells them that Roald Amundsen reached the Pole first. Returning to Antarctica in early 1913, they learn that Scotts party reached the Pole but died on the ice shelf. Back in Britain memorial services, medal ceremonies, weddings and resumed careers are abruptly interrupted by the First World War. Fit and able men, Scotts Antarctics trade one adventure for another. By 1919 Scotts Antarctics have fought at Antwerp, the Western Front, Gallipoli, in the Channel, at Jutland and in Arctic Russia. They serve on horseback, in trenches, on battleships and hospital ships, in armoured cars and flimsy aircraft; their brothers-in-arms include a prime ministers son and poet Rupert Brooke. As in Antarctica, life is challenging and dangerous. As on the ice, not all survive.

The Clare War Dead is a comprehensive record of those men from County Clare who died during the Great War, and is the next instalment in this prolific authors series on the subject. His tireless research has been undertaken to honour those who died in service, and to shine a light on an aspect of Irish history which has for too long gone unexamined and unrecognised. Such a list, combined as it is with intricate data and previously unpublished correspondence and photographs, is an essential addition to any local historian or military enthusiasts bookshelf. This is Tom Burnells seventh book in this series, following on from the success of similar titles on Waterford, Offaly, Wexford, Wicklow, Tipperary and Carlow.

Following on from the success of the War Dead series in counties Tipperary, Wexford, Wicklow ,and Offaly, Tom Burnell now turns his attention to County Carlow and the unfortunate soldiers from this area who lost their lived during the First World War. After tireless research Tom Burnell has put together a comprehensive record of the soldiers, officers, sailors, airmen and nursing sisters, who listed their next of kin as being from Carlow. The men and women honoured in The Carlow War Dead died in the service of the British Army, the Australian Army, the New Zealand Army, the American Army, the Indian Army, the Canadian Army, the South African Army, the Royal Navy or the British Mercantile Marine. Such a list, combined with intricate data and never-before-seen correspondence and photographs, is an essential addition to any local historian or military enthusiasts bookshelf.

It was the First World Wars largest seaborne invasion and the Irish were at the forefront. Recruited in Ireland, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were ordered to spearhead the invasion of Gallipoli in Turkey. Deadlocked in trench warfare on the Western Front, the British High Command hoped the assault would Germanys ally out of the war. Using letters and photographs, this book tells the story of the Dubs officers and men called from an idyllic posting in India to be billeted on the civilian population in England. They then set off on what was presented as a great adventure to win glory and capture Constantinople. The book also gives the story of the Turkish defenders and the locality being invaded. Accompanied by the Royal Munster Fusiliers, packed aboard the SS River Clyde, the Dubs landed from ships boats on the fiercely defended beach at Sedd-el-Bahr. The song The Foggy Dew says, "It were better to die beneath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sedd-el-Bahr." This book tells the story of the forgotten Irishmen who died beneath a Turkish sky in what was Irelands D-Day.

Formed in 1868, and already possessors of a proud history by the outbreak of the First World War, the men of the 9th (Glasgow Highland) Battalion, The Highland Light Infantry, were right at the heart of the cataclysmic events that unfolded between 1914 and 1918 on the Western Front.One of the first Territorial units to be rushed to France in 1914, they participated in almost all the major British battles, including the Somme in 1916 and Ypres in 1917. Altogether, around 4,500 men served with the Glasgow Highlanders in the First World War. The composition of the Glasgow Highlanders changed dramatically over five years of fighting, as the original Territorial members were replaced. Despite this change, the ethos of the battalion, built up over half a century of peace and many months of warfare, survived.Alec Weir has steeped himself in the proud history of the Glasgow Highlanders in the First World War. His accessible, informal style, employing many first hand accounts, and his rigorous research combine here to produce a fascinating and detailed account of how ordinary men from all walks of life confronted and mastered the hellish conditions of trench warfare.