Western Front: Difference between revisions

From FIBIwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Maureene (talk | contribs)
Maureene (talk | contribs)
Line 108: Line 108:
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46283 ''The Motor-Bus in War: Being the Impressions of an A.S.C. Officer during Two and a Half 
Years at the Front''] by A. M. Beatson (Temp. Lieut. A.S.C.) 1918 Gutenberg.org. The author  was an Army Service Corps officer in the Mechanical Transport Supply Column of an Indian Cavalry Division.  Elsewhere, the ASC company is recorded as being the 1st Indian Cavalry Division Supply Column which was 89 Coy ASC.<ref>Larkin, Roy. [http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?48009-The-Motor-Bus-in-War-A-M-Beatson-1918&p=434811#post434811 The Motor-Bus in War. A.M.Beatson , 1918] ''Historic Military Vehicle Forum''  8 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2016.</ref>
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46283 ''The Motor-Bus in War: Being the Impressions of an A.S.C. Officer during Two and a Half 
Years at the Front''] by A. M. Beatson (Temp. Lieut. A.S.C.) 1918 Gutenberg.org. The author  was an Army Service Corps officer in the Mechanical Transport Supply Column of an Indian Cavalry Division.  Elsewhere, the ASC company is recorded as being the 1st Indian Cavalry Division Supply Column which was 89 Coy ASC.<ref>Larkin, Roy. [http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?48009-The-Motor-Bus-in-War-A-M-Beatson-1918&p=434811#post434811 The Motor-Bus in War. A.M.Beatson , 1918] ''Historic Military Vehicle Forum''  8 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2016.</ref>
*[https://archive.org/details/advdespatchrider00watsuoft ''Adventures of a Despatch Rider''] by Captain WHL Watson, 1915 Archive.org
*[https://archive.org/details/advdespatchrider00watsuoft ''Adventures of a Despatch Rider''] by Captain WHL Watson, 1915 Archive.org
:Captain WHL Watson was also the author of ''Tales of a Gaspipe Officer'' by Despatch Rider. ‘Military cyclists are popularly known as Gaspipe Cavalry’ ''Blackwood’s Magazine'' Nos 198, 199 and 201, December 1915-March 1916, and January 1917  Archive.org. [https://archive.org/stream/blackwoodsmagazi198edinuoft#page/794/mode/2up/ Page 795], [https://archive.org/stream/blackwoodsmagazi199edinuoft#page/76/mode/2up page 76], [https://archive.org/stream/blackwoodsmagazi199edinuoft#page/246/mode/2up page 246], [https://archive.org/stream/blackwoodsmagazi199edinuoft#page/360/mode/2up page 360], [https://archive.org/stream/blackwoodsmagazi201edinuoft#page/44/mode/2up/ page 45].
:[https://archive.org/details/daredevilofarmye00aust ''The Daredevil of the Army : Experiences as a "Buzzer" and Despatch Rider''] by Captain A P Corcoran 1918 Archive.org
:[https://archive.org/details/daredevilofarmye00aust ''The Daredevil of the Army : Experiences as a "Buzzer" and Despatch Rider''] by Captain A P Corcoran 1918 Archive.org
*[https://archive.org/details/pushedreturnpush00nich ''Pushed and the Return Push''] by Quex    [G H Nichols,  RFA] 1919 Archive.org
*[https://archive.org/details/pushedreturnpush00nich ''Pushed and the Return Push''] by Quex    [G H Nichols,  RFA] 1919 Archive.org

Revision as of 04:08, 7 December 2016

As the First World War progressed more troops were needed for the Western Front. To meet this demand Expeditionary Force A from India was sent to reinforce the British Troops – particularly in France.[1]

Many men who fell during these campaigns are honoured by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Amongst these are 4,742 soldiers from India whose names are recorded on the Neuve Chapelle Memorial in France. In 1964 these names were expanded to also commemorate 210 servicemen of India whose graves at Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery in East Germany could not be maintained.

Related articles

War Diaries

Included in the many records held at the National Archives Kew is the series WO 95 - War Office: First World War and Army of Occupation War Diaries.

Some War Diaries, many of which are handwritten, have been digitised and are available (on a pay basis) online from various sources: from the National Archives through the Discovery catalogue[2], from Naval and Military Archive[3], part of Naval & Military Press, which also publishes print and DVD-ROM versions, and through Ancestry which contains the database "UK, WWI War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany), 1914-1920"[4] (and another database for Gallipoli). The Ancestry database also contains War Diaries for some Indian, Australian, New Zealand, and other regiments.

Also see External links below.

The Australian War Memorial website[5] contains Australian and New Zealand Army War diaries (available for free).

Recommended reading

Recommended by Peter Moore on the Military reading list
"Sepoy in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914-15 by Gordon Corrigan, Kent, UK; first edition. 1999; 16 plates; 9 maps; hardcover; 274 pp. An excellent, updated account of the sufferings and heroism of the Indian regiments sent to France in the bitterest of winters clad only in tropical uniforms until transferred to the Mesopotamian Campaign in 1915. The author, a retired Major (late Royal Gurkha Rifles and ex-10GR), 1998), has an authentic feel for the old Indian Army and the times".

“Well worth tracking a copy, both as a fascinating book and a display of how good military history should be written.“[6]

For an interview with the author Gordon Corrigan, see below.

Indian treacle (opium)

On the Western Front, Sikh troops were supplied with Indian treacle, an euphemism for opium, which was part of their ration.[7]

External links

Video and transcript: "Illiterate but Literary: The Censored Correspondence of Indian Soldiers in France, 1914-18" by Dr David Omissi, recorded on 2 November 2015 nam.ac.uk, including YouTube video.
See Historical books online, below.
Neuve Chapelle Memorial ww1cemeteries.com

Maps

  • "How to read a Trench Map" by Howard Anderson, October 2008 Western Front Association.
  • Western Front Maps from McMaster University, Canada. Text Search using Place Name or Trench Name.
  • National Library of Scotland WW1 Trench Maps. View maps overlaid on a modern map. Allows you to swap between trench map and modern map. On the left hand side you will see a slider to change the transparency between the trench map and the underlying modern map.
  • Great War British Trench Map Coordinates Converter muninn-project.org. Allows you to enter specific map references.
  • The National Archives series WO 153 "War Office: War of 1914-1918: Maps and Plans" is another source of maps, although the maps themselves do not appear to be available online. The catalogue may be searched through Discovery. The maps and plans in this series were collected from various sources, mainly for use by the Official War Historians, and as such were originally held in the Cabinet Office Historical Section. Many were extracted from regimental war diaries. More details, Western Front maps.

Historical books online

Volume of 14 Maps National Library of Australia, with a description in the catalogue entry.
All's Fair : the Story of the British Secret Service Behind the German Lines by Captain Henry Landau 1934 Archive.org. Henry Landau Wikipedia.
Captain WHL Watson was also the author of Tales of a Gaspipe Officer by Despatch Rider. ‘Military cyclists are popularly known as Gaspipe Cavalry’ Blackwood’s Magazine Nos 198, 199 and 201, December 1915-March 1916, and January 1917 Archive.org. Page 795, page 76, page 246, page 360, page 45.
The Daredevil of the Army : Experiences as a "Buzzer" and Despatch Rider by Captain A P Corcoran 1918 Archive.org
Forty Years With Dogs by E H Richardson 1935. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. "A Biography of E H Richardson" k9history.com, probably based on the autobiography.

Fiction

  • Half-novel, half-autobiography: The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre, 1916 by Frederic Manning 1929. Also published as Her Privates We. Pdf download of a transcription, University of Sydney Digital Collection. Considered “as being true to the actual experience of modern warfare in ways that nothing else had managed to be”. [10]
  • Peter Jackson, Cigar Merchant : a Romance of Married Life by Gilbert Frankau Seventh edition 1920. Archive.org. This book "is semi-autobiographical and gives an excellent feel for life as a Kitchener volunteer officer in both the infantry and then the RFA 1914-16… it was also one of the first books to reveal to the general public what Shell Shock was all about. A classic".[11]
  • Novels by Sapper, the non de plume of Herman Cyril McNeile , a writer of war stories that were hailed as realistic revelations of the truth about war. [12] He was the author of the later Bulldog Drummond series. Archive.org.
Men, Women and Guns 1916. Also available in an audio edition.
Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R. E. 1916
The Lieutenant and Others 1916
No Man's Land 1917
  • A novel: Across The Black Waters by Mulk Raj Anand. Reprint edition, possibly 1955, originally published 1940. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. A novel about Indian (Punjabi) soldiers who have crossed the black waters, against all the advice of their forefathers that calamity would befall anyone who went overseas, to join the British and their allies on the Western Front. The author was born in Peshawar in 1905, so was too young for first-hand experience of the war, but the book has a very authentic feel, suggesting that he not only did his research in books but also listened to the stories of older men who came back. He grew up in military cantonments, according to the introduction.[13] Review by Randeep Wadehra, August 6, 2000 The Tribune
  • A novel: The Ravi Lancers by John Masters 1972. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library. (Only one person at a time is able to borrow, so you may need to wait for the book to be returned. First you must register) . An Indian cavalry regiment is sent to France at the outbreak of the First World War.
  • A novel: Hira Singh: When India Came to Fight in Flanders by Talbot Mundy. Archive.org. Published in Britain as Hira Singh's Tale: When India Came to Fight in Flanders. Serialized in Adventure magazine, October 18 - December 3, 1917. Published in book form 1918. A fictional account of a cavalry regiment taken prisoners of war by the Germans.
  • A romantic novel: The Nurse's Story : In Which Reality Meets Romance by Adele Bleneau 1915 Archive.org. The hero of this romantic novel is a Captain in the Ludhiana Sikhs (page 97). There are suggestions that when it was published the book was considered to be fictionalized memoirs, perhaps not written under the author’s actual name. A film based on the book was made in 1919. The book is from the collection of the US National Library of Medicine, so perhaps is considered to have a realistic nursing background. For a review of this novel scroll if necessary to page 7, 5th column of the Pittsburgh Press (newspaper) dated August 7, 1917.

References

  1. India and the Western Front bbc.co.uk/history
  2. Discovery catalogue
  3. Naval and Military Archive
  4. UK, WWI War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany), 1914-1920 Ancestry
  5. Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War
  6. Great War Forum thread Indian Re-evaluation by David Filsell 17 July 2014
  7. page 66, ‪British Logistics on the Western Front: 1914-1919‬ by Malcolm Brown. quoting end notes 84, 85 WO 95/74 Director of Supplies, War Diary 29 October 1914, 1 November 1914 page 72
  8. Indian infantry unit war diaries go online The National Archives
  9. Larkin, Roy. The Motor-Bus in War. A.M.Beatson , 1918 Historic Military Vehicle Forum 8 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  10. "An outsider at war" by Richard Johnstone 4 June 2012. Inside Story.
  11. charlesmessenger Casemate Books - a question Great War Forum 12 November 2016. Retrieved 2016.
  12. "‘Sapper’ : From Realism to Melodrama", a paper originally delivered at the conference of Les Amis du Roman Populaire in Amiens, in 2014. Great War Fiction. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  13. Liz in Eastbourne. Across the Black Waters by Mulk Raj Anand Great War Forum 3 March 2106. Retrieved 4 March 2016