Western Front

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.

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

• First World War
• Medals
• Nurse

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, from Naval and Military Archive, 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" (selected war diaries only) (and another database for Gallipoli). The Ancestry database also contains War Diaries for some Indian, Australian, New Zealand, and other regiments. Some transcribed war diaries edited by Martin Gillott. publisher Great War Diaries, for British Army regiments, are available in Kindle editions which have a Search facility (anyone with Kindle Unlimited can read them for free). (Download of a free Kindle App is available, you don't need Kindle).

Also see External links below.

There is also a record series, consisting of of printed volumes at the British Library called "Indian Army First World War - War Diaries" IOR/L/MIL/17/5/2421-4246 : 1914-1921, which includes Western Front War Diaries. The relevant records appear to be IOR/L/MIL/17/5/2421-2499.

The Australian War Memorial website 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.“

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.

External links

• The Great War in a Different Light, now an archived website. “Accounts and Galleries from Great War Period Books, Magazines and Publications with more than 8000 Authentic Photos, Illustrations and Newsarticles”. Mainly relates to the Western Front.
• First World War regimental diaries of the Indian Infantry units deployed to the Western Front are available online to download via The National Archives's First World War 100 portal. At September 2014, 171 were available. They are not personal diaries. See TNA’s British Army war diaries 1914-1922 for more details about this type of record. Searching is free, but there may be a charge to download documents. Also see War Diaries above.
• India and the Western Front Article by Dr David Omissi on BBC History website.
• What were the experiences of the Indian Infantry on the Western Front between August 1914 and December 1915? by Riyaz Husein Dhalla 2006, A dissertation, probably/possibly University of Nottingham. academia.edu
• Khudadad Khan and Ghulam Haider of the 129th (Duke of Connaught's Own) Baluchis cwgc.org, now an archived webpage. For his remarkable courage, at the village of Hollebeke, near Ypres in Belgium. Khudadad Khan was the first Indian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
• Lieutenant Frank de Pass nam.ac.uk. Lieutenant Frank de Pass of the 34th Prince Albert Victor’s Own Poona Horse was the first Jewish recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC) and also the first Indian Army officer to win the award in the First World War. It was awarded for conspicuous bravery near Festubert, in the Artois region of France on the western front, on the 24th November 1914.
  • Lieutenant de Pass in uniform 1914 nam.ac.uk
  • Memorial honours first Jewish WW1 hero Ministry of Defence.
• "The last post: letters home to India during the first world war" by Daljit Nagra 21 February 2014. The Guardian. "Letters from Indian Soldiers, 26 September 1915" 26 September 2015. British Library Untold lives blog. Letters from the West Reports of the Censor of Indian Mails in France. generalist.org.uk.

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.

• Podcast: India in the First World War William Spencer and others. 12 March 2015. The National Archives. The battle of Neuve Chapelle.
• The Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle with Photographs. undereveryleaf.wordpress.com

Neuve Chapelle Memorial ww1cemeteries.com

• Indian Forces Memorial, Ypres greatwar.co.uk
• Valour and Sacrifice. The First Indian Soldiers in Europe 1914-1916 Website of High Commission of India in London.
• "The men who cut the war short" by Sidin Vadukut June 28 2014 Livemint. An interview with Gordon Corrigan, author of Sepoy in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914-15
• Record Of Work [in France] Of Queen Alexandra’s Military Nursing Service For India Scarletfinders
• Royal Pavilion in Brighton, Sussex UK Used as a hospital for troops from the Indian corps who had been wounded during WW1 in France and Flanders and now contains the Indian Military Hospital gallery.
  • In Pictures: Brighton Pavilion's Indian military hospital BBC.
    
  • Doctor Brighton's Pavilion is an 'Online Exhibit' from sikhmuseum.com with much information.
  • Brighton, England : Remains of a faraway battle by Sidin Vadukut May 11 2013. www.livemint.com. The Chattri Memorial to Indian soldiers who fought in World War I
• Brockenhurst a First World War Hospital village 1914. [England]. newforestheritage.org. The Lady Hardinge Hospital for Wounded Indian Soldiers, used from the outbreak of war until the end of 1915. when the Indian Army Corps which it supported, was transferred to Egypt. In 1916 it became No 1 New Zealand General Hospital. Also see Nurse.
• A series of photographs depicting the Indian Army in the First World War, by H.D. Girdwood held by the British Library. flickr.com. Each photograph has a link to the British Library online photograph, where a zoom facility is available. The photographs were mainly taken on the Western Front, but some taken at the Indian hospitals at Brighton are also included. The set also includes British Army soldiers.
• "North East India and the First World War" by Pratap Chhetri February 4, 2016. The Indian Labour Corps: Lushai Labour Corps, Khasi Labour Corps, Garo Labour Corps, Naga Labour Corps, Manipur Labour Corps and enlistments from Tripura. "The Centre for Hidden Histories" [WW1]
• The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During The First World War by Timothy T. Lupfer 76 Pages Published: 1981. A publication in the series Leavenworth Papers. Link to a pdf download (scroll down) [US] Army University Press.
• "Women's War-Work" edwardianpromenade.com. Stated on the website to be from the 1922 edition of the Encyclopedia Britanica. Includes details of volunteer organisations, including hospitals and other facilities run by these organisations, including on the Western Front.

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.
• Trench maps of the Western Front from the collection of the Australian Army History Unit. Mainly British maps, with the focus on battlefields where the Australian Imperial Force fought, but includes a few German maps.
• 9 online French Trench Maps from the series "Maps of the French Artillery Survey Group", USA Army versions, based on French military maps. Website of The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

This series contains Plans Directeurs maps. Information about these types of maps is included in the article "The Great War and Modern Mapping: WWI in the Map Division" May 15, 2015. New York Public Library.

• French Maps Mostly "Cartes et plans directeurs de la bataille de la Somme, du 18 juin au 17 août 1916". Gallica BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) National Library of France.
• 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.
• The Military Map; Elements of Modern Topography (French School of War) by Gerald Maxwell 1916 Archive.org
• Maps and Artillery Boards. Reprinted 1917 by Army War College, Washington, [USA] from a Pamphlet issued by the British General Staff 1916
• List of conventional signs and abbreviations in use on French and German maps compiled by Second Section, General Staff (Topography) [USA Army] 1918 Archive.org.
• Also see next section for some maps, including locations of Prisoners of War camps.

Historical books online

• History of the Great War based on Official Documents: Military Operations: France and Belgium by Brigadier-General J E Edmonds
  • The Official Histories of the Great War 1914-1918.net. Details the various volumes.
  • Volume I August-October 1914: 1922 edition, Revised text 1937 edition
  • Volume II October-November 1914 1925 Archive.org
  • From the Digital Library of India, available as pdf downloads. Note mirror versions of these files are available on Archive.org, in time with the ability to read online. One volume from HathiTrust.
    • 1915 Volume I, Archive.org; 1915 Volume II, Archive.org
    • 1916 Volume I , Archive.org; 1916 Appendices, Volume I , Archive.org; 1916 Volume II , Archive.org; 1916, Appendices, Volume II , Archive.org.
    • 1917 Volume I, Archive.org The German Retreat to the Hindenberg Line and the Battle of Arras; 1917 Appendices, Volume I, Archive.org.

    1917 Volume II 7th June-10th November Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele) published 1948. HathiTrust Digital Library.

    • 1918: The great German offensive [21st March 1918] and its preliminaries (1935), Archive.org; 1918 Volume II, Archive.org; Volume III, Archive.org
• The Indian Corps in France by Lt-Colonel J.W.B. Merewether and Sir Frederick Smith, 1918 which appears to be a simple reprint of the first edition December 1917. Archive.org. A 1919 revised second edition from archive.org is catalogued as The Indian Corps in Rance and may require a DjVu plug in, or individual pages can be accessed which use the Tiff format. The 1919 second edition is also available as three different pdf downloads on the Digital Library of India: Pdf 1, Archive.org; Pdf 2, Archive.org; Pdf 3, Archive.org
• With the Indians in France by Sir James Willcocks 1920 Archive.org Index, page 383
  • List of 'Promotions and Rewards' page 347-382
• History of the Great War based on Official Documents Transportation on the Western Front, 1914-1918 compiled by Colonel AM Henniker, R E (ret) 1937 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Pdf to download from the Digital Library of India, Archive.org

Volume of 14 Maps National Library of Australia, with a description in the catalogue entry.

• Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. The 12 Volumes include France. Australian War Memorial website.
• From the Australian Front. 1917. Reproductions of official photographs, and cartoons and sketches by members of the A. I. F [Australian Imperial Force] Gutenberg.org version, Archive.org version
• US Army Centre of Military History online books Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War (5 Volumes) and United States Army In The World War (17 Volumes). Links to Pdf downloads.

American Armies and Battlefields in Europe: a History, Guide, and Reference Book prepared by the American Battle Monuments Commission 1938 Archive.org. A revision of the 1927 publication A Guide to the American Battlefields in Europe HathiTrust Digital Library

• American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) website. Includes "Search ABMC Burials and Memorials".

• French Official Histories: Les Armées françaises dans la Grande Guerre sga.defense.gouv.fr. French language. Eleven Tomes, some with multiple volumes, mostly about the Western Front. With online maps (Cartes) and at times panoramic sketches (Croquis panoramiques).
• German Official, or semi Official Histories: Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918: die militärischen Operationen zu Lande 16 Volumes. Schlachten des Weltkrieges 22 Volumes. German language. Maps (Karten) are often at the back of individual volumes, and there may be photographs, all of which can be located by clicking on the Thumbnail gallery, and then selecting specific pages. The Digital State Library of Upper Austria.
• The Royal Army Service Corps: A History of Transport and Supply in the British Army, Volume II by Colonel R H Beadon 1931. Link to an Adobe pdf download. Digital Library of India. Archive.org Includes the First World War period, with chapters on the British Expeditionary Force.
• Army Service Corps of the British Army, and, the organization of the transport and transportation at the front in France : lectures delivered before the officers of the Quartermaster Corps and Quartermaster Reserve Corps at Washington, D.C., May 1917 by Lieut. Col. F K Puckle, A S C, British Army. Archive.org.
• A History of the Army Ordnance Services, Volume III: The Great War by Major General Arthur Forbes 2nd edition 1932, first published 1929. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org Includes chapters on the Western Front (Part I).
• The Signal Service in the European War of 1914-1918 (France) by R E Priestley (Late Major, R E) 1921 Archive.org. Includes information about the use of carrier pigeons (Index entry)
  • Page 11 includes a very brief reference to the Indian Telegraph units of the Indian Army. These were very likely to have been men from the Post and Telegraphs Department in India, who were appointed to the Army at the outbreak of war. Also see the following book.
• The Post Office of India in the Great War edited by H.A. Sams 1922 Archive.org. Officers and men of the Post and Telegraphs Department in India who became the military postal service of the Indian Army. Includes chapters on the Western Front.
  • "From an Indian Post Office in France" page 538 Blackwood’s Magazine, no 197 January- June 1915. Archive.org.
• Britain's Sea Soldiers. A Record of the Royal Marines during the War 1914-1919. Compiled by General Sir H. E. Blumberg, Royal Marines 1927. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Includes chapters on France.
• A Record of the Battles and Engagements of the British Armies in France and Flanders 1914-1918 by Captain E A James 48th (South Midland) Divisional Signals T A 1924. army.gov.au
• The Western Front: A General Outline by Major Alan B. Steele, Australian Staff Corps 1930. Written following a lecture in 1930 and “designed to assist officers in the detailed study of this campaign". Australian Army website.
• Books by John Buchan Archive.org.
  • For volumes of Nelson's History of the War by John Buchan, 24 volumes published 1915-1919, and the revised, condensed A History of the Great War in 4 volumes, published 1923, see First World War - Historical books online.
  • The Battle of the Somme by John Buchan [1917] Archive.org. An overview.
    • The Battle of the Somme, First Phase by John Buchan [1917] Archive.org. A more detailed account.
    • The Battle of the Somme, Second Phase [1917] A more detailed account.
  • The Long Road to Victory edited by John Buchan 1920. Each chapter is a personal account. Contents
  • The History of the South African Forces in France by John Buchan 1920 Archive.org
• The British Campaign in France and Flanders by Arthur Conan Doyle 1914 Volume I 2nd Edition 1916; 1915 Volume II 2nd Edition 1917; 1916 Volume III 1918; 1917 Volume IV 1919; January to July 1918 Volume V 1919; July to November 1918 Volume VI 1920. Archive.org.
• The Silent Cities: an illustrated guide to the war cemeteries and memorials to the 'Missing' in France and Flanders: 1914-1918 by Sidney C. Hurst 1929. Photographs are dark, without detail. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.
• Medical Services
  • History of the Great War Based on Official Documents: Medical Services, and other books regarding Medical Services. See First World War-Historical books online.
  • The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War Volume 8: Field Operations Prepared under the direction of Maj Gen M W Ireland, Surgeon General 1925. Archive.org. Mainly about the Western Front. Other volumes in this series Archive.org
  • With the Royal Army Medical Corps (R. A. M. C.) at the Front by E Charles Vivian 1914 Archive.org. Includes chapters on Composition and Duties, Training etc.
  • A Surgeon in Khaki by Arthur Anderson Martin 1915 Archive.org. Includes the process of the author’s commission, description of a Field Ambulance structure.
  • With a Field Ambulance at Ypres : being letters written March 7-August 15, 1915 by William Boyd 1916. Archive.org. The author was a doctor.
  • Field Ambulance Sketches by A Corporal. 1919 Archive.org. Part of the series On Active Service.
  • Memoirs Of A Camp Follower(1934) by Philip Gosse. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org Full title/some editions: Memoirs of a Camp-Follower : a Naturalist Goes to War. At least one later edition published under the title A Naturalist Goes to War. Includes the following extract (archive.org) relating to his duties following his appointed as Rat Officer to the Second Army. The author was a doctor RAMC, in France and Belgium 1915-1917 who initially served with the 69th Field Ambulance, 23rd Division. He subsequently served in India. Review of the book. JRAMC. Scroll to the end.
  • A Regimental Surgeon in War and Prison by Captain Robert V Dolbey, RAMC.1917. Archive.org. The author was in France from August 1914, taken a Prisoner of War in October 1914, then repatriated from Germany c March 1915. He later took part in the campaign in East Africa.
  • Women as Army Surgeons; being the history of the Women's Hospital Corps in Paris, Wimereux and Endell Street, September 1914-October 1919 by Flora Murray 1920 Archive.org.
  • On the Battle-Scarred Fields of France. A Physician's Impressions of the Medical Services of both French and German Armies by Adolfo Luria 1918 Archive.org
  • Books on Archive.org classified by the uploader as World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals, charities, etc Many are about the Western Front.
  • "Sister"; the War Diary of a Nurse [during 1918] by Helen Dore Boylston 1927 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Boylston was an American nurse who left for France with the Harvard Surgical Unit, where she worked at General Hospital No. 22, British Expeditionary Force at Étaples. Helen Dore Boylston (1895-1984)- Part II: War Service authorsreallives. She subsequently became a well known author of the Sue Barton, Nurse series of books for girls.
• Out of Step: Events in the Two Lives of an Anti-Jewish Camel-Doctor by Arnold Spencer Leese. 1951 Archive.org. Born 1878, during WW1 Leese was an Army Veterinary Surgeon on the Western Front working with horses, with a prior short period in East Africa, and later also purchased camels for the Army in Somaliland. In the late 1920s he became a British Fascist polititian.
• Secret Service and Spies
  • The Secret Corps : a Tale of "Intelligence" on all Fronts by Captain Ferdinand Tuohy 1920 Archive.org
  • Secret Service by Major-General Sir George Aston, formerly of the Naval Intelligence Department and the Secretariat of the War Cabinet 1930 Archive.org
  • The Intelligence Service within the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918 by Major J E Hahn, James Emanuel late General staff, 4th Canadian Division CEF 1930 HathiTrust Digital Library.
  • All's Fair : the Story of the British Secret Service Behind the German Lines by Captain Henry Landau 1934 Archive.org. Henry Landau Wikipedia.

  Secrets of the White Lady by Captain Henry Landau 1935 HathiTrust Digital Library

  • Mata Hari by Major Thomas Coulson 3rd impression. Full title: Mata Hari Courtesan and Spy, first published 1930. Archive.org,
  • Spies I Knew by Marthe McKenna 1934 HathiTrust Digital Library. Belgian Marthe Cnockaert, 'Laura' of the British Intelligence Service.
  • Modern spies tell their stories : personal narratives of many exploits in secret service edited by Richard W Rowan 1934 Archive.org.
• "Inland waterways and docks, royal engineers in war time, with special reference to the mystery port of Richborough (Lecture & Discussion)" by Captain A E Battle, RE Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Engineers 1923-1924, pages 104-116. Includes mention of Train Ferries from 1917. Melboune University Digital Collection.
• Sniping in France, with Notes on the Scientific Training of Scouts, Observers, and Snipers by Major H Hesketh-Prichard [1920]. Archive.org. First Army School of S.O.S.
• Strategic Camouflage by Solomon J. Solomon 1920. British Library Digital file.
• The British Library digitised manuscripts include some India Office Records relating to the First World War. A search using the key word India, and adjustment of the dates will locate the documents, or see europeana-collections-1914-1918.eu, or the direct links include
  • IOR/L/MIL/17/5/2384 Indian Force for Europe. India Office Military Dept, 6 Sep 1914
  • IOR/V/27/281/33 Neuve Chapelle, India's Memorial in France, 1914-18. Published by authority of the Imperial War Graves Commission London 1927
  • Reports of the Censor of Indian Mails in France [Letters from Indian soldiers]:
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/825/1-8 Dec 1914-Apr 1915, Mar 1915-Apr 1915, Apr 1915-May 1915, Jun 1915-Aug 1915, Aug 1915-Sep 1915, Sep 1915-Oct 1915, Oct 1915-Nov 1915, Oct 1915-Dec 1915
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/826/1-9 Dec 1915-Jan 1916, Jan 1916-Mar 1916, Feb 1916-Apr 1916, Mar 1916-May 1916, May 1916-Jul 1916, Jul 1916-Aug 1916, Aug 1916-Oct 1916, Sep 1916-Nov 1916, Nov 1916-Dec 1916
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/827/1-6 Dec 1916-Feb 1917, Feb 1917-May 1917, Apr 1917-Jul 1917, May 1917-Oct 1917, Aug 1917-Dec 1917, Dec 1917-Mar 1918
    • IOR/L/MIL/5/828/1-3 Jul 1915-May 1918, Dec 1914-Jul 1918, Jun 1915-May 1918
• Our Indians at Marseilles by Massia Bibikoff ; with an introduction by Maurice Barrès ; translated by Leonard Huxley ; with 50 illustrations by the author. 1915 Archive.org
• The Year of Chivalry by Edmund Candler 1916. Archive.org. Many of the sketches first appeared in The Times or The Daily Mail.
  • "The Drabi" [Mule Driver] page 103.
• "Indians' Daring Feats", page 99 Heroes and Heroic Deeds of the Great War by Donald A Mackenzie 1916. Archive.org. A book for younger readers.
• Army Service Corps
  • From Mons to Loos : being the Diary of a Supply Officer by Major Herbert A Stewart Army Service Corps 1916 Archive.org.
  • L. of C. (Lines of Communication): being the Letters of a Temporary Officer in the Army Service Corps by Captain James E Agate 1917 Archive.org.
  • 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.
• Artillery
  • With the Guns by F. O. O. [Forward Observation Officer] [Cecil J. C. Street] 1916 Archive.org

  The Making of a Gunner by F. O. O. [Forward Observation Officer] [Cecil J. C. Street] 1916 Archive.org

  • Servants of the Guns by Jeffrey E Jeffery [catalogued Jeffrey E Marston] 1917 Archive.org. Most of the soldiers in the Battery were Welsh. The author became a Prisoner of War.
  • Carry On: Letters In War-Time by Coningsby Dawson, Canadian Field Artillery. 1917 Archive.org. Letters dated July 16, 1916, to February 6, 1917. The author was a Canadian novelist . Also published under the title Khaki Courage: Letters In War-Time

  The Glory Of The Trenches: An Interpretation by Coningsby Dawson 1917 Archive.org

  Living Bayonets: a Record of the Last Push by Coningsby Dawson 1919 Archive.org. Letters from April 14, 1917 to October 6, 1918.

  • Pushed and the Return Push by Quex [G H Nichols, RFA] 1919 Archive.org
  • Leaves from an Officer's Notebook by Eliot Crawshay-Williams 1918 Archive.org. The author was in a Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery (Territorial Force). Also includes service in Egypt.
  • Three Years in France with the Guns : being episodes in the life of a Field Battery by C A Rose, late of the Royal Field Artillery. 1919 Archive.org. Gutenberg.org version where photographs may be easier to view.
  • Also see Fiction below for sketches written by Boyd Cable, the nom de plume of Ernest Andrew Ewart, an officer in the Royal Artillery.
• Despatch Riders
  • 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. 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
• Machine Guns
  • "Over the Top" by an American soldier who went. Arthur Guy Empey, Machine Gunner, serving in France. Together with Tommy’s Dictionary of the Trenches 1918 Archive.org. The author, an American, joined the British Army (Royal Fusiliers). After a period he served in the Brigade Machine Gun Company (page 158), then became a a special MP detailed on intelligence work in the front line (page 193). Also available as an audio book from Librivox, Archive.org.

  Tales from a Dugout by Arthur Guy Empey 1918 Archive.org.

  First Call: Guide Posts to Berlin by Arthur Guy Empey 1918. A guide for new recruits into the American Army, and their families.

  Arthur Guy Empey Wikipedia

  • Covered with mud and glory; a machine gun company in action ("Ma mitrailleuse") by Georges Lafond [of the French Army]. Translated by Edwin Gile Rich 1918 Archive.org
  • Three Chevrons by "Orex" (Major H F Bidder) 1919. Archive.org. Part of the series On Active Service. Called up from the Reserve in 1914, at first Bidder was with 1 S Staffs and later as Brigade (21st) MG Officer and CO 1st Bn MGC. Elsewhere it is stated the 'chevrons' of the title refer to the service chevrons worn on the right sleeve for each year of overseas service, blue for 1914-15 & red for each subsequent year.
  • "The Chronicles of the 3rd Bn MGC: No 1 Arras March 21-28 1918" page 15, 3rd Battalion Machine Gun Corps Magazine, Issue no 1, May 1919. ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk. The British Library holds issues 1, and also 2 and 4-5 (at least 6 appear to have been published) - these latter also contain "Chronicles". These issues are available on the subscription website database ProQuest "Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War", which is available at the British Library and elsewhere - see Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories for access through some libraries.
  • History and Memoir of the 33rd Battalion Machine Gun Corps and of the 19th, 98th, 100th and 248th M.G. Companies Written and Illustrated by Members of the Battalion 1919 Archive.org. Sometimes attributed to Graham Seton Hutchison, Divisional Machine Gun Officer of the 33rd Division.
  • Footslogger by Graham Seton 1933. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection. Full title: Footslogger; An autobiography, by Graham Seton [pseud.] (Lieutenant-Colonel G. S. Hutchison ...)
  • A Brief Narrative of the Guards Machine Gun Battalion during the year 1918 by Lieut.-Colonel R. Bingham. With an appendix entitled "Machine-Gun Tactics and Organisation." 1931. Typescript manuscript. British Library Digital Collection.
  • The Canadian Emma Gees; a History of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps by Lt-Col C S Grafton 1938 Archive.org
• Tanks
  • The "Tanks" : (by request, and with permission) by Colonel E.D. Swinton, Royal Engineers. 1918. Reprinted from The World’s Work (a monthly magazine, published in New York). Same title, reprinted from the Strand Magazine 1925 Archive.org.

  Eyewitness. Being Personal Reminiscences of Certain Phases of the Great War, Including the Genesis of the Tank by Major-General Sir Ernest D Swinton, R E (Retired) 1933 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Also available on Archive.org. Digital Library of India Collection 1932 edition.

  • Life in a Tank by Richard Haigh, Captain of the Tank Corps 1918 Archive.org
  • Tank Tales by "Tank Major" [Stephen Foot] and Eric Wood 1919 Archive.org
  • Tanks in the Great War, 1914-1918 by Brevet-Colonel J F C Fuller (Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry) 1920 Archive.org
  • A Company of Tanks by Major WHL Watson, 1920 Archive.org
  • The Tank in Action by Captain D G Browne 1920 Archive.org
  • "The Call: The Tale of a Tank" by Major FE Hotblack page 152 The Long Road to Victory edited by John Buchan 1920.
  • "The Tanks at Cambrai'" by Lieutenant J C MacIntosh, Tank Corps page 181 The Long Road to Victory edited by John Buchan 1920.

  Men and Tanks by J C MacIntosh. 1921 Archive.org. Part of the series On Active Service.

  • The Fighting Tanks since 1916 by Ralph Ernest Jones, Robert Joseph Icks and George Howard Rarey 1933. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Also available as a pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org
• With the Cavalry in the West by "Aquila" [J D Delius] 1922 Archive.org
• Infantry and others
  • On the Right of the British Line by Captain Gilbert Nobbs (late L.R. B.) [London Rifle Brigade] 1917 Archive.org. Some editions are titled Englishman, Kamerad! Right of the British Line. The author was blinded in battle, and became a POW. Biographical details qormuseum.org
  • Mud and Khaki, Sketches from Flanders and France by Vernon Bartlett 1917 Archive.org. Some of these sketches had appeared in the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. The author subsequently became a journalist and politician. Vernon Bartlett Wikipedia.
  • Bullets & Billets by Bruce Bairnsfather 2nd edition 1917 Archive.org
  • "Nothing of Importance": Eight Months at the Front with a Welsh Battalion by Bernard Adams 1918 Archive.org. Elsewhere, the regiment is stated to be the 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
  • "Ladies from Hell" by R Douglas Pinkerton 1918. The author was a member of the London Scottish.
  • The Big Fight (Gallipoli to the Somme) by Capt. David Fallon 1918 Archive.org. He served with the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) at Gallipoli , and subsequently became an officer with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He also flew as a military observer (Chapter XI, page 131), and briefly commanded a tank (Chapter XII, page 144).
  • The Diary of a Dead Officer, being the posthumous papers of Arthur Graeme West, c 1918. Archive.org Includes Part V Poems. Librivox audio version. Arthur Graeme West Wikipedia. He joined as a private; in August 1916 he became a second lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
  • Glimpses of the Great War: Letters of a Subaltern from Three Fronts Edited by his wife. 1919. The letters of George Herbert Whyte [London Irish Rifles]. He joined a volunteer hospital unit in France, in 1914, and became a Second Lieutenant in the London Irish Rifles in 1916. He was in France, Macedonia and Malta, Egypt and Palestine, where he died. He was a well known Theosophist. Digital Collection, Württembergischen Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, with the library website in German. Read online or download, the latter is "Ganzes Werk herunterladen".
  • A Handful of Ausseys by C. Hampton Thorp, AIF 1919 Archive.org. Part of the series On Active Service. The latter part of the book is about the Western Front.
  • Combed Out by F A Voigt 1920 Archive.org. The author subsequently became an influential journalist. Frederick Augustus Voigt Wikipedia.
  • The Confessions of a Private by Frank Grey, late 8th Royal Berkshire Regiment. 1920. Hathi Trust Digital Library.
  • Toward the Flame: a War Diary by Hervey Allen 1934, first published 1926 Archive.org
  • Wine, Women and War: a Diary of Disillusionment by Anonymous. 10th edition 1927, first published 1926. Hathi Trust Digital Library. 2nd Hathi Trust file. The author is catalogued as Howard Vincent O'Brien, American novelist and journalist. Howard Vincent O'Brien Wikipedia. Appointed 1st Lieutenant Field Artillery, [US Army] November 1917, and later became a Liaison Officer.
  • Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden 1929 Archive.org
  • The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman 1988. Archive.org Lending Library. First you must register. Only one person at a time is able to read the book, as in a 'real' library, so you may need to go on a waiting list.
• In the Royal Naval Air Service. Being the War Letters of the late Harold Rocher to his Family 1916 Archive.org
• Prisoners of War
  • Map of the main prison camps in Germany and Austria, with Gazeteer by Mrs Pope Hennessy. Catalogued 1920. Printed in London. Archive.org. Map
  • German Map of the main French prison camps, labor commandos and hospitals 1917. Karte der wichtigsten französischen Gefangenenlager, Arbeitskommandos u. Lazarette. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Some additional camps are also mentioned.
  • Prisoner of War by André Warnod. Tranlated by M Jourdain 1916 Archive.org.
  • Captured: Sixteen Months as a Prisoner of War by Lieut. J Harvey Douglas, 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles. 1918 Archive.org. Later in his captivity the author was transferred to Switzerland,
  • The British interned in Switzerland by Lieut.-Colonel H P Picot 1919 Archive.org.
  • Three Years a Prisoner in Germany by Major J C Thorn, a First Canadian Contingent Officer 1919 Archive.org.
  • The Wooden City; a Journal for British Prisoners of War. Issues 1-15. Published at Göttingen 1915. Archive.org. Includes Lists of POWs at Göttingen.

  Issue No 16 February 15, 1916 British Library Digital file. The British Library has additional digital files for Issues 17-27 (September 1916). To access, through the Main Catalogue, use the search term BLL01016586686 Then click on "I want this', select the required edition, and click Go. Alternatively, rather than using the Main Catalogue, the digital file for Issue 16, on the right hand side of the page, has an item "View the catalogue record".

  • Also see First World War - Historical books online for more online books about Prisoners of War.
• Volunteers and others
  • Adventures on the Western Front, August, 1914-June, 1915 by A Rawlinson 1925 Hathi Trust Digital Library. The author, then aged 47, volunteered as a driver, who provided his own car, for service at the Front. He was one of a group of 25 volunteers, organised by the Royal Automobile Club (R A C). For a book about later military related service by this author, see Norperforce.
  • The First World War, 1914-1918: Personal Experiences of Lieut.-Col. C. à Court Repington 1920. [An autobiography]. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org. Charles à Court Repington 1858-1925. Wikipedia. He was a former British Army Officer who was military correspondent for The Times 1904–1918, who had many influential contacts with officers in the Army's highest ranks.
  • Roadside Glimpses of the Great War by Arthur Sweetser 1916 Archive.org. Hw was an American journalist who was in France from the early days of the war.
  • A Reporter at Armageddon: Letters from the Front and Behind the Lines of the Great War by Will Irwin. 1918. The author was an American journalist. The author's Wikipedia page.
  • War Pictures Behind the Lines by Ian Malcolm M P. 2nd edition, 1915. Archive.org. The author was involved in Red Cross work.
  • The Irish Nuns at Ypres : an Episode of the War by D M C [Dame M Columban], (Member of the Community) [Benedictines] 1915 Archive.org.
  • A Scavenger in France : being Extracts from the Diary of an Architect, 1917-19 by William Bell 1920 Archive.org. The author was a member of the F W V R C, Friends’ War-Victims’ Relief Committee, a Quaker organization.
• British War Dogs, their Training and Psychology by Lt.-Colonel E H Richardson, late Commandant of the British War Dog School. C 1920. Archive.org.

Forty Years With Dogs by E H Richardson 1935. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. "A Biography of E H Richardson" k9history.com, probably based on the autobiography.

• Digger Dialects : a Collection of Slang Phrases used by the Australian Soldiers on Active Service by W.H. Downing, late 57th Battalion, AIF. [1919]. State Library of Victoria. Some of the words were probably also used by British and other soldiers. Examples: Chat (n) - A Louse; Chat (v) - To examine clothing in order to remove lice; Chatty (adj) - verminous.
• The enemy within, hitherto unpublished details of the great conspiracy to corrupt and destroy France by Severance Johnson. Translation by Edgard Leon. 1920 Archive.org.
• Les Archives de la Grande Guerre [et de l'histoire contemporaine]. French language.

Hathi Trust Digital Library catalogue record for 17 Volumes, viewable by those in regions such as North America. All except the last are stated to be Public Domain in the USA.

Gallica: Bibliothèque nationale de France There are 13 digital files for this publication on Gallica, but they are classified by year published, not volume number. (1919 (4), 1920-1923, 2 each year, 1924 (1)), and it is unclear whether these contain the complete series of 17 volumes, or 13 volumes. The last one digitized on Gallica is classified as 1924, and has the title 5th Annee Tome XVII, Volume 17. There is a Search facility (whole collection) or individual book files. For individual book files, click on the icon for Table des matières, for contents. Volume 17, the final volume, contains a Contents section which appears to cover all 17 Volumes, click on the icon for Table des matières. It is then possible to click through to relevant articles, which may be located in other volumes.

• German Army
  • My War Memories, 1914-1918 by General Ludendorff 1919. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org. Also published under the title: Ludendorff's Own Story, August 1914-November 1918. The Great War from the siege of Liege to the Signing of the armistice as viewed from the Grand Headquarters of the German Army by Erich Von Ludendorff Quartermaster-General of the German Army.

  The General Staff and its problems : the history of the relations between the high command and the German Imperial Government as revealed by official documents by General Ludendorff... translated by F. A. Holt. 1920 Volume I, Volume II Archive.org

  • General Headquarters, 1914-1916, and its Critical Decisions by Erich von Falkenhayn. 1919 Archive.org. Also published in the USA under the title The German General Staff and its Decisions, 1914-1916.
  • Handbook of the German Army in War. Issued by the General Staff, British Army ”For Official Use Only”. January, 1917; November, 1918. British Library Digital Collection.
  • Histories of two hundred and fifty-one divisions of the German Army which participated in the war (1914-1918) Compiled from records of Intelligence Section of the General Staff, American Expeditionary Forces at General Headquarters, Chaumont France 1919. Published 1920 Archive.org.
  • Erinnerungsblätter deutscher Regimenter. [...], Ehemals preußische Truppenteile 44 German Army Regimental online histories, (German language), from Deutsche Digital Bibliothek, from the collection of Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

  Die württembergischen Regimenter im Weltkrieg 1914 – 1918 Links to multiple volumes of different württembergischen Regimenter (German language). Digital Collection, Württembergischen Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart. If URL Is not permanent, use Suchen.

  Digital Library of Wielkopolska (Network of Polish Digital Libraries} contains some online German Regimental Histories (German language).

• Vocabulary of German Military Terms and Abbreviations by Army War College [USA] “Reprint of a British Document” 1917 Archive.org
• Dictionnaire des termes militaires et de l'argot poilu [1916] Archive.org
• Vocabularies: English, German, Magyar, Serbian, Bulgarian, Roumanian, Greek, Turkish Compiled by the Geographical Section of the Naval Intelligence Division, Naval Staff, Admiralty. HMSO. 1920 Archive.org

Fiction

• The Silence of Colonel Bramble by André Maurois. Translated from the French by Thurfrida Wake. Verses translated by Wilfrid Jackson. 1920 Archive.org. The author, writing under a non de plume which subsequently became his legal name, was an Interpreter, and subsequently Liaison Officer with the IXth (Scotch) Division, when the book was written.
• Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon 1930. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection. A fictionalised account of Sassoon's own life during and immediately after World War I. About the book Wikipedia
  • Sassoon Journals Cambridge Digital Library
• 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”.
• 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".
• Sketches by Boyd Cable, the nom de plume of Ernest Andrew Ewart, who was appointed Temporary Second Lieutenant 2nd September 1914 in the Royal Artillery where he served in France. By February 1917 he was Acting Captain while commanding a section of a Divisional Ammunition Column. In June 1918 he was awarded an OBE [Officer of the Order of the British Empire] at which time he was Captain, Propaganda Branch, Aircraft Production Department, Ministry of Munitions. Appointed Acting Lt-Colonel, whilst specially employed 12 November 1918.

Between the Lines by Boyd Cable 3rd edition 1917, first published October 1915 Archive.org. Librivox Audiobook Between the Lines, read by Delmar H Dolbier. Archive.org.

Action Front by Boyd Cable 1916 Archive.org

Grapes of Wrath by Boyd Cable 1917 Archive.org

• Publisher’s note about the author c page 3

Front Lines by Boyd Cable 1918 Archive.org

Air Men o' War by Boyd Cable 1919 Archive.org

• Novels by Sapper, the nom de plume of Herman Cyril McNeile , a writer of war stories that were hailed as realistic revelations of the truth about war. 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. 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.
• William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton c 1919. Archive.org, missing pages 169-170, but file colour perhaps easier to read, Archive.org, all pages, Librivox audio recording Archive.org, missing pages 169-170. The author worked at the Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont and organised Concerts at the Front. The book, written in a tent within sound of guns and shells, won the Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse in 1919.
• Green Envelopes No author 1929. Letters home from the Front, to a village in England. Digital Collection, Württembergischen Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, with the library website in German. Read online or download, the latter is "Ganzes Werk herunterladen".
• 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.
• Rilla of Ingleside by L M Montgomert 1921 Archive.org. Librivox audio version, read by one reader, Librivox audio, multiple readers Archive.org. The final book in L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series for girls, set in Canada. The story of the life of the women at home whose family members fought on the Western Front.
• Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter by Captain W E Johns 1954. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection. Contains thirteen short stories, eleven of which were originally published in The Camels Are Coming (1932) and two of which were originally published in Biggles Of The Camel Squadron (1934), originally written for older adolescents. Note however Wikipedia states “The early First World War books were reprinted in the 1950s, when the Biggles books had acquired a younger readership and were bowdlerised.