Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front. Richard Holmes
id="u5bd5dc07-7b62-5c52-bafc-24151d336386">
Tommy
The British Soldier On The Western Front 1914–1918
Richard Holmes
HarperPress
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2004
Copyright © Richard Holmes 2004
PS section copyright © Patrick Bishop 2005
PS™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Richard Holmes asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN: 9780007383481
Version date: 2018-07-18
Some images were unavailable for the electronic edition.
For Lizzie, with love and admiration
CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT
NEW ARMY
CHAIN OF COMMAND
ONE LONG LOAF?
A VIEW FROM THE PARAPET
FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE
BASE DETAILS
A MILITARY REVOLUTION
BROTHER LEAD AND SISTER STEEL
THE BOLD BOMBARDIER
THE DEVIL’S BREATH
BRAZEN CHARIOTS
SWORD AND PISTOL
WITH THE RANK AND PAY OF A SAPPER
WOEFUL CRIMSON
THE WILL OF AN ARMY
MAN AND GOD
FRIEND AND FOE
MORALE AND DISCIPLINE
Contemporaries instinctively called it Great: La Grande Guerre, Weltkrieg, and we can easily see why. Of course it was not the largest single event of world history: that ghastly honour must go to the Second World War, which in terms of human suffering and material destruction was infinitely worse for the world as a whole. But for Britain alone the First World War caused more casualties, which partly accounts for the fact that it is remembered in a particular way here. Many who lived through both conflicts agreed with Harold Macmillan and J. B. Priestley that the First World War was a more significant watershed than the Second. Barbara Tuchman may have been the first to use the analogy of 1914–18 as an iron gate separating the present from the past, and it has proved to be an enduring and powerful image ever since.