Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139051 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
Describes the politicians, the generals, Kitchener's Army, German gas attacks, dug-outs, tanks, the sex-life of the soldier, scrounging trench kits and the censoring of letters. This book is a personal account of the Great War.

Customer Reviews

A Great War Classic
This very readable volume from the splendid Pen and Sword Military Classics series , was first published in 1965. It is written by a distinguished academic who having served in the British army and fought in the both the Battle of the Somme and Passchendaele, actually waited nearly fifty years before writing this book. This vast lapse in time, resulted in him being able to reflect on the wartime events, draw on other's experiences, conduct further research and finally give a great deal of thought to this work and the successfully put it all into perspective, making it the excellent volume that it is.

As well as his factual accounts of events on the battlefield, topics covered include - politicians and generals at that time, Kitchener's Army, censorship, tank warfare in its early stages, gas attacks and the sex life of soldiers! Therefore making it an invaluable source of reference for any Great War enthusiast or researcher.

The author certainly lived a fascinating life, having been awarded a Military Cross whilst serving in a line regiment during the Great War, he then graduated from Oxford and later taught at Haileybury. He went on to become a publisher at Cambridge University Press and served as a staff officer at HQ Bomber Command during the Second World War. He was also Professor of Commonwealth Relations at Chatham House and Visiting Professor at the University of Tennessee. A remarkable man and a remarkable book!

If you only read one eye-witness account of WW1 make sure it's this!
Delighted to see this in print again - my old copy with it's pre-decimal price on the back is worn beyond repair.

A wonderful melange of anecodes and personal experience, written well and with no political axe to grind. Described to me by a veteran of three years on the western front as 'the only book that makes you think the author was actually there'.

a great book
Carrington survived 2 years as a subaltern in France and wrote in the 20's under the name Charles Edmonds a long out of print memoir " A subaltern's war". In the 1960's as a retired academic he wrote this as a personal and historical analysis of the war and was able to compare his experiences as a world war 2 staff officer with those of his youthful self. His admirable analysis is simply the best book of the dozens I have read of world war 1. An informative relatively objective history that shows Haig to be probably the best senior commmander of the war, another surprise.