First to the battle line in the First World War As the nineteenth century turned to the twentieth Britain could boast a well trained regular European army and one which was-regiment for regiment-considerably better than most. It was finely tuned and fundamentally suited to the kind of warfare the British Empire had fought since Waterloo. In a war of attrition in the industrial age all that could be hoped of it was that it would buy the nation time with its blood, so that other resources of men and material could be brought into the fight. The British Expeditionary Force which landed in Europe in 1914 consisted of six infantry divisions and five cavalry brigades. The 7th Division arrived in October 1914. Most students of the period know of the outstanding performance of the British regulars in the first engagements of the war. Casualties mounted through the Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat, at Le Cateau, the Maine, the Aisne, at La Bassee and at Ypres. By the end of 1914 the ‘old’ British Army as it had quickly come to be known had been all but annihilated. The time of fluidity had passed and the war became a grinding stalemate of trenches, mud and wire. From the British perspective, the men who fought the remaining three years of war were Kitchener’s New Army supported by troops from the far flung empire. Great feats of heroism and extraordinary acts of fortitude had been performed by the first seven divisions and the achievements of the ‘Contemptible Little Army’ as it battled to stem the rapid advance of the German tide had become a legend of the Great War. This book tells their story.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.