Ghosts of Old Companions: Lloyd George’s Welsh Army, the Kaiser’s Reichsheer and the Battle for Mametz Wood, 1914-1916

There are numerous personal memoirs of the fighting in Mametz Wood, Regimental Histories and battlefield guides. There is however no complete scholarly account of the Welsh Division’s preparations for war and its part in the fight for Mametz as seen from both the Welsh and the German perspectives. The 38th (Welsh) Division was formed from many thousands of Welsh volunteers in late 1914 and 1915 as part of Kitchener’s New Armies - a force for the long war that he was the first to recognise. It was to be ready for battle in 1917. David Lloyd George strongly supported the expansion of the British Army and even hoped for a Welsh Army Corps, to be formed from the 38th, 53rd and 68th (Welsh) Divisions, along with the Welsh infantry and cavalry units drawn from regular divisions of the Army. This was a hope never realised, for reasons that will be explored. AUTHOR: Lieutenant-General Jonathon Riley is a General Officer with multinational operational command experience at all levels from platoon to corps in theatres from Northern Ireland to the Balkans, the Gulf, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan; as such, he is well placed to penetrate, understand and to illuminate to the reader the challenges that an officer like Tony Farrar-Hockley faced in combat and in high command. He has been awarded the DSO and NATO Meritorious Service Medal and he is an Officer of the Legion of Merit of the United States of America. 150 b/w photographs, 28 line drawings, 24 maps