Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front. Richard Holmes

      Tommy

      The British Soldier On The Western Front 1914–1918

      Richard Holmes

       COPYRIGHT

      HarperPress

       An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      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.

DEDICATION

      For Lizzie, with love and admiration

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE: TOMMY ATKINS

I

ZERO HOUR

SWITZERLAND TO THE SEA

THE EBB AND FLOW OF BATTLE

II

ONE WAR, FOUR ARMIES

OLD WORLD, OLD ARMY

SATURDAY NIGHT SOLDIERS

NEW ARMY

       III

      CHAIN OF COMMAND

      ONE LONG LOAF?

       IV

      A VIEW FROM THE PARAPET

      FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE

      BASE DETAILS

       V

      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

       VI

      THE WILL OF AN ARMY

      MAN AND GOD

      FRIEND AND FOE

      MORALE AND DISCIPLINE

       ENVOI

       REFERENCES

       BIBLIOGRAPHY

       ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY

       ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       INDEX

       P. S.

       ABOUT THE AUTHOR

       INTERVIEW

       READ ON

       PRAISE

       ALSO BY RICHARD HOLMES

       ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

INTRODUCTION

      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.