Monty Python got some good alliterative mileage out of that term in their movie “And Now For Something Completely Different.” One sequence in the movie is a fake WWII British newsreel, in black and white, with suitably bombastic narration that includes the opening line “Yes, the war against the Hun continues – and as Britian’s brave boys battle against the Boche…” By the standards of genuine WWII newsreels, that’s actually not as over-the-top as it sounds to modern ears. And during a real WWII deception operation, the fake letter from General Nye to General Alexander which was the centrepiece of the “Mincemeat” disinformation scheme used such phrases as “We have had recent information that the Boche have been reinforcing and strengthening their defences in Greece and Crete…”
Any good book suggestions for WWI?
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Hello All,
Long time lurker, first time poster: Who has a good book suggestion for WWI?
Thanks in advance.
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I haven’t read Professor Hew Strachan’s single-volume survey “The First World War” (Viking, 2004 ISBN 0-670-03295-6), but I have the DVD of the British television series that was made from it. The series is quite short – just 10 episodes – for such a huge topic (the BBC WWII series The World at War was 26 episodes long, as was the earlier BBC WWI series The Great War), and I don’t know to what extent the series compresses or skips material from the book. The series itself is quite good: it includes lots of material I’d previously never encountered, discusses in detail a number of somewhat obscure but fascinating secondary military actions, and it’s particularly good at showing the war from the perspective of ordinary soldiers and civilians. On the flip side, it’s quite skimpy when it comes to the details of some of the big, well-known battles. The German maneuvers through France leading up to the First Battle of the Marne are treated very summarily (there’s no mention of the critical fact that the German right flank was originally supposed to envelop Paris), and we learn next to nothing about the Battle of Tannenburg apart from the fact that the Germans beat the Russians (with no mention made of the fact that the Russians had fatally split their armies, allowing the Germans to fight them one at a time). But it’s possible that this is just a result of the TV series being very selective about which parts of Strachan’s (presumably) more detailed book it presents.
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Jeff Sharaa’s “To The Last Man” is pretty good.
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‘Guns of August’ any body? :-D
For a more recent work for a full story try The First World War a complete History by Martin Gilbert and John Keegens Illustrated History of World War I -
Guns of August is really about the events leading up to the war, not the war itself.
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Ive been ready a book entitled, 1915-The Death of Innocence, the author is Lyn MacDonald. The book mainly covers the year 1915 beggining on the Western Front and the battles in Ypres and Vimy. It takes you to Neuve Chapelle and the first German Gas attacks in Ypres. The fight for Aubers Ridge is detailed. The campaign in Eastern Mediterranean, the landing on the Peninsula of Gallipoli and its battles of Helles and the Southern Sector and Gully Ravine. The book ends with the Battle of Loos. All of these battles are very detailed and have many accounts from men who actually were there and it was their story. I never knew just how bloody this war was and how machine guns would litteraly cut down thousands in just minutes.
Be warned, for me atleast, it was hard reading to follow all that was happening in the book, for I had never read anything about WW1 before and knew very little about it. I had just happened to find the book and picked it up and started reading without really knowing what it was going to be about. Now Im wondering if the author had other books, detailing the other years. The book was a good read. -
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The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 really is the single best book on the Italian Front out there, can’t recommend it enough.
The First World War by John Keegan is the single best comprehensive book of the war, and goes into more detail on the titanic struggle that was the eastern front than a lot of western works tend to, as well as great coverage of the Western Front in 1914. The Romanian, Italian and Ottoman campaigns get brief overviews, but the books inclusiveness and research value, plus its extra attention to the Eastern Front as well as above standard work on the Western Front, makes this book the go to novel for novices and people just looking for a good read.
You have to read All Is Quiet On The Western Front of course, A Farewell to Arms is also a good read.
They need to make an Axis & Allies: Spanish Civil War, I have a super long list of books for that one :-P
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Or US Civil War!
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Thank you all.
I am overwhelmed by the responses. I will definitely have loads of material to read even after release date. -
This is hands down the best book I have read on the War… I’ve read it about 3 times… great maps, detail analysis of every battle… just top-notch
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les mémoires d’un rat and Im Westen nichts neues
it will tell you more than any history book ever could.
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Myth of the great war by Mosier is one of the best books I have ever read. A real eye opener. I read Strachans book did’t enjoy as much as Myth.
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Just read White Heat by John Terraine.
Many good insights and description of weapons development.
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Just found a couple of DVDs “The Century of Warfare”; 3 or 4 episodes on WWI are very useful, a lot of info on the issues we’ve been discussing.
Can’t find it on You tube, though.
Map updated
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Has anyone read Crowns in the Gutter by Ted Racier?
He designed Paths of Glory.
Book is published by Strategy and Tactics Press.
http://shop.strategyandtacticspress.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=B002
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A good series is Marshall Cavendish W.W.I series. This 12 volume set, is usually found in libraries, encyclopedia articles of the war, some written or based on people who lived during the war.
Rich in pictures, graphs, charts, illustrations, side stories of the Great War. If you cannot find what you want to read here, then it probably be a hard search for that particular subject.
Some libraries hace a duplicate set of books, letting you take a volume home. You can try the net, used book stores, good luck in getting a set, enjoy the read, thanks, Pellulo
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P Panther moved this topic from Axis & Allies 1914 on
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