The British at First and Second Ypres
3/5
()
About this ebook
Bob Carruthers
Bob Carruthers is an Emmy Award winning author and historian, who has written extensively on the Great War. A graduate of Edinburgh University, Bob is the author of a number of military history titles including the Amazon best seller The Wehrmacht in Russia.
Read more from Bob Carruthers
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Illustrated and Annotated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wolf Pack: The U-Boats at War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedieval Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler: A Life in Pictures: The Official Third Reich Publication Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Official U-Boat Commanders Handbook: The Illustrated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Tank Hunters: The Panzerjäger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1939–1941 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gestapo on Trial: Evidence from Nuremberg Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTiger Command!: A Novel Based on a True Story of Combat on the Russian Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Artillery in Combat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTiger I: The Official Wartime Crew Manual Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSturmgeschütze: Armoured Assault Guns Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Handbook on German Military Forces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSS Grenadiers on The Russian Front Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The U-Boat War in the Atlantic, 1942–1943 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen Years at Hitler's Side: The Testimony of Wilhelm Keitel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Panther V in Combat: Guderian's Problem Child Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEastern Front: Encirclement and Escape by German Forces Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Caesar's Conquest of Gaul: The Illustrated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrench Warfare: Contemporary Combat Images from the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crimean War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Der Adler: The Official Nazi Luftwaffe Magazine: The English Language Editions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Waffen SS in the West: A Photographic Journal of the SS on Campaign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalking Into Hell: The Somme Through British and German Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPanzers I & II: Germany's Light Tanks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPanzer III: Germany's Medium Tank Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Into the Gates of Hell: Stug Command '41: A Novel Based on a True Story of Combat on the Russian Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVoices from the Luftwaffe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great War at Sea - The Opening Salvos: Contemporary Combat Images from the Great War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The British at First and Second Ypres
Titles in the series (100)
D-Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armoured Warfare in Northwest Europe, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAuschwitz Death Camp Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great War Fighter Aces, 1916–1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAllied POWs in German Hands 1914–1918 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5B-17 Memphis Belle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armoured Warfare in the North African Campaign Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Mountain Troops, 1939–1945: The Gebirgsjager Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinal Days of the Reich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in the Battle of the Bulge, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle for the Caucasus, 1942–1943 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Germans on the Somme Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crushing of Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armoured Warfare in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Himmler's Nazi Concentration Camp Guards Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Afrika-Korps Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Adolf Hitler Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Armoured Warfare on the Eastern Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlitzkrieg Russia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChiang Kai-shek Versus Mao Tse-tung: The Battle for China, 1946–1949 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Defeat on the Eastern Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzkrieg in the West Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Armoured Warfare and the Waffen-SS, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Headquarters, 1939–1945 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Waffen-SS on the Western Front, 1940–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsT-34: The Red Army's Legendary Medium Tank Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Armoured Warfare in the Korean War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Armoured Warfare and Hitler's Allies, 1941–1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Baron Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/56th SS Mountain Division Nord at War, 1941–1945 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related ebooks
The Germans at Arras Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe British on the Somme 1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Germans on the Somme Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Push: The Battle of the Somme, 1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Army from Mobilisation to First Ypres Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in the First World War 1916-18 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carnage: The German Front in World War One Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Blitzkrieg in the West Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The German Army on the Western Front, 1917–1918 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Germans in Flanders, 1914–1915 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare from the Riviera to the Rhine, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Retreat from Mons 1914: South: Etreux to the Marne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAllied Armies in Sicily and Italy 1943–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOperation Bluecoat: Breakout from Normandy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of the Ypres-Comines Canal 1940: France and Flanders Campaign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDunkirk Evacuation, Operation Dynamo: Nine Days that Saved an Army Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheldrake: Memories of a World War II Gunner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWith the Tanks, 1916–1918: Memoirs of a British Tank Commander in the Great War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Retreat from Mons 1914: North: Casteau to Le Cateau Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Falaise Gap Battles: Normandy 1944 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Army at Cambrai Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sniping in France 1914-18: With Notes on the Scientific Training of Scouts, Observers, and Snipers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWestern Front, 1914–1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ironclads of Cambrai Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe BEF in 1917: Arras, Vimy, Messines, Passchendaele and Cambrai Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWingate's Men: The Chindit Operations: Special Forces in Burma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle For Warsaw, 1939–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlanders 1915 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Winter War 1939–40 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War in Italy, 1943–1944 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: The Original, Accurate, and Complete English Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The British at First and Second Ypres
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The British at First and Second Ypres - Bob Carruthers
Chapter One
THE BEF AND THE ROAD TO YPRES
The photographs in this book depict the men of the British Expeditionary Force, or BEF, who, from 1914–1918, formed the garrison of the beleaguered Belgian town of Ypres and the salient which surrounded it. The BEF was the force sent to the Western Front during the opening days of the First World War. The first wave of men from 1914 who look back at us from these pages were the regular volunteers of the standing army and they represented the cream of Britain’s manpower; highly trained, motivated and professional in their outlook.
Under the terms of the Entente Cordiale, the British Army’s role in a European war was to embark soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, which initially was to consist of six infantry divisions and five cavalry brigades that were arranged into I Corps and II Corps. However, the British Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, believing Britain should husband her resources for a long war and guard against German invasion, convinced the Cabinet on 6 August that the initial BEF led by General French would consist of only four infantry divisions (and one of cavalry), and not the six which had been promised.
The hurried preparations for the movement of the BEF to France are brought vividly to life by the photographs in this book, which are largely drawn from contemporary periodicals. Where possible the flavour of the period has been honoured by using the original captions. This can lead to a rather jingoistic tone, but that was certainly the mood of 1914 and it seems appropriate to reflect that in these pages.
Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, who was purportedly dismissive of the BEF, allegedly issued an order on 19 August 1914 calling on the Imperial German army to ‘exterminate… the treacherous English and walk over General French’s contemptible little army’. Hence, in later years, the survivors of the regular army dubbed themselves ‘The Old Contemptibles’. It is important to note, however, that no evidence of any such order being issued by the Kaiser has ever been found. It was probably a British propaganda invention, albeit one often repeated as fact.
The term ‘British Expeditionary Force’ is often used to refer only to the forces present in France prior to the end of the First Battle of Ypres on 22 November