Annual Booklist 2020 : Andrew Lock
Andrew Lock is a PhD candidate at the University of Suffolk, researching the BEF’s tactical progress in late 1916 and early 1917, with special focus on Fourth and Fifth Armies’ pursuit of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. He is a battlefield guide, working with Anglia Tours, and has become a trustee of the Great War Group (https://greatwargroup.com/), a new organisation dedicated to promoting education and remembrance across all nations and theatres involved in the First World War.
With the hundredth anniversary of the Unknown Warrior being laid to rest in Westminster Abbey and the unveiling of the Cenotaph, we acknowledge that the centenary of the Great War is now very much over. While public perceptions of the Great War may not have altered significantly in the last six years, some excellent new work has been produced during that time to help our understanding of the conflict. Especially prominent during this period has been the literature coming from the University of Wolverhampton: here are a few that I have enjoyed reading and refer back to in my own research, plus one slightly older work which remains my favourite.
While it may be considered something of a cliché to start a modern Great War reading list with a Gary Sheffield title, there is no reason to see this as problematic. Though possibly not Sheffield’s best-known work; I recommend Command and Morale: The British Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 (Pen & Sword, 2014). With the better part of 25 years of reflecting on Forgotten Victory and everything that came along thereafter, Command and Morale is a work to which I habitually refer when considering the links between the generals and the men. It adeptly addresses controversial moments and individuals, and directs the scholar on to further useful and relevant material. In addressing morale, Sheffield analyses the emotional elements of the conflict in a manner which puts us closer to understanding what motivated the fighting men, and challenges the idea of Tommy Atkins as a hapless victim. While scholarly, the structure of the book leaves a more casual reader able to dip in and out, and so should not be seen as an exclusively academic work.
A book I was directed to after a Western Front Association branch talk, which has helped me to understand the BEF’s manpower struggles, is Alison Hine’s Refilling Haig’s Armies: The Replacement of British Infantry Casualties on the Western Front, 1916-1918 (Helion, 2018). Hine helps explain concepts such as the process by which conscription was introduced, and provides a new perspective on the BEF’s restructuring of early 1918. One feels, having read this work, that previously held ideas such as the War Office deliberately holding back men from travelling to the front, are overstated. Although the manpower problems for Britain’s armies were severe and the demand for men across various government departments, as well as the Army, was huge, the systems in place for raising, training and deploying soldiers held up well. As such, this is a valuable piece of writing.
Through the centenary, and thankfully, continuing on afterwards, volumes focused on each year of the war have been produced by Helion and edited by Spencer Jones. At All Costs: The British Army on the Western Front 1916 (Helion, 2018) is the latest edition, with a 1917 volume on the way. 20 Authors contributed to At All Costs, with essays on subjects such as tactical analysis, logistics, training and commemoration. In a similar manner to Command and Morale, this gives what is a fairly hefty volume a ‘bite-size’ quality, while scholars will appreciate the high standards of research and astute summaries. For those who prefer their Great War action from a little earlier in the conflict, Stemming the Tide and Courage Without Glory cover the actions of 1914 and 1915 respectively, and are of similar style and quality.
Moving away from the Western Front briefly, the Italian front seems to have come more in to the public eye in recent times, possibly as a result of the ultimately unsuccessful efforts to have Walter Tull issued with a posthumous Military Cross for his bravery shown there in early 1918. While there are plenty of good reads on this theatre, John Dillon’s ‘Allies Are A Tiresome Lot’: The British Army in Italy in the First World War (Helion, 2015) is a modern look at the myriad challenges facing the British force, including coalition friction, discipline, and medical services. Dillon addresses some of the long-held views about the pointlessness of the Vittorio Veneto campaign, and paints a picture of a somewhat less unpleasant existence for the British soldier, relative to his compatriots who had remained in France and Flanders.
Finally, the book which I see as being in no small part responsible for my fascination with early 1917 on the Western Front: Jonathan Nicholls’s Cheerful Sacrifice (Leo Cooper, 1990). Nicholls makes good use of accounts to build the reader’s connection to the action, this classic work on the Battle of Arras echoes the style of Middlebrook’s The First Day on the Somme. As such, it is immensely readable and at times, quite emotional. Although Cheerful Sacrifice is now thirty years old, it remains the best account of the whole of the Arras campaign and reveals progress in the BEF from the previous year, but also shows that Haig’s armies still had much to learn.
With that in mind, I’d like to see more critical work on the first half of 1917, in particular the way we look at the Messines Ridge offensive. Although this offensive is traditionally viewed as having been successful, there are two aspects of Plumer’s assault which leave questions unanswered: firstly, was there ever any discussion of quick capitalisation on a victory, in which case were the logistics of crossing the devastated zone considered?; secondly, if was Messines Ridge was so important to an advance out of the Ypres salient, why was it not attacked as part of the breakout in 1918? I have no answers as yet, but if nobody gets there first, I plan to investigate once my other projects are complete!