Letters from the Trenches: The First World War by Those Who Were There

Letters from the Trenches: The First World War by Those Who Were There

by Jacqueline Wadsworth
Letters from the Trenches: The First World War by Those Who Were There

Letters from the Trenches: The First World War by Those Who Were There

by Jacqueline Wadsworth

eBook

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Overview

A history of World War I—told through the letters exchanged by ordinary soldiers and their families.
 
Letters from the Trenches reveals how people really thought and felt during the Great War, and covers all social classes and groups from officers to conscripts to women at home to conscientious objectors. Voices within the book include Sgt. John Adams, 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers, who wrote in May 1917: “For the day we get our letter from home is a red letter day in the history of the soldier out here. It is the only way we can hear what is going on. The slender thread between us and the homeland.” Pvt. Stanley Goodhead, who served with one of the Manchester Pals battalion, wrote home in 1916: “I came out of the trenches last night after being in four days. You have no idea what four days in the trenches means . . . The whole time I was in I had only about two hours sleep and that was in snatches on the firing step. What dugouts there are, are flooded with mud and water up to the knees and the rats hold swimming galas in them . . . We are literally caked with brown mud and it is in all our food, tea etc.”
 
Jacqueline Wadsworth skillfully uses these letters to tell the human story of the First World War: what mattered to Britain’s servicemen and their feelings about the war; how the conflict changed people; and how life continued on the home front.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781473845299
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date: 01/31/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 176
File size: 17 MB
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About the Author

Jacqueline Wadsworth is a freelance writer, specialising in social history. In addition to Letters from the Trenches, she is author of another two Pen & Sword titles, released in commemoration of the centenary of the First World War - Bristol in the Great War (2014) and Dorchester, Weymouth and Portland in the Great War (2015).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgements xii

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 War is Declared

The Home Front Prepares for Conflict 1

Chapter 2 Let Battle Commence

Firing the Opening Shots 15

Chapter 3 Here Come the Volunteers!

Kitchener's Army Marches Off to War 29

Chapter 4 Writing to Sweethearts and Mothers 42

Chapter 5 Call to the Empire

The Experiences of Troops from Overseas 55

Chapter 6 Putting Pen to Paper

The Postal Service in Wartime 67

Chapter 7 Women at Home

A World Without Men 80

Chapter 8 No Choice but Conscription 95

Chapter 9 Marriage at a Distance

Spanning the Miles with Letters of Love 107

Chapter 10 Regret to Inform You … 117

Chapter 11 Families in Search of the Facts 126

Chapter 12 Tanks, Tin Hats and Aeroplanes

The New Face of Modern Warfare 132

Chapter 13 'With Our Backs to the Wall'

The Final Push for Victory 140

Chapter 14 The Long Road Home

Adjusting to a Changed World 150

Epilogue 171

Lest We Forget: The Letter-writers and Copyright-holders 175

Bibliography 179

Index 181

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