Command and Morale: The British Army on the Western Front 1914-18

by Gary Sheffield

Overview

Gary Sheffield is one of the most versatile and stimulating of military historians at work today. For 25 years, in a series of perceptive books and articles, he has examined the First World War from many angles - from the point of view of the politicians and the high command through to the junior officers and other ranks in the front line. Morale and Command presents in a single volume a range of his shorter work, and it shows his scholarship at its best. The range of his writing, the insights he offers and the sometimes controversial conclusions he reaches mean this thought-provoking book will be indispensable reading for all students of the First World War and of modern warfare in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781590218
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	05/19/2014
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Born in 1961, Gary Sheffield studied history at the University of Leeds, before beginning to lecture on war studies at the Royal Military Sandhurst Academy. He then completed his PhD at King’s College, London.

After finishing his studies, Sheffield moved into full-time academia, as Professor of Modern History at King’s College, and then the first Professor of War Studies at the University of Birmingham. He later moved to the University of Wolverhampton.

Sheffield has been published widely on military history subjects, with his second book, The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army (2011) widely commended in both academic and popular circles alike.

Sheffield currently serves as Vice President of the Western Front Association and sits on the Advisory Board of the Royal United Services Institute.

Table of Contents

List of Plates vi

Foreword Peter Simkins vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xiii

Part 1 Context 1

1 Britain and the Empire at War, 1914-1918: Reflections on a Forgotten Victory 3

2 'Not the Same as Friendship': the British Empire and Coalition Warfare in the Era of the First World War 21

Part 2 Command 35

3 Omdurman to Neuve Chapelle: Henry Rawlinson, Douglas Haig and the Making of an Uneasy Command Relationship, 1898-1915 37

4 The Australians at Pozières: Command and Control on the Somme, 1916 54

5 Hubert Gough: An Army Commander on the Somme and Ancre 72

6 Haig and the British Expeditionary Force in 1917 100

7 Vimy Ridge and the Battle of Arras, April-May 1917 118

8 The Indispensable Factor: British Troops in 1918 131

Part 3 Morale 151

9 The Morale of the British Army on the Western Front, 1914-1918 153

10 Officer-Man Relations, Discipline and Morale in the British Army of the First World War 176

11 'A very good type of Londoner and a very good type of colonial': Officer-Man Relations and Discipline in the 22nd Royal Fusiliers, 1914-1918 186

12 The Operational Role of British Military Police on the Western Front 196

13 The Effect of the First World War on Class Relations in Britain: The Career of Major Christopher Stone DSO MC 213

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

"For well over two decades Prof. Sheffield (Wolverhampton) has been producing ground-breaking work on the Great War, sorting through the evidence to brush away the many myths which have come to dominate popular, and at time academic, perceptions of the conflict to give us a more accurate picture of that traumatizing event in modern Western history...a very useful contribution to the literature on the BEF."

The NYMAS Review

For well over two decades Prof. Sheffield (Wolverhampton) has been producing ground-breaking work on the Great War, sorting through the evidence to brush away the many myths which have come to dominate popular, and at time academic, perceptions of the conflict to give us a more accurate picture of that traumatizing event in modern Western history...a very useful contribution to the literature on the BEF.

NYMAS Review