This is the first major history of the Leicestershire Regiment in the Great war to be published since the 1930s. Weaving personal recollections with official accounts, it brings the character of the four battalions raised in Leicestershire vividly to life. There are over 200 photographs, many from private collections, maps and several appendices.

In this valuable resource, over 1,000 annotated sources from Great Britain, France, and Germany offer a historiographical reference for study of the British army at the beginning and in the first battles of World War I. Unique to this bibliography is the comprehensive coverage of sources, resulting in a more complete picture of the circumstances of activities of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Sources include coverage of the BEF's military role, as well as background information about domestic military considerations and Allied and enemy efforts. This volume will support researchers and students in their efforts to find out what the Expeditionary Force's contributions were in World War I, and for expanding their knowledge of the Great War and British military history. In this valuable resource, over 1,000 annotated sources from Great Britain, France, and Germany offer a historiographical reference for study of the British army at the beginning and in the first battles of World War I. Unique to this bibliography is the comprehensive coverage of sources, and it results in a more complete picture of the circumstances of activities of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Sources include coverage of the BEF's military role, as well as background information about domestic military considerations and Allied and enemy efforts. This volume will support researchers and students in their efforts to find out what the Expeditionary Force's contributions were in World War I, and for expanding their knowledge of the Great War and British military history. The volume includes four chapters of historiographical essays discussings the interpretations and controversies that surround the performance and leadership of the BEF in 1914-1915. The essays direct readers to the major sources that support various ideas and indicate gaps in the historiography of the subject. Following the historiographical essays is an annotated bibliography of more than 1,000 sources that are relevant to the study of the BEF.

This is one of the most valuable books in the armoury of the serious student of British Military history. It is a new and revised edition of Arthur White's much sought-after bibliography of regimental, battalion and other histories of all regiments and Corps that have ever existed in the British Army. This new edition includes an enlarged addendum to that given in the 1988 reprint. It is, quite simply, indispensible.

The Author was among the first to respond to Kitchener’s call for volunteers in 1914. He joined 8th Battalion, The Leicestershire Regiment at the outbreak of war as a Private and, within weeks, he and the Battalion were heading for Northern France with the British Expeditionary Force. In this superb memoir we see how the spirit of adventurous patriotism that carried him to war gradually turns to sober reflection as the fighting intensifies and he loses so many friends and comrades at the Battles of the Somme and the Marne. In 1917 he is commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment and makes a long, hazardous journey to Egypt to join his new battalion only to be recalled to take part in the Second Battle of the Marne, where his leadership and bravery win him the Croix de Guerre. Written with great modesty and insight, Dick Read’s account contains a wealth of graphic descriptions of his experiences over the whole period of The Great War including the Somme 1916, Hindenburg Line, Egypt, Flanders and the Final Advance. The book is further enhanced by the inclusion of excellent drawings by the Author himself. Many memoirs will be published to commemorate the Centenary of ‘the War to end all Wars’ but it can be said with confidence that Of Those We Loved is unlikely to be bettered. It makes for gripping reading both at home and as a companion on any visit to the Battlefields. Refined over the years, but retaining a rare sense of authenticity, this is a moving personal record of a survivor’s war and a profoundly moving epitaph for a lost generation.

In this history the two battalions are dealt with separately but the list of Honours and Awards combines both battalions. When war broke out the 1st Battalion was in Bombay and sailed for home on 3 Sep 1914, arriving on 2 October and joining the newly formed regular division, the 8th. They landed in France on 5 November 1914 taking part in the battles of Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos. Both the regiment's VCs were won by the 1st Battalion, at Neuve Chapelle and during the Aubers Ridge battle. Subsequently the narrative describes the battalion's part on the Somme, at Third Ypres, at Villers Bretonneux and the Chemin des Dames in 1918, and the Second Battle of Arras. The 2nd Battalion in August 1914 was stationed in Sheffield, part of the 18th Brigade of the 6th Division which was widely dispersed with two brigades in Ireland and one in Northern Command. They landed in France in September 1914 and after taking part in the Battle of the Aisne moved north to the Ypres salient where the division stayed for the next thirteen months sustaining some 11,000 casualties before moving down to the Somme. The battalion fought at Lens in June/July 1917 suffering losses of 183 or a quarter of its trench strength, and it was also at Cambrai. Wylly’s is a factual, unembellished account avoiding dramatics. Casualty figures are given from time to time following actions with individual officers named, as are officers with incoming drafts. After the war a memorial tower was erected at the summit of Crich Cliff, near Ripley, to be seen for miles around. The account of its opening, on 6th August of some unspecified year is reproduced from the Derbyshire Advertiser: It commemorates 11,409 of the Regiment who died in the Great War and the 140,000 who served in its thirty-two battalions.