This book reveals the impact of communications on the military operations of the British Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

Though wireless communication was in early development during World War I, the technology could have made a profound impact on tactical operations and on the entire strategic conduct of the war. Providing details on how and why the technology did not fulfill its promise as a great military tool until years later, the book points primarily to the British army’s institutional bias against wireless communication as the technology’s downfall, reinforced by the crude, unreliable wireless sets with which the army began the war. It also demonstrates how improved wireless communications between infantry, command, artillery and air observation could have improved the flexibility, accuracy and effectiveness of the British military strategy in the German Spring Offensive, the Hundred Days Counteroffensive and the battles of the Somme, Passchendaele, and Cambrai.

This first ever biography of Antarctic explorer Sir Raymond Priestley (1886-1974) covers his full (at times life-threatening) involvement with Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1907-1909 Nimrod Expedition and Robert Scott's 1910-1913 Terra Nova Expedition. Priestley's service with the British 46th Division during World War I won him the Military Cross for gallantry. After the war, he played a leading role in establishing the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. He was later appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne and then of the University of Birmingham and also helped establish the University of the West Indies. He received a knighthood for his services to education. During retirement--a misnomer in his case--he went with the Duke of Edinburgh on the Royal Yacht Britannia as an Antarctic expert and joined the American Deep Freeze IV Expedition during his tenure directing the British Antarctic Survey. Despite the demands of his career, Priestley remained an involved family man throughout.

In 1915 the 1st Australian Division led the way ashore at Gallipoli. In 1916 it achieved the first Australian victory on the Western Front at Pozières. It was still serving with distinction in the battles that led to the defeat of the German army in 1918. To Win the Battle explains how the division rose from obscurity to forge a reputation as one of the great fighting formations of the British Empire during the First World War, forming a central part of the Anzac legend. Drawing on primary sources as well as recent scholarship, this fresh approach suggests that the early reputation of Australia's premier division was probably higher than its performance warranted. Robert Stevenson shows that the division's later success was founded on the capacity of its commanders to administer, train and adapt to the changing conditions on the battlefield, rather than on the innate qualities of its soldiers.

Communications have always been, and are still a vital part of the Army's fighting power. Only with clear and trusted communications can commanders support, control, and lead their units and soldiers. The evolution of electrical communications in the last 150 years has been one of the most important developments humanity has ever witnessed. As the advantages that from ever more complex equipment became apparent the need for a technical arm of the Army, who specialised in communication systems, became apparent. The Royal Corps of Signals was founded in 1920 and since its founding the Corps has been leading the development of communications; delivering them in a variety of operational theatres.

In a series of concise, thought-provoking chapters the authors summarize and make accessible the latest scholarship on the middle years of the Great War 1915 and 1916 and cover fundamental issues that are rarely explored outside the specialist journals. Their work is an important contribution to advancing understanding of Britains role in the war, and it will be essential reading for anyone who is keen to keep up with the fresh research and original interpretation that is transforming our insight into the impact of the global conflict. The principal battles and campaigns are reconsidered from a new perspective, but so are more general topics such as military leadership, the discord between Britains politicians and generals, conscientious objection and the part played by the Indian Army. The longer-term effects of the war are also considered facial reconstruction, developments in communication, female support for men on active service, grief and bereavement, the challenge to religious belief, battlefield art, and the surviving vestiges of the war. Peter Liddle and his fellow contributors have compiled a volume that will come to be seen as a landmark in the field. Contributors: Andrew BamjiClive BarrettNick BosanquetJames CookeEmily GlassGraeme GoodayAdrian GregoryAndrea HetheringtonRobert JohnsonSpencer JonesPeter LiddleJuliet MacdonaldJessica MeyerDavid MillichopeNS NashWilliam PhilpottJames PughDuncan RedfordNicholas SaundersGary SheffieldJack SheldonJohn SpencerKapil Subramanian

During the 1920s and '30s, Major General George Owen Squier was one of the most famous men in America and abroad, as a scientist, soldier, military strategist, electrical communications expert and inventor, aeronautical pioneer, diplomat, and philanthropist. He rose from humble beginnings in Michigan to the position of Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army. He led the effort in World War I to equip the United States and its allies with American-made airplanes and engines, an effort which started slowly but at the time of the Armistice was rapidly coming to fruition. He also equipped American forces with modern communications, the first belligerent in the war to do so. As an inventor he is not well known today compared to his contemporaries Alexander Graham Bell and the Wright Brothers, who respected his intellect and originality. Yet his inventions in communications technology are fundamental to today's telephone system and were the technical basis for the company he founded, Muzak. Despite his many achievements no biography of George Squier has, before now, been published.

DIVThe first biography of the man who created the way we look for airmen downed in combat behind enemy lines/div

The Western Front has become, once again, and after 100 years, an important and increasingly popular tourist destination. The Centenary is already encouraging large numbers of visitors to engage with this highly poignant landscape of war and to commemorate the sacrifice and loss of a previous generation. Interest is also being sharpened in the places of war as battle-sites, trench-systems, bunkers and mine craters gain a clearer identity as war heritage. For the first time this book brings together the three strands of heritage, landscape and tourism to provide a fresh understanding of the multi-layered nature of the Western Front. The book approaches the area as a rich dynamic landscape which can be viewed in a startling variety of ways: historically, materially, culturally, and perceptually. To illustrate these two dominant interpretations of the regions landscape commemorative and heritage are highlighted and their relationship to tourism explored. Tourism is a lens through which these layers can be peeled away, and each understood and interacted with according to the individuals own knowledge, motivation, and degree of emotional engagement. Tourism is not regarded here as a passive phenomenon, but as an active agent that can determine, dictate and inscribe this evocative landscape. The Western Front: Heritage, Landscape and Tourism is a timely addition to our increasing interest in the First World War and the places where it was fought. It will be indispensable to those who seek a deeper understanding of the conflict from previously undervalued perspectives.

This book uses historical, sociological, theological, social-psychological, and especially literary insights to depict various forms of European Jewish patriotism from the French Revolution until the Holocaust, combining scrutiny of long-term socio-historical and religious forces with more recent factors deriving from the rise of secular enlightenment, emancipation and nationalism.