Author: Philip J. Robinson Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 147382012X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 377
Book Description
This is the first part of a planned four-volume series focusing on a hitherto largely neglected aspect of the Great War on the Western Front - the war underground. The subject has fascinated visitors to the battlefields from the very beginning of battlefield pilgrimages in the years immediately after the Armistice, and locations such as Hill 60 and the Grange Subway at Vimy have always been popular stops on such tours. Three other volumes will follow, covering the Somme, Ypres and French Flanders. Each book in the series has a short description of the formation and development of Tunnelling Companies in the BEF and a glossary of technical terms.This volume looks mainly at the central Artois, the environs of the whole line of the Vimy Ridge to the River Scarpe and Arras. It does not aim to be a complete treatment of the intensive mining operations along this front. It concentrates on mining, in the area of Vimy Ridge, in Arras itself and at the use of ancient underground quarries, taking Roeux as a good example. There are extensive descriptions of mining on and around Vimy Ridge, including photography and explanations of systems that have been accessed recently but are closed to the public, such as the Goodman Subway. The narrative draws on French and German archival material and personal descriptions. The text is illustrated with numerous diagrams and maps, in particular from the British and German records, and there is an exhaustive guide to the Grange Subway. Other sites open to the public, in particular the Wellington Cave, are also explained and put into context."BBC History - Archaeologists are beginning the most detailed ever study of a Western Front battlefield, an untouched site where 28 British tunnellers lie entombed after dying during brutal underground warfare. For WWI historians, it's the "holy grail"."
Author: Nigel Cave Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 0850523990 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
This volume covers the battlefields of Arras around Vimy Ridge dealing with the activities of the French and the British and the start of the Battle of Arras. Vimy Ridge gives a balanced view of the fighting by detailed descriptions of various units and individuals.
Author: Peter Barton Publisher: Dundurn ISBN: 1459711386 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
In this new account of the battle at Vimy Ridge, Peter Barton showcases more than 50 rediscovered British and German panoramic photographs of the battlegrounds. Vimy Ridge and Arras also includes previously unpublished testimony, letters, and memoirs from the serving regiments, along with maps, plans, and diagrams throughout.
Author: Jon Cooksey Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 1473893054 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 286
Book Description
A guidebook for those planning a tour of this key battleground of the First World War. The First World War battlefields to the north of Arras—including Vimy Ridge—are among the most famous and most visited sites on the Western Front, rivaled only by those around Ypres and the Somme, and this clearly written, highly illustrated guide is the ideal introduction to them. Visitors can trace for themselves the course of each battle across the modern landscape and gain a fascinating insight into the nature of the fighting in the area—and the wider conflict across the Western Front—throughout the war. The book covers the key battles fought in the northern sector of the Arras front, including the 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge and battles at Villers au Bois, Oppy Wood, and Gavrelle. Expert guides Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland have devised a series of routes that can be walked, biked, or driven, explaining the fighting that occurred at each place in vivid detail. They record what happened, where it happened, and why, and point out the sights that remain for the visitor to see. Their guidebook is essential reading for visitors who wish to enhance their understanding of the war on the Western Front.
Author: Alexander Turner Publisher: Osprey Publishing ISBN: 9781841768717 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Vimy Ridge was one of the most important geographic features on the entire Western Front in World War I (1914-1918). In early 1917 it was considered practically impregnable, but on 9 April the Canadian Army Corps, under the command of the British Lieutenant General Sir Julian Byng, assaulted it as part of the Arras offensive. In one of the most spectacular operational attacks of the war, they seized almost the entire ridge in a single day. This book describes how the innovative efforts that went into every aspect of the preparation for this attack ensured that the Canadian and British troops achieved unprecedented success.
Author: Nigel Cave Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 1783460903 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 355
Book Description
In a new departure in the Battleground Europe series, this book is a guide to both sides of a major battle in this case to the Canadian Corps operations against 1st Bavarian Reserve Corps at Vimy from 9 12 April 1917, which formed part of the opening of the British offensive, known as the Battle of Arras. Historically, the capture of Vimy Ridge was an event far more significant than its undoubted military importance alone. Here for the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps were deployed in line together in one offensive; and although the Corps went to fight even greater battles, Vimy marked a key point in the emergence of Canada as a fully sovereign nation.Although the Canadian side of the story has been well chronicled by a number of writers, until now there has been little concerning the defense during this great battle. Now, the accounts of the German soldiers and their commanders are combined with those of the Canadians and British deployed on the other side of No Mans Land and not simply those who fought above ground, but tunnelers also.
Author: Jason Cobley Publisher: Lulu.com ISBN: 9780244774998 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 188
Book Description
On 9th April 1917, over twenty thousand allied troops emerged from underneath the French town of Arras to mount a surprise attack on German positions outside Arras and up to Vimy Ridge. Men from Britain, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand had toiled for months in the quarries beneath the buildings of Arras, tunnelling out a labyrinth in which they would live, laugh and plan until the day came to emerge into that painful, freezing April morning. Private Robert Gooding Henson of the Somerset Light Infantry is stationed outside of Arras with his brigade and is launched into the battle, where he is separated from his company and ends the day defending Hervin Farm at St Laurent Blangy. Robert is twenty-three years old, a farmer's boy from Blindwell Farm in Somerset, and the novel tracks his journey from joining up against his father's wishes in 1915 to his training in Northern France to his death as a result of wounds in April 1917.
Author: Jonathan Nicholls Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 1844687562 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 239
Book Description
This WWI history examines the significant yet overlooked British offensive that achieved major advances on the Western Front. Fought between April 9th and May 16th of 1917, the Battle of Arras was the most lethal and costly British offensive battle of the First World War. Lasting a brutal thirty-nine days, its average casualty rate was far higher than at either the Somme or Passchendaele. It also represented the longest advance against Germany up to that point since the beginning of trench warfare. In Cheerful Sacrifice, military historian Jonathan Nicholls gives the Battle of Arras its proper place in the annals of military history, enhancing his text with a wealth of eye-witness accounts. One is left in no doubt that the survivor who described it as 'the most savage infantry battle of the war', did not exaggerate.
Author: Philip J. Robinson
Author: Nigel Cave
Author: Peter Barton
Author: Jon Cooksey
Author: Alexander Turner
Author: Nigel Cave
Author: Jon Cooksey
Author: Jason Cobley
Author: Jonathan Nicholls
Author: Nigel Cave