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The War To End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I
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The War to End All Wars, The American Military Experience in World War I by Edward M. Coffman This work, first published in 1968, has been reprinted in 1998. The following is a transcript of interviews which took place in May and June 1998, between Dr Coffman and Paul Guthrie, exploring the elements identified by Dr. Coffman as crucial to understa…
Evidence in Camera. A cautionary tale by Dr A J Peacock
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[The following article first appeared in the third edition of Stand To! December 1981 pp3-6. Western Front Association Members will increasingly have access to many, and eventually all past issues of Stand To!] During the 1980-81 academic year, the Extra-Mural Department of the University of Hull sponsored a short course on World War One. As a res…
'The Western Front. A Plea for Understanding' by John Terraine
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John Terraine’s 1983 Address to the Western Front Association. 1984 [This article first appeared in the journal of the Western Front Association, Stand To! No.10 Spring 1984 pp24-27. John Terraine was the first President of The Western Front Association, founded by John Giles in 1980. For much of 1984, John Giles had been unwell which explains the…
1914 The Memoirs of a Volunteer by Harry Fellows
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[This article first appeared in Stand To! No 11 Summer 1984 pp.34-35. At this time, there were more than 170 members of the Western Front Association who were veterans of the First World War, like Harry Fellows they shared reminiscences, their memoirs, diaries and letters. Members of the WFA have access to a growing online archive of back issues of…
'We Too Were Soldiers' by Dr Vivien Newman
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WAAC workers and Chief Ordnance Office Staff, Rouen 1917 ‘We Too Were Soldiers’ 1 By Dr Vivien Newman Viv Newman's long-standing interest in the Great War led, after many years teaching women's war poetry at A level, to a PhD thesis entitled Songs of Wartime Lives: Women's Poetry of the First World War (2004) University of Essex. The …
Porton Revealed
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General view of Porton from the water tower, c.1918. In the centre background is ’Gas Wood’, where the first gas cylinders to he delivered to the site for testing were placed under the guard of a single civilian night watchman. PRO: MUN 5/386/h/I650/14. The ‘revelation’ earlier this year [1981] by a BBC television reporter of the projected use o…
The First Tanks at Elveden by David Fletcher
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Drive up the A11, through Suffolk, as if you are heading for Thetford in Norfolk and if you can take your eyes off the road for a moment you will see the massive US Air Force base at Mildenhall, on the left. Then, you will see, sticking up above the trees, the tall War Memorial, commissioned by Lord Iveagh to commemorate those from the three adjace…
A Memoir of the Final Advance 1918
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A Memoir of the Final Advance 1918 by Sergeant W G Sweet, 2nd Monmouthshire edited by Barry Johnson (This article first appeared in Stand To! pp13-16 No.30 Winter 1990) Sergeant W G Sweet The Monmouthshire Regiment of the Territorial Force, sent all three of its first line battalions to the 28th Division in France in 1914-15. The 1st Bn, raise…
The Armistice and Afterwards: Extracts from the Diaries of QMS Edgar Wignall RAMC
The Armistice and Afterwards: Extracts from the Diaries of QMS Edgar Wignall RAMC by Clive R Harrison (This article first appeared in Stand To! No.61 April 2001 pp25-30 - including a two page Appendix giving details of the medical and ambulance equipment carried by his unit). On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 …
The Thing Called 'Armistice' by A S Taylor
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(This article first appears in Stand To! No. 74 September 2005 pp 51-52) Stand To! 72 had just arrived, and as I sat in my office I eagerly ripped open the package to scan it, before putting it away to read in detail when I got home. At that moment a work colleague came in just as the journal was open at the article on the 15 (Service) Battalion D…
The Battle Against Venereal Disease in Wartime Britain (1914-1918)
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The Battle Against Venereal Disease in Wartime Britain (1914-1918) by Emily Payne (This articles first appears in Stand To ! 76 April 2006) Introduction to Venereal Disease in Britain during the First World War The outbreak of war in August 1914 brought about demands upon Britain beyond the military requirements of international conflict. Manpow…
British Medical Casualties on the Western Front in the Great War Part 1: Dealing with Wound Related Trauma
British Medical Casualties on the Western Front in the Great War Part 1: Dealing with Wound Related Trauma by Dr David Payne (This article first appeared in Stand To! 83 August / September 2008 pp. 27 - 32) Introduction When confronted with the onset of the Great War in August 1914, the professional British Regular soldier, and his colleagues in…
Divisional Concert Troupes
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This item appeared first appeared in Communication Lines (letters to the editor) in the Stand To ! No. 31 Winter 1991 Sometime ago, a member's request for information had me checking up the name of a divisional concert troupe, a subject on which I had no records. Since then I have been collecting these names which are, frequently, another clue t…
The Generals. John Terraine's 1982 Address to The Western Front Association
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[This piece, a transcript of John Terraine's 1982 address, first appeared in Stand To! No. 7 Spring 1983 pp.4- 7] IMAGE (Photo: IWM Q9689) Haig and his Army Commanders at Cambrai, 11 November 1918. First and second rows, left to right: Plumer (Second Army), Byng (Third Army), Haig, Birdwood (Fifth Army), Rawlinson (Fourth Army), Horne (First A…
Relearning the Lessons. John Terraine’s 1984 WFA Address
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Relearning the Lessons. John Terraine’s 1984 WFA Address (This article, a transcript of John Terraine's 1984 Address first appeared in Stand To! 1985 No.13 pp4-7) "Mr. Chairman, fellow-members of The Western Front Association: I hope you will forgive me if today - contrary to my usual practice - I strike a personal note in my address to you. B…
Germany 1917. The 1987 Presidential Address 'Germany 1917' delivered by the Honorary President John Terraine
Germany 1917. The 1987 Presidential Address delivered by the Honorary President John Terraine (This article first appeared in Stand To! 24 Winter 1988 pp 14 - 18) It was Field Marshal von Hindenburg who said: 1916 spoke a language which made itself heard.' I think he was right: it is important to understand that language, because otherwise…
‘The U-Boat Wars, 1916-1945’ The Presidential Address delivered by the Honorary President John Terraine
(This article first appeared in Stand To! 28 Spring 1990 pp7-11) As some of you will know, but others may not, the book that I have been working on for the last four years came out in September. Its title is Business in Great Waters, from Psalm 107 (the Seamen's psalm), which tells us: They go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great …
'Passchendaele' The 1992 Presidential Address delivered by the Honorary President John Terraine
(This article first appears in Stand To! 37 Spring 1993 pp6 - 10 This year, 8 November was Remembrance Day—remembrance of the two World Wars, this century's two great catastrophes. For the first quarter-century of my life, Remembrance Day was always 11 November, the anniversary of Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, marking the end of the First Worl…
The Final Offensive : The 1993 Presidential Address delivered by the Honorary President John Terraine
[This article first appeared in Stand To! 40 pp 5-11] When the Armistice came on 11 November, seventy-five years ago, it took a great many people (including some who should have known better) entirely by surprise and when it proved also to be the end of the War in Europe they were surprised once more. Having failed to perceive it coming, disbeliev…
The Annual General Meeting Address delivered by Mr John Terraine at the AGM on 31 January 1987
[This article first appeared in Stand To ! 20 Summer 1987] pp 7 - 8 First let me say a word of reassurance: it's only a few weeks ago that a number of you will have received a longish burst from me at the National Army Museum on Founder's Day. Don't worry - this time I shan't keep you long. I only want to say two things, really, about ourse…
‘Understanding’ The 1991 Presidential Address delivered by the Honorary President John Terraine
[This article first appeared in Stand To! 34 Spring 1992 pp7-12] I think I have to begin with an apology today. It is addressed to any of you who may have come to this meeting hoping that they would be hearing about the Aisne, the Department of Northern France named after a quiet, pretty river, noted for its fishing, which in 1914 became the scene…
‘General Joffre’ The 1994 Presidential Address, delivered by the Honorary President John Terraine
[This article first appeared in Stand To! 42 January 1995 pp6-12] The more you study the Great War, the more you can see that it falls into two definite parts - so distinct that they might almost be different wars. The turning point is the end of 1916 and the beginning of 1917. The first part of the war was when the great armies - greater than any…
1914-1918 Essays on Leadership & War by John Terraine : Introduction by Correlli Barnett
The articles that made up 'Leadership & War' were edited by Ann Clayton, in 1998 the Honorary Editor of Stand To! the Journal, The Western Front Association with an introduction by Correlli Barnett, the newly appointed Honorary President, The Western Front Association. 'Leadership & War' was published in September 1998 by the Trustees of T…
Britain in the First World War : Lecture given by John Terraine in 1988
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(Lecture given by John Terraine in 1988) The 1914-1918 War was, for Britain, a traumatic experience - hence the emotional reactions to it which continue this day. It was, I am certain, far more traumatic for Britain than for Europeans, and far, far more so than it was for America. It was also far more traumatic for Britain than the Second World Wa…
Biggles’ Last Flight: the flying career of Captain WE Johns
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This piece originally appeared in the 100th edition of the WFA's landmark print journal 'Stand To!' The author has enhanced this digital version to include links and more photographs. To read back copies of Stand To! online, members will need to go to the Login page Biggles, as many readers will know, was a fictional character created by William …
The Final Whistle: Rosslyn Park - a Rugby Club at War
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This is the story of fifteen men and more from one London rugby club who answered the call to arms in the Great War; they did not live to hear the final whistle that ended the game. Their history begins with their names lost in mystery. Rosslyn Park Rugby Club was established in 1879, the year that some British soldiers died and others won Victoria…
Revist 'The Camera Returns' (47) Beaucourt-en-Santerre with Google Street View
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The Camera Returns (47) Beaucourt-en-Santerre. Original research by Steve Wall and Bob Grundy. Travel the roads of the Western Front in the footsteps of Steve Wall and Bob Grundy courtesy of Google Street view. See for yourself how Steve and Bob have kept returning over the last 30 years to the very place where an photograph of the First World War…
The End of The Zeppelins
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This item first appeared in Stand To! No. 31 (Spring 1991). It was the 22nd piece in a series titled 'The Home Front'. The First Strategic Air Offensive Against Britain The first-ever strategic air offensive commenced against Britain on 19 January 1915 when two German naval Zeppelins bombed the Norfolk towns of King's Lynn and Great Yarmouth. Fou…
The First Air Raid: Great Yarmouth by Bob Wyatt
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This item by Bob Wyatt, the Book Review Editor for Stand To! from 1987 to 2017, appeared in Stand To! No. 27 1989. On the night of 19 January 1915 ... three Zeppelins set off on the first air raid by airships over Britain. Engine failure caused one to turn back but the other two reached England. They had intended to attack the North-East coast but…
The Enemy Above: British Reactions to German Zeppelin Raids in the Great War by Frank A Blazich Jr.
The Enemy Above: British Reactions to German Zeppelin Raids in the Great War by Frank A Blazich Jr. In Stand To! No. 86 August/September 2009 pp 6 - 10 ‘It is Far Better to Face Bullets,’ poster from 1915. Source: Fairchild Memorial Gallery, Lauinger Library, Georgetown University Introduction On 6 April 2008, The Sunday Times in London repor…
A Policeman on board : When Lord Kitchener drowned 6 June 1916
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Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, was drowned in HMS Hampshire on 5 June 1916, when it sank just west of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Kitchener was on his way to a secret meeting with the Russians at Petrograd. This loss was seen as a serious setback to the British war effort. Most people, therefore, failed to notice that amongst the t…
"When Did Armistice Day Become Remembrance Sunday?" by J P Lethbridge
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[This Article first appears in the April 2004 Edition of Stand To! Edition 70. The entire digital archive is open to members of The Western Front Association using their Member Login details]. Readers may sometimes wonder exactly when and why Armistice Day ceased to be marked on 11 November each year, and came to be held on the nearest Sunday inst…
A Perspective on the Western Front by an Indian Army Office on the Western Front by Dr DeWitt C Ellinwood
[This article first appeared in Stand To! No.63 January 2002 pp 29-32. Members of The Western Front Association have access to the full digital archive running to 116 editions and some 2000 articles such as this one}. When Britain entered the war in August 1914, it was immediately apparent that the British Isles could not supply the number of tr…
The Camera Returns No. 10 at the Central Tank Workshops at Erin, near St Pol by Bob Grundy and Steve Wall
'Camera Returns' No. 10 appeared in Stand To! No. 28 Spring 1990. Some 30 years later the 100th 'Camera Returns' approaches. Members of The Western Front Association received Stand To! three times a year and have access to the entire digital archive going back to the Spring of 1981. In Stand To! No. 26, 'The Camera Returns' team visited the site…
Iron Clad. The Service of 202081 Pte Frank Reece Beresford, H Bn Tank Corps by Charles Reece Beresford
[This article first appeared in Stand To! No.40 Spring 1994 (pp13-14) The entire archive of Stand To! (up to the last 12 months) is available online for Western Front Association members to browse and download]. Pte Frank Beresford Having been turned down by the Royal Navy on account of 'defective colour vision'. Frank Beresford volunteered fo…
The Camera Returns No.56 by Steve Wall and Bob Grundy
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This item first appeared in Stand To! No. 74 September 2005 p.54. All these articles can be enjoyed by WFA Members using their Member Login and then browsing the entire Stand To! Archive of 116 publication. Taken on a clear October morning in 1918, this fairly well-known photograph, IWM Q7111, [Top Image of Two] shows men of the 20th Bn, M…
'The Story of the Iron Twelve' [Part 1] by Hedley Malloch
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This article first appeared, in two parts, in the journal of The Western Front Association, Stand To! No. 87 and No. 88. Members of the WFA have access to the entire Stand To! archive editions 1 to the present day. See Join the WFA. This is the story – told over two successive issues of Stand To! - of eleven British soldiers, trapped behind the l…
A Perspective on the Western Front by an Army Officer from India by Dr. DeWitt C. Ellinwood
This article first appeared in the January 2020 edition of Stand To! the journal of The Western Front Association. Members receive Stand To! three times a year and our in-house magazine Bulletin three times a year. Digital Members receive these in digital form and have access to them online. All members have access to the Stand To! archive comprisi…
Celebration the 100th Edition of 'The Camera Returns'
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Celebrating its 100th instalment over 33 years, ‘The Camera Returns’ has become the most enduring feature of the journal of The Western Front Association. In Stand To! 17, summer 1986, Mr R.B Grundy had an article published entitled ‘Q744’. Imperial War Museum Q744 is the well known photograph of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers apparently fixing ba…
‘The care of the wounded horse in Northern France' by Fortunino Mantania War Art: No.6
[This article first appeared in Stand To! No. 44 September 1995]. Fortunino Matania R.I. was born in Naples in April 1881. His childhood was spent in his father's studio, and his art education came solely from breathing in the atmosphere of that environment. He never attended any art school, but as a mere boy began to do black and white drawing…
The Camera Returns No.26 by Bob Grundy and Steve Wall
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[This article first appeared in Stand To! No.44 in September 1995. Members receive the magazine three times a year and have access to the entire archive.] Views of the battlefield after the third Battle of Ypres, 1917. A soldier look across devastated country near Ypres showing a derelict Mark IV Tank, shell-splintered trees and general batt…
G Battalion 1st Tank Brigade at St. Julien on 19 August 1917 by Peter Arscott
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Peter Arscott relates the exploits of G Battalion 1st Tank Brigade at St. Julien on 19 August 1917. [This article first appeared in Stand To! No.37. Members received three issues of Stand To! - the Journal of The Western Front Association, and Bulletin, or in-house member-magazine a year and access to the full Stand To! Archive online]. The dev…
'Waiting for the Wounded' by Sir David Muirhead Bone (1876-1953)
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['War Art' was a regular featured in Stand To! the journal of The Western Front Association between 1993 and 2016. This is No.5 and appeared in Stand To! No.43 April 1985. 69 such reviews were written either by David Cohen, or by David Cohen with his wife Judith Cohen. Members receive Stand To! three times a year and have access to the full digitis…
The Camera Returns No.25 by Steve Wall and Bob Grundy
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A battery of 18-pounder guns of the Royal Field Artillery moving up towards Mailly-Maillet to meet the German advance, 26 March 1918 (IWM Q8631) [https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205216157] The view in 1984 outside Maily-Maillet looking towards Forceville. © Steve Wall and Bob Grundy Go…
Wyndham Lewis The War Writer 'The Bull Run' by Robert Edward Murray
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[This article first appeared in Stand To! No. 31. Spring 1991. Stand To! is sent to all members three times a year and the digital archive of all 118 editions is available online]. Although there is no comprehensive collection of the war writings of the British modernist writer and painter Percy Wyndham Lewis, it is possible to divide his literary…
One Man’s War : with the Chinese Labour Corps France 1918 by Norman Mellor
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[This article first appeared in Stand To! No. 29 Summer 1990. Members receive three copies of Stand To! each year and have access to the entire digital archive of al l118 editions via their member login]. It was in March 1918 that I was posted to the 4th Bedfordshire Regiment, 190th Brigade, 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, on my 19th birthday. I wa…
The Camera Returns No.101 : Cambrai, 9 October 1918
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By Bob Grundy and Steve Wall [This article first appeared in Stand To! Issue 119 October 2020. Members receive Stand To! three times a year, along with our member magazine Bulletin three times a year]. Like everyone else the Camera Returns team were deeply shocked by the sudden death of our friend and mentor Jon Cooksey. We had worked with Jon …
The First World War paid off?
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[This article was originally published in 'Stand To!' number 104 in September 2015. Members of The Western Front Association can access all back-issues of Stand To! via the 'members' area' of the website. ] It is appropriate to re-publish this article as the Covid-19 pandemic is causing questions to be asked about the level of national debt, which…
The Camera Returns No.7 by Bob Grundy and Steve Wall
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[This edition of The Camera Return was originally published in Stand To! No.29 in the Spring of 1989. Bob and Steve had taken their photographs to match the view in December 1988.] Then > Nine British soldiers resting in the main street of Aveluy, 2 km north of Albert. 25 March 1918 © IWM Q8640. To make a match for present day comparisons u…
The George Cecil Memorial at Villers-Cotterets by Michael Aidin
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[This article first featured in Stand To! No.74 September 2005 pp 35-36. Some additional images have been added]. The memorial (below) to Lieutenant George Cecil by Francois Sicard (1862- 1945) is one of the finest private monuments erected on the Western Front. Situated in the extensive Foret de Retz at Villers Cotterets, about 20 miles from Co…
Guillemont, 3 September 1916 Tactics and Insights
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‘Not a Single Blade of Grass...’ by Sebastian Laudan [This article first appeared in Stand To! No.106 July 2016 Special Edition]. In 1926 Oberstleutnant aD (Lieutenant Colonel, retired) Wilhelm Nau published the last volume of a series of books covering the participation of the infantry regiment he had been serving with in Belgium and France thro…
Stereography in the Great War (in three parts) Part I
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PART ONE Stereography in the Great War Part I: Paper card manufacturers by Ian Ference [This article first appeared in Stand To! (122 April 2021 pp. 36-41) Stereography, which for the purposes of this three–part article series can be easily understood as ‘the depiction of objects in 3D on flat surfaces’, existed before photography did. As soon…
War Art with David Cohen
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The late David Cohen made a huge contribution to The Western Front Association during his lifetime. He had a professional interest in the gallery he established 'David Cohen Fine Art' in 1984 featuring the work of artists and illustrators of the First World War, commemorative ware and ephemera. David Cohen was closed involved in the affairs of T…
The Munitionette’s First Heavy Shell. The Struggle to produce Munitions 1915 to 1918 by John Hughes-Wilson
If, in modern warfare, fuel is the blood of victory, then munitions – in all their varied forms – are the muscles and sinews. This raw truth was first understood as the First World War deteriorated into a crude slogging match dominated by guns, shells, machines and the power of industrial output to support soldiers on the battlefield. The Germans e…
Shackleton’s Pall Bearer
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William Sandison, oldest of eight children, was born on the 4th of January, 1898. His post-war experience was typical of many men from the Shetland Islands who returned home from the Great War. William's family grew up in the docks area of the island capital of Lerwick, working in and surrounded by the herring fishing industry. Many Shetlanders rel…