World War I Articles | The Western Front Association

Articles on every aspect of the First World War written by experts in their field. Some were first published in Stand To! or Bulletin, others have been researched and written for the web. If you would like to contribute an article please get in touch.

John Duxbury of 'The Miners Battalion'

Many local organisations were motivated to assist the war effort. They did this by recruiting men...

The Cavalry at Monchy-le-Preux

The Battle of Arras started on 9 April, Easter Monday, 1917. The most famous action in this batt...

The Search for Daniel Lightfoot

The search began with the war memorial on the wall of a former pub, the Dog & Partridge, 5 Ho...

The first French observation balloon of the Great War shot down

October 9,1915; 7am on the Somme-Suippe-Perthe, Marne, Part of the champagne region. 20th co...

Holzminden ‘Colditz’ of the First World War?

The Second World War is probably more associated with escape exploits of prisoners of war, but th...

Those 48 hours of torment

James William Thornton was born in Bethnal Green London in 1895 and worked initially as an indoor...

A German cemetery in the Vosges battlefield

In the early days of the war, burials in the Vosges battlefields often took place in the forests...

The Accrington Pals’ ‘Dug-Out’ of Distinction – Lieutenant-Colonel Arthu...

On 16 October 1925, 51 year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Wilmot Rickman had alighted from his ca...

Devils in Skirts: The Story of George Findlater VC

The tradition of pipers leading soldiers into battle was not a Great War phenomenon. It had devel...

The Sinking of the RMS Falaba, 28 March 1915.

The RMS Falaba was sunk by a German submarine on 28 March 1915. This incident, and that of the si...

A Family at War

One of the most persistent and annoying heresies about the past is that it was much simpler than...

Tom Roberts’ Letters Home 1915

Tom Roberts was born in Llanelli in South Wales, attended Park Street School, the Higher Grade Sc...