World War I Articles | The Western Front Association

Articles on every aspect of the First World War written by experts in their field. Some are 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.

Following in R C Sherriff’s footsteps – the path to his own ‘Journey’s End’ in the Gr…

Crescent Trench - British front line, 31 July 1917 8th Battalion Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, 72 Brigade,…

Cyrus Peck, Piper Paul and the Canadian Scottish at Amiens

This article looks at one battalion's action on 8 August 1918, and is largely based on a chapter of the battalion's hist…

Aubers Ridge 9 May 1915

At the end of April 1915 the Sussex Express carried a cheering report from one of its former reporters, Private W G H…

The Truth About German Atrocities

Founded on the Report of the Committee on Alleged German Outrages Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, 12, Downing…

Duds On The Western Front

Introduction There were two military meanings to the word 'Dud'. The first was the obvious well known one referring to …

When and Why the Doughboys Finally Joined the War

When the First World War began in August 1914, none of the 48 autonomous states that then made up the United States of A…

Pension Record Cards - claims for soldiers who were killed

The next major release of images of the Pension Record cards saved by the WFA has now been made available to WFA members…

The Real Birdsong: The Kilian Tunnel

In the BBC adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' ‘Birdsong' we have seen how the character Stephen Wraysford escaped in a some…

The day my family came

The 20th August 2013 was a hot day. Probably not as hot as the 20th July 1918. Despite these dates being separated by ne…

Leonard Maidment: missing, found, now remembered

As Serjeant Leonard Maidment nervously waited in the pre-dawn gloom of the morning of 20 July 1918 preparing for his fir…

The German Spring Offensive March 1918

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which marked Russia’s withdrawal from the war, was signed on 3rd March 1918 by the new Russ…

The Great War March Casualities

During the early years of the war, March on the Western Front was a time of preparation for the spring offensives both s…