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.

The Baron and the Barmaid

Sir John French, the commander-in-chief of the BEF until December 1915 was one of the many Anglo-Iri…

Absolution at Aubers : May 1915

Although the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 had given grounds for optimism, in the weeks fol…

'Aces Low': The Wimbledon Champion at Aubers

In the years leading up to the First World War, one of the most famous sportsmen of the Edwardian er…

Medal Index Cards

During the late part of the First World War the Army Medal Office began a system of making out an in…

The Execution of the 'Iron Twelve'

The early weeks of the First World War saw the Germans advancing across most of Belgium and large pa…

Aubers Ridge 9 May 1915: The Unpleasant Truth

For it appears ridiculous to call it so, the 'battle' of Aubers Ridge fits perfectly the stereotypic…

British Corps Commanders in the Great War

As identified by Andrew Simpson in his PhD thesis,[1] there is remarkably little written about Briti…

The Chatsworth Rifles raid at Richebourg

An ideal way to obtain an understanding of the First World War is through reading the memoirs of tho…

The Battle of the Boar's Head

Lord Kitchener's famous call for volunteers 'Your Country Needs You' resulted in an overwhelming res…

The Coldstream Guards and Irish Guards at Cuinchy 1915

Cuinchy is a village astride the La Bassée Canal and is referred to by Robert Graves in his classic …

The (other) man who shot down the Red Baron

By far the most famous ‘ace’ of the Great War was Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen, popularly known d…

Two men with five names: The Curious Case of Cornelius Costello

The image of the headstone below, which is in Dover (St James's) Cemetery, is perhaps not terribly u…