Stand To! is out, with special editions marking the interment of the Unknown Warrior and 40th Anniversary of the foundation of The Western Front Association due out later this year.

Stand To! No. 119 October 2020 Front Cover

Edition 119 includes the following articles and book reviews: 

Keeping up the Strength 1914–1967 by Tom Blackman 

The 1/5th Lincolns and the Attack at The Hohenzollern Redoubt – 13 October 1915 by Steve Bramley 

The War Experience of Sergeant Fred Billman, East Surrey Regiment Part II – Guillemont and After by Michael Lucas 

The Pill Boxes of Tyne Cot by Peter Oldham 

So close to success, but thwarted by a Turkish Shell Inspiring his troops: General Henri Gouraud at Keres Dere on Gallipoli by Dr George Bailey 

The Camera Returns (101) by Bob Grundy and Steve Wall 

Behind the Statistics: First World War Medical Records by Richard P. Hughes

Mastering No Man’s Land: Patrolling and Raiding by Fraser Skirrow 

In Ruhleben Camp: British Internees in Germany and their response to captivity by David Snape 

Straightforward: The Fight for the Bois des Buttes on 27 May 1918 – The German Perspective by Sebastian Laudan 

‘The Pill–Box Problem’: The Tactical Importance of German Concrete Fortifications at the Third Battle of Ypres by Glyn Taylor 

Secret German Prisoner of War Camps and the Vanished by Michael Durey 57–59 

Garrison Library > Book Reviews 

  • Children at War 1914-1918 by Vivien Newman
  • DH9 From Ruine to Restoration: The Extraordinary Story of the Discovery in India & Return to Flight of a Rare WWI Bomber by Guy Black
  • The Zeppelin Offensive: A German Perspective in Pictures & Postcards Air World by David Marks
  • THe First Campaign Victory of the Great War: South Africa, Manoeuvre Warfare, The Afrikaner Rebellion and the German South West African Campaign, 1915 -1915 by Antonio Garcia
  • Staring at God: Britain in the Great War by Simon Heffer
  • Battleground Gallipoli by Steve Chambers
  • Sons of Freedom: The forgotten American Soldiers who defeated Germany in World War One by Geofrey Wawro
  • In Haig’s Shadow: The Letters of Major-General Hugo De Pree and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haif edited by Gary Sheffield.
  • On the Road to Victory: Transport with the BEF on the Western Front by Michael Harrison
  • The Fortress - the Great Siege of Przemsul by Alexander Watson
  • The Dandy Ninth: A history of the 9th (Highlanders) Royal Scots
  • The Name Beneath the Stone by Robert Necome (Fiction)
  • Illustrating Armageddon: Fortuninon Matania and the First World War by Jim Davies with an introduction by Lucinda Gosling.

A full contents listing for all editions of Stand To! is available here > Stand To! Full Contents Listing. 

IMAGE: The burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey by Fortunino Matania (1881-1963). 

Published on 20 November, 1920 in The Sphere magazine. The scene in Westminster Abbey as the coffin of The Unknown Warrior is lowered onto bars above the open grave, during the burial service. The coffin is shrouded with the ‘Padre’s Flag’, which went through the war on the Western Front. On top of the coffin have been placed a steel helmet, side-arms and the King’s wreath. King George V is standing at the head of the grave, and behind him the Princes, and behind them statesmen and others in the distinguished congregation. To the left are Queen Mary, The Queen Mother (Alexandra), the Queen of Spain, and Princess Mary. The service was conducted by the Dean of Westminster, seen here facing the grave in the foreground. A prolific Great War artist Matania had a clear and perceptive eye for detail and realism in his work and was blessed with a photographic memory “… able to work at great speed, producing illustrations that were unnervingly photographic in their realism”.

In Jim Davies’ book Illustrating Armageddon: Fortunino Matania and the First World War. Unicorn Press. 

See David Filsell’s review in Garrison Library on the inside back cover. 

There are splendidly printed reproductions of every magazine work which the artist completed for the weekly magazine The Sphere, published by the Illustrated London News. www.maryevans.com 

Image courtesy of Abbott and Holder Ltd., 30 Museum St., London, WC1A 1LH. Picture dealers and conservators. www.abbottandholder.co.uk