Newly republished: World War 1914-1918 A Pictured History

As part of our ongoing commitment to make historical magazines once more available to members of The Western Front Association, we are delighted to announce a brand new 'part work' is now available to WFA members on our 'Searchable Magazine Archive'. 

The publication in 1934-35 of a weekly magazine called 'World War 1914-1918 A Pictured History' was probably intended to bring images of the war to a large proportion of the UK population. The first issue had a foreword written by the well known author HG Wells. Each of the issues, which ran to 55 in total, cost just 7d. 

A full set of these magazines, which comprise over 2000 pages, have been acquired and carefully scanned and made available to 'interrogate' via our Searchable Magazine Archive'.

This enables keywords to be searched in this and the other magazines. For instance a search for 'cavalry' gives in 'Pictured History' a total of 262 'hits'. A search for 'lancers' (if you wish to narrow down the criteria) will give 16 hits.

Alternatively keyword search 'barbed' (if looking for barbed wire) will provide 72 results and 'Bapaume' will be found 35 times in 'Pictured History'

Of course, these searches can be extended to our other collections ('Bapaume' will appear 395 times across Stand To!, I Was There, Twenty Years After and all the other magazines that we've made available).

Within the 55 issues are a number of chapters, starting in Issue one with 'Heralds of War'. In the penultimate issue we have chapter 119 'Armistice on All Fronts' and then in the last issue (number 55) we have the final chapter (number 120) entitled 'The March to the Rhine'. 

Needless to say these are profusely illustrated with images that are often not familiar (although some images are of course well known to Great War enthusiasts). 

All you need to do to access these magazines is to log in via the 'members log-in' button and then go to the 'Searchable Magazine Archive'. 

Many members will have been using the 'Searchable Magazine Archive' already, but if a reminder is needed as to how to operate this please do take a look at the various videos that are available via the links below. 

An overview of our new Searchable Magazine Archive

A tour of the various buttons that you can use on our Searchable Magazine Archive

How to undertake a multi-word search

If any member is unsure of their username or password to access the members area, please contact Maya or Lisa in the WFA's office.