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.

Arnold Ridley aka Private Godfrey of Dads Army

[This short profile of the actor and playwright Arnold Ridley first appeared in a piece by Mark B...

The strangest dog fight of the war?

The German Albatros aeroplane shown here is preserved at the AWM in Australia. It was shot down d...

The First World War in the Classroom: Teaching and the Construction of C...

[This article first appeared in Bulletin 99 August 20214] Barely forty-eight hours into the firs...

Christmas Day 1914 – Goodwill to all men?

Much has been written about the Christmas Day ‘Truce’ on 25 December 1914 – while the popular ima...

The Sinking of the RMS Apapa 28 November 1917

It was towards 4 o'clock on the morning of 28 November 1917 with a choppy sea running - cold, dar...

A Father’s Search

For many families of ‘the missing’, the absence of a known grave in the immediate aftermath of th...

RNAS Caldale, Orkney and the loss of two airships

Situated a couple of miles from Kirkwall on the island of Orkney in the Parish of St. Ola, Royal...

The story of Mike Mountain Horse of the Blood Reserve Canada

Mike 'Miistatisomitai' Mountain Horse was born in 1988, the son of Mountain Horse and Sikski. H...

Max Immelmann – the ‘Eagle of Lille’

The first German air ace of the war was Max Immelmann – known as ‘Der Adler von Lille’ – ‘the eag...

A short and unequal engagement: HMS Strongbow and HMS Mary Rose

HMS Mary Rose and HMS Strongbow (two M-class destroyers) were routinely deployed on convoy duties...

Submarine operations at Gallipoli in 1915

When we think about submarine warfare in the First World War, most people’s thoughts turn to the...

Ivor Thord-Gray - Mercenary, Spy? Thief? … and CO 11th Northumberland Fu...

Ivor Thord-Gray was a man for whom war (to paraphrase Lord Reith) was ‘in his bones’. A Swede, b...