Reading about ww1

[Tyriion]

Hi all,

I’m looking for good books on the military campaigns of ww1. I have plenty of books about the causes, but I’d like to read more about the wartime.

Any suggestions?

 

[liveandletdie14]

Don't know how militaristic you want to go into it and I'm not the biggest WW1 knowledge but:

Alexander Watson - Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914-1918 - Goes a bit into origins but examines the war effort from those 2 point of view.

Haven't read them but Prit Buttar's books on the Eastern Front as supposed to be good.

The Warin the North Sea by Quintin Barry is also good focusing on the naval war.

Although it mainly focuses on immediate post war period

Robert Gerwarth - The Vanquish: Why the First World War failed to end 1917-1923 - Focuses on the immediate chaos following WW1

 

[Tyriion]

Thanks, the last one is on my shelf already.

 

[Zinegata]

Keegan's First World War is the best single-volume account of it in my estimation.

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

All Quiet on the Western Front

 

[Graf Zeppelin]

Keegan's First World War is the best single-volume account of it in my estimation.

Yes indeed, I also like his work on Klausewitz.

 

[Tyriion]

Thanks again. Is all is quiet on the western front fiction?

 

[The-Doc]

I'll second that nomination for Keegan being the best one.

I'd also like to mention Hew Strachan's "First World War in Africa" if you're looking to get a feel for things outside of the usual theatres.

 

[Zinegata]

Thanks again. Is all is quiet on the western front fiction?

Yes, it's fiction. Written by a veteran but don't expect an actual historical account.

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

Thanks again. Is all is quiet on the western front fiction?

Not exactly. Certainly, it is not grand strategy; but it is a universally acclaimed first hand account of the survivors.

Eric Maria Remarque was a writer at 16 and conscripted and deployed to the Western Front at the age of 18 in 1917. 'All's Quiet on the Western Front' was a best selling novel, and the basis of mulitple award winning movies. It is a first-hand depiction of the lives of a combat unit of German soldiers and the actual conditions and routines they endured as written by a combat veteran watching the war wind down to its inevitable conclusion.

How accurate was his description? Goebbels had the best selling novel banned and burned after the Nazis came to power; Eric Marie Remarque was publicly humiliated by the Nazi state, and forced to move his family to Switzerland before the war.

The Nazis hated the book so much that during their bloodlust during the war in 1943 they arrested and executed his little sister because Remarque was 'beyond our reach'.

 

[Easy-Kill]

Robert Massie's books give a very good description of the war at sea, although there is much overlap between them.

Robin Neilland's books give a very different context of the war. He was a soldier (sgt I think) turned historian and wrote on the BEF in the early stages, gave a fantastic study of the greatest generals and also looked at how the war evolved to attrition at Verdun and the Somme.

The DevilsD chariots gives a detailed account of the development of tanks and tank warfare, but is very factual and gets someone boring to read after a while.

Fall of the Ottomans is another good book detailing parts of the war against the ottoman empire.

Note that these books are Anglo centric, but this is the history that interests me the most.

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

Note that these books are Anglo centric, but this is the history that interests me the most.

It is a wise man that knows his own mind.

 

[Tyriion]

Thanks again all. I have read All is quiet on the Western Font cover to cover last night. You think you know from the big numbers you have read.

Meanwhile I'll keep collecting your suggestions. I've got Masie's Dreadnought already, good book indeed.

 

[Zinegata]

Thanks again all. I have read All is quiet on the Western Font cover to cover last night. You think you know from the big numbers you have read.

Just don't quote it in a historical discussion. There's a big difference between "a novel written by a survivor of the war" and "an actual account of trench warfare". There are many other examples of the latter that don't take fictional shortcuts; and if anything it shows that the war was even more horrible.

Meanwhile I'll keep collecting your suggestions. I've got Masie's Dreadnought already, good book indeed.

Castles of Steel is the one where the fighting really starts though.

 

[Henry IX]

Prit Buttar's Germany Ascendant, Collision of Empires and The Splintered Empires are an excellent account of the Eastern Front including the confused warfare that followed the collapse of the Russian Empire.

 

[Jorlaan]

True World War I Stories, Jon E Lewis editor, is a good book with a lot of individual soldiers stories from the war. Many are about a specific event or battle, but some are slightly longer term if I remember correctly, it's been a while since I read it.

 

[pirro]

Sleepwakers. How Europe went to war is one of the best books I have read on the subject.

 

[Imgran]

Not a book per se, but the Great War channel on YouTube is excellent, and if you pay attention to his citations of his sources, Indy leaves a lot of clues for further reading. He'll mention books and accounts in passing that if you follow the trail and look these works up, are very much worth reading, and can help paint a very broad picture of the war.

 

[Vlad_Dracul1989]

Try a little of Central Powers: both books are easily to find and translated to english.

"Reflections on the World War" by Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of German Empire (1909-1917)
- military campaigns of Great War from political perspective

"The memoirs of the Crown Prince of Germany" by Wilhelm Prinz von Preußen
- from perspective of 5th Army's commander and Kaiser's son

 

[Proud Reactionary]

I once read a book which was a compilation of diary entries from a British soldier written in his time in the trenches. Soldiers were forbidden from keeping them in case of capture but that didn't put them all off. It was an excellent immersive experience and good for learning about the experiences of the common soldier. I believe it was called Sapper Martin.