Lyn Macdonald

This is an account of the first few months of the Great War, from the build-up of the fighting to the first Battle of Ypres, written by the author of Somme, They called it Passchendaele and The Roses of No Man's Land.

The Days of Hope

1914

Shirley Seaton

Lyn Macdonald has gathered an impressive array of contemporary accounts and illustrations ... covering all aspects of the war ... The author has drawn on the experiences of men who came to fight from far away, the Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and the Doughboys from the USA, as well as those of British Jocks and Tommies, and the book touches on subjects as diverse as propaganda, fear, morale, bravery, bawdiness, filth and frivolity, and the stark contrast between the attitudes of civilians at home and the men at the front.

Voices & Images of the Great War

1914-1918

Amidst shattered hopes, disillusionment and grim resolve, this recounting of the year 1915 during World War I is the story of the British Army and their journey from optimism to "carnage incomparable and human squander." Brutal, frank, sometimes painfully funny, and always human, this is the result of 20 years of research which includes many first-hand accounts: diaries, letters, and interviews with survivors. From the battlefileds of Neuve Chapelle, Ypres, Loos, the Shores of Gallipoli and the Flanders swamps all is told from the viewpoint of the men themselves to form a mix of compelling military history and poignant memories.

The Death of Innocence

1915

WORLD HISTORY: FIRST WORLD WAR. 'On the face of it,' writes Lyn Macdonald, 'no one could have been less equipped for the job than these gently nurtured girls who walked straight out of Edwardian drawing rooms into the manifest horrors of the First World War...' Yet the volunteer nurses rose magnificently to the occasion. In leaking tents and draughty huts they fought another war, a war against agony and death, as men lay suffering from the pain of unimaginable wounds or diseases we can now cure almost instantly. It was here that young doctors frantically forged new medical techniques - of blood transfusion, dentistry, psychiatry and plastic surgery - in the attempt to save soldiers shattered in body or spirit. And it was here that women achieved a quiet but permanent revolution, by proving beyond question they could do anything. All this is superbly captured in The Roses of No Man's Land, a panorama of hardship, disillusion and despair, yet also of endurance and supreme courage.

Nurses on the Western Front

The Roses of No Man's Land

By Christmas 1915, the wild wave of enthusiasm that had sent men flocking to join up a few months earlier had begun to tail off, and though the Regulars of the original Expeditionary Force had suffered 90 percent casualties, most, particularly the soldiers themselves, still believed that 1915 would see the breaking of the deadlock. Their hopes were shattered on the bloody battlefields at Neuve Chapelle, at Ypres, at Loos, and far away on the shores of Gallipoli. Generals failed to understand the importance of heavy howitzers and machine guns, convinced that wars were won by the cavalry. They could not imagine a war in which hundreds of advancing troops could be wiped out in minutes by machine-gun fire. As disillusionment began to set in and grim resolve replaced easy optimism, innocence was among the casualties in the trenches that ran through the Flanders swamps. The story of 1915 is stark, brutal, frank, sometimes painfully funny, always human. Above all, it is history from the ground up, told from the point of view of the men themselves. Never before has any writer collected so many firsthand accounts of the experiences of ordinary soldiers, through diaries, letters, and interviews with survivors--and it is the dogged heroism and sardonic humor of the soldiers that shine through the pages of Lyn Macdonald's epic narrative. 1915: The Death of Innocence is a uniquely compelling blend of military history and poignant memories of the fighters who survived the ordeal.

The Death Of Innocence

1915: The Death of Innocence

Witnesses to the Great War

Ordeal by Fire

"Lyn Macdonald has gathered an impressive array of contemporary accounts and illustrations ... covering all aspects of the war ... The author has drawn on the experiences of men who came to fight from far away, the Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and the Doughboys from the USA, as well as those of British Jocks and Tommies, and the book touches on subjects as diverse as propaganda, fear, morale, bravery, bawdiness, filth and frivolity, and the stark contrast between the attitudes of civilians at home and the men at the front"--Dust jacket.

Lyn Macdonald

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