The iron scent of blood stains the Remembrance Poppy. In the black-magic fields of Flanders and the Somme, corn-poppy petals are nourished by the memory of ‘the missing’. It is as if the souls of those who died there between 1914 and 1918 have been transformed into a million blood-red flowers, whose enduring image reaches […]
WWI
WAR COMPOSERS: George Butterworth
George Butterworth was part of a group of young English composers who were making names for themselves during the Edwardian era. English classical music had languished since the 18th century, but by the 1880s there was a new movement that would produce such creative geniuses as Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Holst. AN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE Many saw Butterworth as one of English music’s great hopes. He […]
Bullet fired by T E Lawrence found in the Arabian Desert
This Model 1911 Colt Automatic bullet, found by archaeologists at the Hallat Ammar Ambush site in 2012, was almost certainly fired by T E Lawrence himself. The bullet, along with other archaeological evidence unearthed during ten years of fieldwork, indicates how reliable his account of the Arab Revolt in Seven Pillars of Wisdom is.
GALLIPOLI: V Beach Madness
To mark Anzac Day 2015, MHM reposts Peter Hart’s action-packed article taking us into the inferno of the Gallipoli landings.
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Charge of the Royal Naval Division, 1915
This photograph shows infantry from the British Royal Naval Division climbing out of the trenches as if for a charge at the Battle of Gallipoli during 1915. Every man grasps their rifle with bayonet fitted, ready for the kind of close-quarters encounter with the enemy that it was expected – wrongly – would decide the war. The hills in the background are […]
World War I: Hill 60
Hill 60 was a low rise south-east of Ypres made from the soil removed in digging a cutting for the Ypres to Comines railway. It had excellent views over both Ypres and Zillibeke, and was captured by the Germans during the first Battle of Ypres in November 1914. On 17 April 1915, in one of the first tunnelling operations by the British Army, six […]
Shell Shock
The term ‘shell shock’ was first used by military doctors in early 1915 to describe the physical ailments of a nervous breakdown. Initially, it was thought the cause was concussion of the brain by shock waves from a shell landing nearby. Before long, it came to sum up a broad range of symptoms, ranging from stuttering incoherently to being struck completely dumb (mutism); from being temporarily blinded to the […]
THE GREAT WAR DEBATE 2014
On 27 October 2014, four military history experts will meet at the Royal United Services Institute to debate the question: Was Britain right to fight in 1914? Was it a necessary sacrifice or just futile slaughter? A war for peace and security, or a war for empire and profit? MHM editor Neil Faulkner will team up with historian […]
BEHIND THE IMAGE – L’infanterie Cycliste
The region of Meaux came dangerously close to being occupied by the advancing German army in September 1914. The German onslaught had already laid waste to the surrounding villages of Chambry, Barcy, Montyon, Varreddes, and Chauconin-Neufmontier, where this image was taken. Meaux was well within their sights, and as the Germans approached, the residents of […]
Britain Goes to War: 4 August 1914
To mark Britain’s momentous declaration of war 100 years ago today, MHM has created this graphic study of the country’s military as it prepared for war. To get a better view of the facts and figures, click on the images below. This is an extract from the full article, published in issue 46 of Military History Monthly.