2 War Biographies by Richard van Emden
Requirements: ePUB Reader | 5.34 + 13.4 MB | Version: Retail
Overview: Richard van Emden has interviewed over 270 veterans of the Great War and has written widely on the 1914-18 conflict.
Previous books include Britain’s Last Tommies, Boy Soldiers of the Great War, All Quiet on the Home Front, Prisoners of the Kaiser and the top five best-selling The Trench. He has visited the Somme and Ypres every year since 1985 and has an expert knowledge of the First World War battlefields.
He currently lives in London.
Genre: Non-Fiction | Historical Biography | War
Boy Soldiers of the Great War: Their Own Stories for the First Time.
At the outbreak of the First World War, boys as young as thirteen, caught up in the overwhelming tide of patriotism, enlisted for active service in huge numbers. Many were to serve in the bloodiest battles of the war, like Frank Lindley, who seeking to avenge his dead brother, went over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was just sixteen. Drawing on unpublished diaries and letters, as well as the testimonies of the last survivors, Boy Soldiers of the Great War records their stories of sacrifice and heroism.
Last Man Standing: The Memoirs, Letters and Photographs of a Teenage Officer.
It hardly seems credible today that a nineteen-year-old boy, just commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders, could lead a platoon of men into the carnage of the Battle of the Somme. Or that, as the machine gun bullets whistled past and shells exploded, he could maintain his own morale to lead a platoon, keeping its discipline and cohesion, in spite of desperate losses. Norman Collins, the author of this superb memoir, was this remarkable man.Despite being wounded three times, Norman lived to see his hundredth birthday so becoming one of the last surviving combatants of this terrible conflict. Through his eloquent memories recorded late in life and a rare collection of letters that he wrote from the front, he tells the story of his life as a young subaltern at the front during 1916 and 1917. Using Norman’s own words, this book follows him from his childhood in Hartlepool to his subsequent service in France. The book also covers such shattering events as the German naval assault on Hartlepool in December 1914 when, as a seventeen-year-old, Norman was subjected to as big a bombardment as any occurring on the Western Front at that time.Norman’s enlistment and training are covered in detail in his letters, as is his posting to France and the epic attack at Beaumont Hamel in November 1916. Service at Arras in April 1917 and in the weeks prior to the Third Battle for Ypres is also recorded before serious injury hospitalized him for a year.Norman’s love for, and devotion to, the men under his command shine out in this book and his stories are gripping and deeply moving. They are illustrated by a rare collection of private photographs taken at or near the front by Norman himself, although the use of a camera was strictly proscribed by the Army. Most of the images have never been published before.
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Boy Soldiers of the Great War:
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Last Man Standing:
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Boy Soldiers of the Great War:
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Last Man Standing:
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