Peter SimkinsRecensioni

A nice overview of "the great war". Is nicely divides the war into 3 arenas. Short sections on the lives of soldiers and the lives of the people provide a nice human touch. The book does not focus on pre-war causes or post-war implications and is light in those areas. It was the first book on this war that i have read and would say it is a nice introduction. British authors so somewhat from that perspective.

Kitchener’s Army – Brilliant Reprint

Kitchener’s Army by Peter Simkins is a reprint of an earlier addition to remember the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. This is probably one of the best accounts of the raising of the army that had to take place at the beginning of the war. Many do not know that the British standing army at the beginning of the war was not very big and certainly needed men to back up the professional soldier.

Kitchener’s reputation especially after he died was sullied by Lloyd George amongst others who played down the hard work he did to expand the army in such a short time. History has also not been kind to Kitchener’s reputation but with research by Simkins amongst others his once good reputation is being restored and rightly so. Churchill was a man who recognised how successful Kitchener was in raising an army in such a short time and called it ‘among the wonders of the time’ and who am I to argue?

When Field Marshal Lord Kitchener was appointed Secretary of State for War in August 1914 he was able to offer the government of the time with the priceless commodity of confidence from the public in his leadership of the armed forces at a time of war. Within the war cabinet Kitchener was part of a powerful triumvirate with Churchill and Asquith, Asquith needed Kitchener’s military judgement and Kitchener needed Asquith to guide him through politics. This book remembers this and the work they did together to build an army from 1914 until 1916.

The book deals clearly with the recruiting boom that happened as well as the establishment of the Pals Battalions. The book deals head on with the issue of when the recruitment went in to decline but also the establishment of conscription. We also see all the training issues especially with equipment as well as the ordinary man dealing with the transition from Civvy Street to army life.

This is an excellent book produced in association with the Imperial War Museum and it is a wonderful part of the canon of historical research on the British perspective of the First World War. If you want to understand the army from that time then this is an important book that you will consistently come back to as it is an important source of information with excellent references. This is an important book for all those interested in the First World War.

I picked up this third volume in Osprey’s “Essential Histories: The Western Front 1917-1918” by Peter Simkins at a local bookstore on the bargain rack and I am beaming with pleasure that I did. Filled with poignant images and battles described with elegant color maps, Mr. Simkins eloquently hacks through the common fiction and brings to the fore the facts regarding the dynamics and collaboration of the allies in winning the First World War. That I was able to pick up these Osprey editions –I managed to find three volumes in this series on the same shelf- for only two-dollars was icing on the cake.

With a macabre deftness of word and vivid poignant imagery “The First World War (2): The Western Front 1914-1916” by Peter Simkins and Osprey Publishing presents this horrendous slugfest in all its bloody magnitude. Mr. Simkins quickly takes the reader through the initialization of hostilities that began The Great War and the grinding bloody attrition that followed. The catastrophic body counts are astounding with some single engagements costing close to a quarter of a million casualties to each side. Mr. Simkins also goes into the moves and counter moves, their machinations, and even touches on the psychology of each major Western Front protagonist. I can’t find the first book in this series and after reading this one, I now feel that there is a definite hole in my basic understanding of the dynamics on the Eastern Front.