Bøker av David Bilton

The Territorial Force (TF) is often ignored by students of the Great War. However, these 'Saturday Night Soldiers' played a vital and underestimated part in the Allied victory. There were equal numbers of New Army and TF divisions, who were the first called to aid the regular troops in 1914. This book aims to re-dress this oversight.Badges of the Territorial Force Infantry, 1914-1918 is based on over thirty years of research in museums, archives and collections. It is an exhaustive study of the development of the battalion, brigade and divisional signs of the TF units that served overseas during the war.While the divisional signs are well known, there has been little work on those worn by the infantry battalions. This book illustrates the cap and shoulder titles used, as well as cloth signs worn to provide easy recognition in the trenches. Every battalion that served overseas has a listing, along with a brief history and detailed information on the badges worn. It is profusely illustrated and contains information about why a shape or color was chosen, when it was adopted, what size it was, whether it was worn on the helmet, what color the helmet was and even what colors were used on horse transport.What helps make the information accurate and authoritative is that much of it comes from material collected at the time and shortly after the war. Further information came from personal correspondence with hundreds of veterans during the 1980s, some of whom still had their badges and often had razor-sharp recollections about wearing them. Using the illustrations will allow many of the unidentified photographs in family albums and collections to be identified and come to life

Huge number of illustrations, mostly never seen before.

The first detailed account of what life was like in an important industrial and railway town.

Highly interesting to anyone with a passing interest in military badges, this book is invaluable for military collectors.

The book covers the actions of the German Army in the Low Countries during 1915 and 1916. In its broad compass it looks at the battles with the French, Belgians and British, concentrating mostly on the latter. Each phase and aspect of the period is detailed from the German point of view using primary and secondary sources from both Germany and Britain.

The outbreak of war in 1914 aroused an enthusiasm in Hull and within the first six months 20,000 local men had enrolled. Hull was also attacked by Zeppelins and it raised its own Pals Battalions. This book looks at how the experience of war impacted on the City, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Hull were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. The Great War affected everyone. At home there were wounded soldiers in military hospitals, refugees from Belgium and later on German prisoners of war. There were food and fuel shortages and disruption to schooling. The role of women changed dramatically and they undertook a variety of work undreamed of in peacetime. Meanwhile, men serving in the armed forces were scattered far and wide. Extracts from contemporary letters reveal their heroism and give insights into what it was like under battle conditions.

The book follows in photographs, captions and text the German Army's presence in Flanders from its arrival in September 1914 until the summer of 1916. It looks at the Kaiser's Army's battles with the French, Belgians and British, concentrating mostly on the latter and the battles for Ypres.