The day Sussex died: The Battle of the Boar’s Head, 30 June 1916
In the second part of our special, Stephen Roberts focuses on the little-known battle whose appalling casualty rate laid down a marker for the Somme.
trench warfare
Somme, 1916
In the first part of our special, Stephen Roberts marks the 110th anniversary of the offensive that saw the bloodiest day in Britain’s military history, before looking in more detail at the Battle of the Boar’s Head in the second part.
The Somme in 10 objects
Infographics: Amy Brunskill / Images: public domain, National Army Museum, Canadian War Museum
The Mill on the Meuse
In the second part of our special feature, Graham Goodlad examines the epic French defence of the fortress of Verdun in the longest battle of World War I.
Balkan breakdown: The Central Powers at war: PART 4 – BULGARIA
Concluding our series on Imperial Germany’s Great War allies, Graham Goodlad examines Bulgaria’s belated and ultimately disastrous entry into the conflict.
Disaster over the Alps: The Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian Front, 1915-1918
In the second part of our special, Graham Goodlad assesses Austria-Hungary’s failure to achieve victory against Italy.
German prisoners, France, August 1918
This image shows a huge crowd of German soldiers captured by British forces during the Battle of Amiens on 27 August 1918, less than three months before Armistice Day. Taken at the town of Abbeville, well behind the frontline, the…
Far from Suitable? Haig, Gough and Passchendaele: A reappraisal
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER Stand on any part of the battlefield of Passchendaele and you will be struck by how unremarkable it looks. Gentle slopes are topped by woods, while hedges, villages, and small towns pepper the area, which is…
The Eastern Front: A history of the First World War
REVIEW BY JONATHAN EATON The Eastern Front: a history of the First World War is the second instalment in Nick Lloyd’s trilogy exploring the experiences and history of the conflict through an intensive focus on individual combat theatres. Lloyd is…
War on Film – All Quiet on the Western Front
The new All Quiet on the Western Front will, I’m sure, be popular and, like the British feature film 1917 (directed by Sam Mendes), will bring the horror and futility of the war to a new generation.
New German-language adaptation of classic war novel coming to Netflix
Production of All Quiet on the Western Front took place in the spring of 2021, with filming in Belgium, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
The Western Front
In this authoritative new history, WWI historian Nick Lloyd goes against the widespread myth of the war of 1914-1918 as one of stupidity and pointlessness. Amid the mud and mire of the trenches, he argues, there was extensive innovation and…
War of Words – ‘trench warfare’
Combat on the Western Front during World War One is justly infamous for its grim lethality. Soldiers on both sides dug deep trenches in the earth to escape murderous enemy fire.
Wartime Christmas
Christmas at the front was about making do. Here, for instance, British soldiers have gathered in a shell hole around a makeshift table. Some are sitting on the ground, others on what appears to be rolled-up sheets of wire.