The Battles of the British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1915: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders)

206 Pages·2005·0.95 MB·English

by  Fred R. van Hartesveldt

THE BATTLES OF
THE BRITISH
EXPEDITIONARY
FORCES, 1914–1915:
Historiography and
Annotated Bibliography
Fred R. van Hartesveldt
PRAEGER
THE BATTLES OF THE
BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY
FORCES, 1914–1915
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THE BATTLES OF THE
BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY
–
FORCES, 1914 1915
Historiography and
Annotated Bibliography
Fred R. van Hartesveldt
Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders, Number 25
Myron J. Smith, Jr., Series Adviser
Westport, Connecticut
London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available at www.loc.gov
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2005 by Fred R. van Hartesveldt
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
ISBN: 0-313-30625-7
ISSN: 1056-7410
First published in 2005
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
HISTORIOGRAPHY
1.Introduction 1
2.The Battles of 1914 5
3.The Battles of 1915 13
4.Generalship 19
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 25
Index 163

Acknowledgments
Doing a book always requires help–more than can ever be properly acknowledged.
Some people not only do more but do it with cheerful good will. They deserved
special attention. My colleague Church Murdock read parts of the manuscript and
made thoughtful and useful comments. It is not his fault that I did not adopt all of
them or that I made other mistakes. He certainly improved my efforts. At the Fort
Valley State University Library, Robbie Walton Robinson handled my seemingly
endless interlibrary loan requests efficiently and without request. My wife, Mary
Ann, patted me on the back when I got weary and also helped with library searches,
proofing, and indexing. Without her I would not have finished. I thank all of these
people and the others who helped in a variety of ways.

Chapter 1
Introduction
The Battles of the BEF, 1914-1915 is a volume in the Bibliographies of Battles and
Leaders series. Ultimately the series will provide historiographical and
bibliographical reference for the study of military history from the earliest human
conflicts to the contemporary era. Although the World Wide Web provides similar
references and is more conveniently updated than a book (for the subject of the
current volume see, for instance: <<www.1914-1918.net>> or
<<www.firstworldwar.com>>), the material is scattered and must be searched for
under a variety of subjects. And, of course, it is available only when researchers
have access to a computer with connection to the Web. Since information on the
Web is generally unedited and not necessarily kept current, accuracy and
completeness are less reliable than in the traditional format. New publications are
identified with relative ease, while more often than not, older (sometimes obscure
but valuable) works are missed. Therefore, a comprehensive reference volume
makes sense and will have a long-term value even in the age of electronic
technology.
A focus on the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) in the first eighteen
months of the year also makes sense. Although the focus of World War I British
historiography is more often the great battles of 1916-1918, the B.E.F., despite its
relatively small size, played a significant role in the first months of the war. The
initial force, "The Old Contemptibles" (the Kaiser spoke of the British as "a
contemptible little army"), was essentially gone by the end of 1914, and being
replaced by units–British and colonial–brought from around the empire and soon
a rising flow of volunteers. The horrors of modern firepower were imprinted on
these forces by the end of 1915 through massed attacks against entrenched machine
guns and the soul-shattering effects of rapid-fire artillery. Conditions became much,
much worse, as poison gas proved its value and mud interfered with trench life and
military operations. So the problems that became synonymous with the entire
conflict were already becoming apparent. Lessons, learned, partially learned, and
unlearned about how to fight the new horrible but unheralded style war were already