The Kaiser's Battle

History / By /
The Kaiser's Battle

Author: Martin Middlebrook

Publisher: Pen and Sword

ISBN: 9781844154982

Category: History

Page: 438

View: 449

At 9.30am on 21 March 1918, the last great battle of the First World War commenced when three German armies struck a massive blow against the weak divisions of the British Third and Fifth Armies. It was the first day of what the Germans called the Kaiserschlacht (‘the Kaiser’s Battle’), the series of attacks that were intended to break the deadlock on the Western Front, knock the British Army out of the war, and finally bring victory to Germany. In the event the cost of the gamble was so heavy that once the assault faltered, it remained for the Allies to push the exhausted German armies back and the War was at last over. Critics accounts: The clever blending of written and oral accounts from some 650 surviving British and German soldiers makes the book an extremely convincing reconstruction. SUNDAY TIMES Mr Middlebrook’s industry and patience are displayed in his amazing collection of eyewitness accounts, the compassion in his commentary, the good sense in his analysis’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

Fighting the Kaiser's War

History / By /
Fighting the Kaiser's War

Author: Andrew Lucas

Publisher: Pen and Sword

ISBN: 9781473847781

Category: History

Page: 256

View: 412

Personal accounts of the Great War experiences of British soldiers are well known and plentiful, but similar accounts from the German side of no man's land are rare. This highly original book vividly describes the wartime lives and ultimate fates of ten Saxon soldiers facing the British in Flanders, revealed through their intimate diaries and correspondence. The stories of these men, from front-line trench fighters to a brigade commander, are in turn used to illustrate the wider story of thousands more who fought and died in Flanders 'for King and Country, Kaiser and Reich' with the Royal Saxon Army. This ground-breaking work is illustrated with over 300 mostly unseen wartime photographs and other images, recording the German experience of the war in human detail and giving a rounded picture of how the Saxons lived and died in Flanders.

The Kaiser's Army

History / By /
The Kaiser's Army

Author: David Stone

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

ISBN: 9781844862924

Category: History

Page: 512

View: 594

In this comprehensive book, David Stone describes and analyses every aspect of the German Army as it existed under Kaiser Wilhelm II, encompassing its development and antecedents, organisation, personnel, weapons and equipment, its inherent strengths and weaknesses, and its victories and defeats as it fought on many fronts throughout World War I. The book deals in considerable detail with the origins and creation of the German army, examining the structure of power in German politics and wider society, and the nation's imperial ambitions, along with the ways in which the high command and general staff functioned in terms of strategy and tactical doctrine. The nature, background, recruitment, training and military experiences of the officers, NCOs and soldiers are examined, while personal and collective values relating to honour, loyalty and conscience are also analysed. There is also an evaluation of all aspects of army life such as conscription, discipline, rest and recuperation and medical treatment. In addition the army's operations are set in context with an overview of the army at war, covering the key actions and outcomes of major campaigns from 1914 to 1918 up to the signature of the Armistice at Compiègne. For anyone seeking a definitive reference on the German Army of the period – whether scholar, historian, serving soldier or simply a general reader – this remarkable book will prove an invaluable work.

The Kaiser’s Battlefleet

History / By /
The Kaiser’s Battlefleet

Author: Aidan Dodson

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

ISBN: 9781473881556

Category: History

Page: 256

View: 513

The battleships of the Third Reich have been written about exhaustively, but there is little in English devoted to their predecessors of the Second Reich. This new book fills an important gap in the literature of the period by covering these German capital ships in detail and studying the full span of battleship development during this period.The book is arranged as a chronological narrative, with technical details, construction schedules and ultimate fates tabulated throughout, thus avoiding the sometimes disjointed structure that can result from a class-by-class approach. Heavily illustrated with line work and photographs, many from German sources, the book offers readers a fresh visual look at these ships, beyond the limited range of images available from UK sources.A key objective of the book is to make available a full synthesis of the published fruits of archival research by German writers found in the pre-WW2 books of Koop & Schmolke, Gromers on the construction programme of the dreadnaught era, Forstmeier & Breyer on WW1 projects, and Schenk & Nottelmanns papers in Warship International. As well as providing data not available in English-language books, these sources correct significant errors in the standard English sources.This entirely fresh study will appeal to historians of WWI German naval developments as well as to enthusiasts and model makers.

The Kaiser

Emperors / By /
The Kaiser

Author: Virginia Cowles

Publisher: New York, Harper

ISBN: IND:32000000953424

Category: Emperors

Page: 472

View: 700

Narrative biography of William 2nd, Emperor of Germany, giving attention to the psychological, political and historical implications of his reign.

German Battleships 1914–18 (2)

History / By /
German Battleships 1914–18 (2)

Author: Gary Staff

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

ISBN: 9781780963389

Category: History

Page: 80

View: 180

Supported by official documents, personal accounts, official drawings and specially commissioned artwork, this volume is an informative history of the key classes Kaiser, König and Bayern that formed the backbone of the German Imperial Navy throughout World War I, detailing the technological revolution that had taken place to enable the building of these large dreadnought classes.

Quest for Decisive Victory

Lightning War / By /
Quest for Decisive Victory

Author: Robert Michael Citino

Publisher:

ISBN: UOM:39015054461366

Category: Lightning War

Page: 400

View: 943

Since the earliest days of warfare, military operations have followed a predictable formula: after a decisive battle, an army must pursue the enemy and destroy its organization in order to achieve a victorious campaign. But by the mid-19th century, the emergence of massive armies and advanced weaponry - and the concomitant decline in the effectiveness of cavalry - had diminished the practicality of pursuit, producing campaigns that bogged down short of decisive victory. Great battles had become curiously indecisive, decisive campaigns virtually impossible.

The German Offensives of 1918

History / By /
The German Offensives of 1918

Author: Ian Passingham

Publisher: Campaign Chronicles

ISBN: IND:30000110577164

Category: History

Page: 312

View: 680

Covers the last months of 1917, the Kaiserschlacht (Kaiser's Battle) in early 1918, to the final Allied offensive known as 'The Hundred Days' to end the war in August 1918.

A German Deserter's War Experiences

History / By /
A German Deserter's War Experiences

Author: Julius Koettgen

Publisher: Pen and Sword

ISBN: 9781473850118

Category: History

Page: 188

View: 609

In 1913 Julius Koettgen, a pacifist and a socialist, was drafted into the ranks of sapper battalion No. 30. He dutifully fought in the ranks of the Kaiser's armies during 1914 and 1915 and saw action in France and Belgium where he describes the terrible events which were to become known as 'the rape of Belgium' and also details the extent of the fighting including being forced to form part of a firing squad, crossing the Meuse under heavy fire, using corpses as road building materials annihilating a cavalry charge hand to hand bayonet fighting, and the awful events of the disastrous German retreat from the Marne. rnrnWith the onset of trench warfare Koettgen also experienced the horrors of trench warfare and the famous Christmas truce of 1914. In 1915 he decided that enough was enough and escaped military life by deserting the colours and slipping through the lines to neutral Holland. His was memoirs were published by a gleeful allied press under the title 'A German Deserter's War Experience'.rnrnThis English translation, edited and introduced Emmy AwardTM winning historian Bob Carruthers provides a rare primary source insight into the German side during the crucial opening battles of the war and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the Great War from the German perspective.