Books on the First World War

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recommended books

First World War
General Works
War at Sea
Russia
Fiction

Battles
Cambrai
Gallipoli
Mons

General Works

Rehearsals - The German army in Belgium, August 1914, Jeff Lipkes. This is a well researched, harrowing and utterly convincing examination of the atrocities committed by the German army as it invaded neutral Belgium in August 1914. Too often dismissed as fantasy or propaganda, this work helps redress the balance, looking at the mass executions of civilians that followed the invasion. [see more]

The First World War , John Keegan. An excellent narrative history of the First World War, especially strong on the buildup to war. Good on detail without losing the overall picture. Keegan keeps to a factual account of the war, leaving out the judgement calls that dominate some books. [see more]

The Routledge Atlas of the First World War, a good historical atlas that makes the overall nature of the war clear. Contains over 150 maps, covering just about every major aspect of the conflict from the pre-war tensions that led to war to the Armistice in 1918. [see more]

A Military Atlas of the First World War, Arthur Banks. Banks provides a series of 250 very detailed maps that give the reader a good idea of what happened on the different fronts of the First World War, taking you beyond the static trenches of the Western Front. [see more]

The Old Lie - The Great War and the Public School Ethos, Peter Parker. This book looks at the Public School ethos, and how it distorted the views of the generation that greeted the war with such enthusiasm in 1914. Parker does this by looking at the literature produced about Public Schools and by their old boys. [see more]

The British Tommy, 1914-18 , Martin Pegler and Mike Chappell. A detailed book full of great photographs and colourful plates covering training and equipment, food and discipline. A useful book for teachers teaching the First World War as it helps give a feel for what a soldiers life was like.

The British Army 1914-18 , DSV Fosten. R J Marrion. G A Embleton. This book is useful for wargamers as it mainly focuses on regiments and organisation giving command structure and basic orders of battle for the British Army during different phases of the war

Short History of World War I , James L. Stokesbury. A shorter, and perhaps more accessible narrative history of the war.

The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War , editor Hew Strachan. This book tackles the war by theme, each chapter written by a different expert. It tackles areas that the more narrative histories do not, such as the role of women, the poliitical impact of the war, and propaganda

Individual Battles

Cambrai

Cambrai 1917: The Birth of Armoured Warfare, Alexander Turner. A well organised and illustrated account of the first battle to see the tank used in large numbers as a shock weapon.

Gallipoli

Gallipoli 1915, Haythornthwaite, Philip J., Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 1991, Campaign Series No. 8. This Osprey covers the famous Gallipoli campaign in World War I, where British, Australian and New Zealand forces fought a bloody stalemate against the Turks in a hope of opening a second Front. [see more]

Gallipoli , Moorehead, Alan, Wordsworth Editions Ltd, Ware, 1997

James, Robert Rhodes. 'Gallipoli Campaign' in Holmes, R. (Ed) Oxford Companion to Military History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001, pp. 343 - 345.

Travers, Tim. 'The Army and the Challenge of War 1914 - 1918' in Chandler, David and Beckett, Ian. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994, pp. 215 - 240.

Fromkin, David. 'Gallipoli Campaign' in Cowley, Robert & Parker, Geoffrey. The Osprey Companion to Military History, Osprey Publishing, 1996, London, pp. 175 - 176.

Mons

Mons 1914 , David Lomas, An excellent book with detailed orders of battle and good maps and colour plates as well as photographs. Includes advice on wargamming the battle

Russia

Churchill's Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia 1918-1920, Clifford Kinvig. A fascinating look at a little known British campaign, the intervention in Russian in 1918-1920 that began as an attempt to reopen the Eastern Front of the First World War and turned into an attack on the Bolshevik regime. Although the British intervention was part of a wider international campaign, Britain, and Churchill in particular, played a key role in prolonging the campaign. [see more]

War at Sea

Official History of the War, Naval Operations Vol. I, Sir Julian Corbett. Volume one of five in the British Official History of the First World War at sea, this book covers the first five months of the war, from the period of tension before the fighting began to the battle of the Falklands. This was the period that saw the most action on the surface outside the North Sea, with a number of German cruisers at large. [see more]

Official History of the War, Naval Operations Vol. II, Sir Julian Corbett. Volume two of five in the British Official History of the First World War at sea covers the naval attack on the Dardanelles and early months of the Gallipoli campaign. On the home front it includes the German raid on the Yorkshire coast of December 1914 and the battle of Dogger Bank [see more]

German Battlecruisers 1914-1918, Gary Staff. This book gives a very good history of each of the seven Battlecruisers that served with the Germany navy during the First World War, looking at the reasons they were built the way they were, the details of their construction, and their service careers before and during the war [see more]

Fiction

The Shropshire Lads, Graham Holbrook. This is a very entertaining historical novel set in and around the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War. The book follows a group of Shropshire volunteers from the pre-war period, through training, into combat in the trenches and then into a classic adventure tale. [see more]