The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Very Good, First Edition, HOWARD BAKER, LONDON, 1981. A fine copy in red cloth boards, gilt title on spine with a very good dustjacket.

The Bantams: The untold story of World War I

Allinson, Sidney

H. Baker

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Riverrun Pr

The citizens of Le Javre weren't prepared for the bizarre sight that greeted them after a British troopship arrived in their harbour in January, 1916, with a fresh contingent of reinforcements for the Western Front - the troops comically marched down the gangplanks and along the quay as though they were mocking the traditional image of the stalwart soldier. They were all about 5 feet tall, miniature Guardsmen, more like mascots than fighting men. And so the first battalion of Bantams, as they were officially called, prepared for battle. They soon proved they were equal in stamina and greater in valor than standared-sized soldiers. By 1918, more that 50,000 Bantams, including almost 2,000 from Canada, had been in the trenches and their casulalties were enormous, due in part to their heedless bravery. Yet has been forgotten or deliberately concealed by army historians, who are perhaps embarrassed by the episode and fear that such little men, and the army's need to use them, somehow revealed weaknesses in the British character. Their story is now told for the first time.

Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I

Contemporary

Mosaic Pr

The Bantams

Xlibris, Corp.

The Bantams tells the factual but well nigh incredible story of how the British and Canadian armies recruited over 50,000 short men to serve as front-line soldiers. Such Bantam battalions eventually numbered over twenty units in Britain, plus two battalions from Canada. The movement spread all over Britain, particularly the coal mining regions of Wales and Northern England, then to Canada, particularly among British immigrants there. Canadian military historian Sidney Allinson's researches took him to Britain, Canada, the U.S., and the old battlefields of Flanders. He contacted over 300 survivors of the Bantams, to gather the many first-hand accounts of battle told in his book. It reveals disturbing new information about battlefield executions by firing squads that was only recently released from British official records long held secret from the public. It adds even more poignancy to the story of how thousands of patriotic 'Bantams' -- not much taller than a rifle themselves -- well below the Army's 5ft 3in. minimum regulation height, flocked to the colors. This book also describes the social conditions in Britain and Canada during the First World War. Patriotic fervor enabled many famed British regiments to recruit eager volunteers for bantam-designated battalions. English and Scottish Bantams fought along the Somme front, while Welsh Bantams helped win the Battle of Bourlon despite hideously large casualties. In Canada, the 216th Bantam (Toronto) Battalion was recruited within a few weeks, and the 143rd B.C. Bantams was quickly raised on Vancouver Island. Soldiers from both these now-forgotten Canadian units served at Vimy Ridge and in other later battles.

Bantams

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Pen and Sword Military

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