In response to Kitchener's famous call for a million volunteers, local communities raised entire battalions for the service on the Western Front. Hull folk are reticent people and the Hull Pals were no exception. This book tells their inspiring story of sacrifice and gallantry under appaling conditions. Hull Pals contains a great number of hitherto unpublished eye-witnessed accounts and photographs.

Hull Pals : 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th (Service) Battalions of the East Yorkshire Regiment - A History of the 92nd Infantry Brigade, 31st Division, 191

History

Bilton, David

Europe

PEN SWORD BOOKS

The book details the history of the 10th Battalion of the East Yorkshire, known as the Hull Pals, from September 1914 to May 1918.  In around 150 pages it will provide viewers with answers to the questions the program will generate: Who were these men? What did they do? Which of them survived? Where did they really come from? Did they really live like this?   Over 150 photographs, illustrations and maps record in detail the lives of these men; many of the illustrations have never been seen before.  Known locally as "The Commercials" because they were a battalion of office workers, the 1400 men trained in England, were sent to fight the Turks in Egypt and then returned to spend nearly three years in the trenches of the Western Front. Their losses were heavy, with around one in four being killed.

The Trench: The True Story of the Hull Pals

Pen and Sword Military

The outbreak of war in 1914 aroused an enthusiasm in Hull and within the first six months 20,000 local men had enrolled. Hull was also attacked by Zeppelins and it raised its own Pals Battalions. This book looks at how the experience of war impacted on the City, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Hull were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. The Great War affected everyone. At home there were wounded soldiers in military hospitals, refugees from Belgium and later on German prisoners of war. There were food and fuel shortages and disruption to schooling. The role of women changed dramatically and they undertook a variety of work undreamed of in peacetime. Meanwhile, men serving in the armed forces were scattered far and wide. Extracts from contemporary letters reveal their heroism and give insights into what it was like under battle conditions.

Hull in the Great War (Your Towns & Cities in the Great War)

Hull Rifles looks at the 4th East Yorkshire&nbsp;Regiment during the Great War and&nbsp;examines the origins of the battalion and&nbsp;its history over the three years it fought&nbsp;in France and Belgium. The battalion was&nbsp;involved in some of the bloodiest battles&nbsp;of the war and suffered such high casualty&nbsp;rates in early 1918 that the unit ceased to&nbsp;exist, except in name.The men of the original battalion were&nbsp;Territorials, part-time soldiers who gave&nbsp;their free time to provide home defense&nbsp;during a war. Officially formed on 1 April&nbsp;1908 as a result of the Haldane changes, the&nbsp;unit could trace its history back hundreds&nbsp;of years and was one of the oldest in the&nbsp;country. All the men were volunteers and&nbsp;held a full-time job. They had committed&nbsp;themselves to regular weekly training&nbsp;and a camp in the summer where they&nbsp;practised large-scale maneuvers with other&nbsp;units. When the call came to volunteer for&nbsp;overseas service, 80 per cent came forward.&nbsp;Their ranks were quickly filled with new&nbsp;volunteers who were prepared to fight&nbsp;abroad.Volunteer numbers were high and quickly&nbsp;the overseas battalion was at full strength,&nbsp;as was a second for home service. A third&nbsp;battalion was also formed to provide&nbsp;replacements for the men at the Front. As&nbsp;well as fighting on the Western Front, a&nbsp;battalion was sent to guard Bermuda for the&nbsp;duration.The text uses letters, newspaper cuttings&nbsp;and the war diary to provide a detailed&nbsp;picture of a typical Territorial battalion at&nbsp;war. Also included are many previously&nbsp;unseen photographs, a nominal list of the&nbsp;men who volunteered before Christmas&nbsp;1915, including a convicted murderer,&nbsp;awards, casualty details and lists of officers.

Hull Rifles: A History of the 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 1914–1918

Badges of Kitchener's Army is based on thirty years research in museums, archives and collections. It is an exhaustive study of the development of the battalion, brigade and divisional signs of the thirty divisions raised by Kitchener's appeal for men. While the divisional signs are well known, there has been little authoritative work on the signs worn by the infantry battalions. The book will illustrate the unique cap and shoulder titles used, as well as cloth signs worn to provide easy recognition in the trenches. Each service battalion, of each regiment has a listing, which provides a brief history of the unit and detailed information on the badges worn.It is prodigiously illustrated and contains much information, like why a shape or color was chosen, when it was adopted, what size it was, whether it was worn on a helmet, what color the helmet was and even what colors were used on horse transport; the majority of this rich and detailed information has never been published before. What helps make the information accurate and authoritative is that much of it comes from an archive created at the time and from personal correspondence with hundreds of veterans in the 1980s, many of whom still had their badges and often had razor-sharp recollections about wearing them. The book will also provide some comments from these veterans. A further unique aspect of the book is that it will look at the uniforms and badges worn before the battalions left the country, providing much new information that will enable people to identify any photographs they have lying around.

The Badges of Kitchener's Army

This unique collection of images details the travels of a German infantry division along the entire Western Front, where it fought from the start until the end of the war. Interspersed with the captions and photographs are brief summaries of the actions the division fought in, first against the French and then the British. What makes this book particularly interesting to British readers is the unique focus provided on battles many are already familiar with, such as the Somme, Flanders and Arras. Also covered are the initial combats with the French in the Vosges, an area about which little has been written in English. The photographs were chosen by the men of the division to form a commemorative book (a record of service), published in 1920, that detailed their experiences in the four years of war. None of the photographs have appeared in a British publication, so each will be fresh to the reader. Arranged chronologically, the illustrations show the changes behind the front as well as life on the line. The focus is largely on the photographs, taken by men of one the best divisions in the German Army, with a brief text that shows what they felt of their situation and where they went. The book provides a completely new look at life in the German Army during the war.

Against the Tommies: History of 26 Reserve Division 1914 - 1918

Military

Many books have looked at the effect of the war on the Home Front, but this is the first book to take a look at civilian life at home photographically from an international perspective: covering both Allied and enemy countries, juxtaposing the same situations in different countries to show a similar response.This fifth and final volume chronicles the events of the last year of the war and looks briefly at the beginnings of peace. At the start of the year the civilians on both sides were resigned to another year of pain and further belt-tightening as the shortages grew. Food and materials were in short-supply and the military had first-call on just about everything. People had to learn to make do with what they had. Although the U-boat campaign had been beaten by the introduction of the convoy, rationing needed to be introduced in Britain and France to even out the distribution of essential foods. No one would starve but many went hungry. However, throughout the Central Powers, because of the Allied blockade, the situation was far worse: everything was scarce or difficult to get hold of; some goods were unobtainable except from the Black Market. However, as neither side was prepared to give in, and with no end in sight, civilians just had to get on with their lives as best they could.The book follows the same format as the previous four providing the reader with a brief overview of the events of the year on the Home Front at home and abroad, a detailed timeline and a wealth of photographs, divided into themes: raids, life on the Home front, Christmas, propaganda, casualties and captivity, and home defense. Many of the, over two hundred photos, have not been seen since they were published during the war and some are published here for the first time. The photos are international and give a flavor of what life was like for the civilian during the most turbulent year of the war.This unique series of international photographic books fits in with the author’s more textual books on the Home Front: Hull in the Great War, Reading in the Great War volumes 1 and 2, and The Home Front in the Great War.

The Home Front: Final Blows and the Year of Victory (The Great War Illustrated)

In the 4th volume of the series The Home Front, the author looks at the main events that happened at home in Britain and in other countries, Allied or enemy as well as the neutral nations during 1917. The text provides an overview of the year and sets out to show the effects of war on the civilian population, how it impacted on their daily lives and how they coped with it. Each book is international in scope and draws parallels between the warring nations in their experiences. As in the previous books the focus is on images in order to best understand how they represented themselves and how their world was portrayed to them and with little censorship - bomb damage was freely shown even though it was obvious that the Germans would get hold of the images. With the text are over 200 photographs and illustrations that are divided into discrete sections of the civilian experience of the war. Readers will be familiar with but a few of the illustrations as most have not been used since they were taken in 1917.For those on the Home Front, 1917 was a year when Total War started to become an actuality. The U-boat campaign meant that food did not get through resulting in shortages. As a result, more land was worked and people started an allotment. With army's demands for men and material seemingly never ending, there were even fewer men about. The majority of those still working were involved in some form of war work and during the year they were joined by thousands more women keen to do their bit. Women replaced men in many traditional male roles. It was a new world. 1917 was a year of belt-tightening, increasing hard work and strain. It would once again, not be over by Christmas, no matter how much they wished.

The Home Front: Seeing it Through: Passchendaele & Third Ypres (The Great War Illustrated)

Many books have looked at the effect of the war on the Home Front, but this is the first book to take a glimpse at the Home Front photographically from an international point of view, covering both Allied and enemy countries, juxtaposing the same situations in different countries to show a similar response. This volume chronicles the changes brought on by just a few months of war: spies, increased casualties, food shortages, changes in work patterns, the shortage of men in the work force, women at work and at the end of the year the slow rush in Britain to volunteer for the army, hoping to not be called for service. It also looks at the Home Front for those caught behind enemy lines where life was both spartan, potentially dangerous and subject to the whim of the victor. The photographs, many of which have not been seen before and some which have never been published, clearly show that each year of war had a further profound effect on each nation. This unique series of international photographic books fits in with the author's more textual books on the Home Front: Hull in the Great War and Reading in the Great War, both of which explore the complex life of a city at war.

The Home Front: The Realization: Somme, Jutland & Verdun (The Great War Illustrated)

Many books have looked at the effect of the war on the Home Front, but this is the first book to take a glimpse at the Home Front photographically from an international point of view, covering both Allied and enemy countries, juxtaposing the same situations in different countries to show a similar response.This second volume chronicles the changes brought on by just a few months of war: spies, increased casualties, food shortages, changes in work patterns, the shortage of men in the work force, women at work and at the end of the year the slow rush in Britain to volunteer for the army, hoping to not be called for service. It also looks at the Home Front for those caught behind enemy lines where life was both spartan, potentially dangerous and subject to the whim of the victor. The photographs, many of which have not been seen before and some which have never been published, clearly show that each year of war had a further profound effect on each nation. This unique series of international photographic books fits in with the author's more textual books on the Home Front: Hull in the Great War and Reading in the Great War, both of which explore the complex life of a city at war.

The Home Front: Deepening Conflict (The Great War Illustrated)

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

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Books by Bilton, David