The speech made in the British House of Commons by Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey on 3 August 1914, that inspired Parliament to commit the nation to war in Continental Europe. “Last week I stated…
It is a well-documented fact the the Great War brought many new opportunities for women. They moved into areas of public, commercial and industrial life that had previously been out of bounds. Women’s efforts in…
This section of the Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the history of the units of the British artillery. “The war of 1914-18 was an artillery war: artillery…
Noted WW1 historian John Terraine said in his excellent White Heat – the new warfare 1914-18, “The war of 1914-18 was an artillery war: artillery was the battle-winner, artillery was what caused the greatest loss…
What were the trenches? Although most of us think primarily of the Great War in terms of life and death in the trenches, only a relatively small proportion of the army actually served there. The…
This section of the Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the history of the units of the Royal Engineers. The war of 1914-1918 relied on engineering. Without engineers…
This section of the Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the history of the units of the Army Service Corps. Note that the ASC is the same as…
The first development of Anti-Aircraft Artillery The Great War was the first in which heavier-than-air aircraft played an important role. While the central role of the air forces was reconnaissance for the purposes of assisting…
In 1920, the army introduced a new system of issuing numbers to its men and women. Each soldier would have a unique number, an army number. Before that, each regiment (and in some cases, the…
During the Great War of 1914-1918 some 7,335 officers and 174,491 other ranks of the British Army were captured by the enemy. Of these, about half fell into captivity between 21 March and 11 November…