R James Steel
9781550023428
b&w photos
155x230mm, paperback
316 pages
Dundurn Group
£11.99

(Napoleon & Company)
 

Henri Mathias Berthelot : Soldier of France, Defender of Romania

At the beginning of the First World War, Henri Mathias Berthelot was recognized as one of France's most brilliant younger generals. His sharp intelligence, prodigious organizational talents, and verbal skills had made him the trusted assistant to a succession of French chiefs of staff including Brugere, Lacroix, and finally Joffre. As the latter's 'right arm' in implementing Plan XVII in 1914, he shared responsibility for the earliest defeats of the French Army, but also for the remarkable recovery that followed. His career as a field commander began with a reverse at Soissons (January 1915) but acclaimed successes followed, including the Labyrinth (Artois 1915) and Mort Homme (Verdun 1916) and also the second Battle of the Marne in which he commanded the French V Army (July-September 1918). Following the war, he contributed to the reintegration of Alsace and Lorraine into France in his role as military governor of Metz (1919-1921) and Strasbourg (1923-1926). Simultaneously, he played an influential role on the Conseil Superieure de Guerre in its debates over the defense of France which eventually produced the Maginot Line. While, unfortunately, Berthelot's military career in France has not received the attention it deserves, his service in Romania as head of two French military missions (October 1916-March 1918) and (October 1918-May 1919) made him a national hero in that country. Arriving in Bucharest in the midst of a demoralizing defeat at the hands of the Central Powers in 1916, Berthelot's indomitable optimism and will to resist energized the Romanian political and military leadership. With the assistance of Berthelot, the Romanian army was rebuilt, a new Austro-German assault brilliantly repulsed in 1917, and the consequences of the Russian Revolution for Romania blunted. At the end of the war, when Allied leaders vacillated over allowing the Romanians to occupy the territory promised by the Allies in the Treaty of Alliance of 1916, Berthelot encouraged them to act on their own. His advocacy of Romania's revindications and his forceful promotion of her as the major instrument of French policy in Southeastern Europe alienated his superiors and eventually led to his recall. Meanwhile, the course of events, including the emergence of Bolshevik threats in South Russia and Hungary, led Paris to adopt his recommendations. Berthelot's strong, yet sensitive tutelage of Romania 1916-1919 and his warm, public identification with her people and their aspirations endeared him to the elite and masses alike. In return, they enshrined him in the first rank of their pantheon of the founders of 'Greater Romania'. This study is based on the private, unpublished 'Sourvenirs', papers, and correspondence of the general. In addition, it utilizes the military and diplomatic archives in France, Romania, Italy, Russia, Austria, Germany, England, and the United States.

This is the first history of the only primarily African military unit from Zimbabwe to fight in the First World War. Recruited from the migrant labour network, most African soldiers in the RNR were originally miners or farm workers from what are now Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, and Malawi. Like others across the world, they joined the army for a variety of reason, chief among them a desire to escape low pay and horrible working conditions. The RNR participated in some of the key engagements of the German East Africa campaign's later phase, subsisting on extremely meagre rations and suffering from tropical diseases and exhaustion. Because they were commanded by a small group of European officers, most of whom were seconded from the Native Affairs Department and the British South Africa Police, the regiment was dominated by racism. It was not unusual for black soldiers, but never white ones, to be publicly flogged for alleged theft or insubordination. Although it remained in the field longer than all-white units and some of its members received some of Britain's highest decorations, the Rhodesia Native Regiment was quickly disbanded after the war and conveniently forgotten by the colonial establishment. Southern Rhodesias white settler minority, partly on the strength of its wartime sacrifice, was given political control of the territory through a racially exclusive form of self-government, but black RNR veterans received little support or recognition. The book takes a new look at an old campaign and will appeal to scholars of African or military history interested in the First World War.
 

12 b/w photos
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
£30.50 hb

£15.95 (pb)
Center for Romanian Studies

Sanusi's Little War : The Amazing Story of a Forgotten Conflict in the Western Desert, 1915-17

This is the exciting story of a forgotten war, fought out on the fringe of the great First World War campaigns. At its centre stands the tragic figure of Sayyid Ahmad al-Sharif, the Grand Sanusi, a charismatic Arab leader caught between the rival war aims of the Turco-German alliance and the British Empire. In November 1915 HMS Tara (left), a requisitioned ferryboat, is torpedoed by a German U-boat off Sollum on the north-west coast of Egypt. The ninety-two survivors, nearly all Welshmen from Holyhead, are handed over to Turkish and Sanusi soldiers across the border and sent as prisoners of war deep into the Libyan Desert. The Turco-Sanusi Army then overruns Sollum and pushes into Egypt. The British, who occupy that country, are caught off guard by the suddenness of these events and are forced to launch a military campaign to expel the invaders. Thousands of British and Colonial soldiers are rushed into the Western Desert, where, over the next few months, four battles are fought before Sollum is retaken and the threat is contained. Finally, the Duke of Westminster leads a large column of Rolls Royce armoured cars and Model T Fords into Libya and the Welshmen are rescued. Based on original source material, The Sanusi's Little War tells for the first time the full story of the Turco-Sanusi invasion and the subsequent military campaign. The author describes in detail secret missions by the Germans and, separately, by the Turks to win the Grand Sanusi over to their cause and get him to launch an invasion of Egypt. He reveals the fascinating role played in the campaign by certain British officers, particularly Leo Royle, formerly of the Egyptian Coastguard, and links them to the Military Intelligence Office in Cairo. And, most unexpected of all, is his discovery that T E Lawrence played a role in these events and even went to Sollum just days before the invasion, to meet the Coastguard officers who are the story's principal characters.

Second to None - The Fighting 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force

"An escellent work which deserves a place on anyone's bookshelf" - Armchair Auctions, December 2004. One of only fifty infantry battalions to see action with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I, the 58th nevertheless had no official history. Second to None tells the story of this important, yet forgotten, battalion. The soldiers who formed the 58th exemplified the ideal citizen soldiers and later evolved into the tough, battle-savvy veterans who destroyed the cream of the German Imperial Army and won battle honours. The author uses the men's letters and diaries and family oral histories to amplify the terse account of the 58th's war diary, bringing to life once more the men who paid the price for freedom.

 Kevin R Shackleton lives with his family in Newmarket, Ontario, where he works as a senior associate advisor with RBC Investments. His life-long interest in the history of warfare included a course with Dr Jack Hyatt while obtaining his MA at the University of Western Ontario.
 

£14.99 pb
 

Those Last 100 Victorious Days of 1918 : Germany Not Beaten in the Field?

'The winner determines history', that is the conclusion we can draw when we take a closer look at the birth of the myth about the victory of the allies, which has taken place since the end of World War One. Historiography on this period has always been dominated by British historians and through the years the facts have not always been represented correctly. In fact, there was no British/French victory on the battlefield. It was the revolution in Germany, caused by a sudden turnaround and the request of a cease-fire by the German high command, that made the last remains of resistance disappear and widely opened the gates of revolution. Because of that, German troops that were still at the front line had to stop fighting, deprived of the required supply of weapons and food from the homeland. It was only after the revolution in Germany had become widely known, that allies reached an agreement on the demands of the cease-fire, demands which corresponded with a total surrender, because now one could be sure that Germany would be in no position to decline it. The author makes an attempt to counterbalance this myth and show us the other side of things, a side that has consistently been underexposed and is certainly worth to be put in the spotlight.