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What was India's role in The Great War? As the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War approaches, we look at significant role played by British India.

(Photo Credit: Imperial War Museum)

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BBC Asian Network - Asian Network Reports, India & The Great War

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How Maori battled to fight together in WWI

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How Maori battled to fight together in WWI

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When King George V declared war on Germany in August 1914, he did so for Britain and his dominions and colonies throughout the Empire. Across New Zealand thousands of men volunteered in support of their mother-country. Between 1914 and 1918 more than 120,000 New Zealanders - nearly 20% of the country's eligible manpower - served overseas with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, the Royal Navy or units of the British Army.

Imperial and colonial governments initially sought to prevent Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, from participating in the First World War. While a small number of Māori volunteered to serve with regional infantry units, Britain and New Zealand continued a pre-war policy opposing the formation of an all-Māori unit to fight in a war against Europeans. Yet by 1918 over 2,500 Māori soldiers had served overseas, the majority in what became known as the Māori Pioneer Battalion.

It took determined political campaigning to over come objections to forming all-Māori units. In 1914, Māori politicians like Apirana Ngata and Maui Pomare successfully argued that all New Zealanders - including Māori - should be allowed to fight in defence of the Empire. Pomare, the Minister for Māori Recruitment, Ngata and other Māori MPs raised the first Māori unit by February 1915. Yet enlistment to the 'New Zealand Native Contingent' was hampered by tribal divisions, with limited recruitment from those tribes holding grievances with the Crown after the New Zealand Wars in the mid-nineteenth century.

Despite initially being exempt from the 1916 Military Service Act, Māori from the most resistant tribes were registered for conscription in June 1917 after campaigning by Pomare. However, none were forced ultimately to serve overseas. On 14 February 1915, the first Māori contingent left New Zealand on the troopship SS Warrimoo bound for garrison duties in Egypt and Malta, freeing up regular troops for the Gallipoli Campaign that began on 25 April.

Any continuing reluctance to using Māori soldiers was soon overcome by the significant number of casualties from the campaign. Arriving at North Beach in Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, on 3 July, the contingent established itself at 'Outpost No 1' which became known as 'Māori Pa'. During the assault on Chunuk Bair in early August, the contingent fought alongside other units of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force for the first time. This was also the first time many Europeans heard the Māori haka "ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora" called as they attacked the Turkish lines.

The casualty rate from the attacks on Chanuk Bair and later at Hill 60 was astonishing. By the time the NZEF pulled out of Gallipoli in December 1915, the contingent had suffered 88% casualties and was reduced from sixteen officers and 461 men to just two officers and 132 men.

In February 1916, the contingent lost its infantry role, merging with the Otago Mounted Rifles to form the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion. The pioneers were sent to France in April 1916 where they dug and repaired trenches, built roads and undertook forestry work. They were the first New Zealanders at the Somme battlefield, arriving In August to dig an 8km trench leading to the front line and prepare the ground for the arrival of the remainder of the New Zealand Division.

By June 1917, the battalion was in Belgium for the Battle of Messines. The pioneers' hard, physical work was often undertaken under artillery fire and within range of snipers at the cost of many men. In September 1917, reinforced by a number of new recruits, the unit was once again made an all-Māori unit, with mostly non-Maori officers, and renamed the New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion.

The battalion remained on the Western Front until the end of the war. Of the 2227 men who had served in the unit since 1914, nearly half became casualties - with 336 dead and a further 734 wounded. Thirty eight members of the contingent and pioneer regiments received the Military Medal while four received the Distinguished Conduct Medal and nine the Military Cross.

On its return from Europe in 1919, the Māori Pioneer Battalion was enthusiastically cheered at homecomings across the New Zealand. Yet divisions remained in New Zealand society. Though equal war pensions were awarded to white and Māori soldiers, Māori were largely excluded from the ballot to allocate land and vocational training to returning soldiers under the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act of 1915. Furthermore, returning Māori servicemen suffered disproportionally from the influenza epidemic brought back from Europe due to the limited health services provided to them.

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How Māori battled to fight together in the First World War

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Between 1914 and 1918 more than 120,000 New Zealanders - nearly 20% of the country's eligible manpower - served overseas with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, the Royal Navy or units of the British Army.

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Mobilized Strength and Casualty Losses | Events & Statistics | Articles & Essays | Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 1914-1919 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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War Injuries

For World War I, ideas of the front lines entered the popular imagination through works as disparate as All Quiet on the Western Front and "Blackadder." The strain and the boredom of trench warfare are part of our collective memory; the drama of war comes from two sources: mustard gas and machine guns. The use of chemical weapons and the mechanization of shooting brought horror to men's lives at the front. Yet they were not the greatest source of casualties. By far, artillery was the biggest killer in World War I, and provided the greatest source of war wounded.

World War I was an artillery war. In his book Trench: A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front (2010), Stephen Bull concluded that in the western front, artillery was the biggest killer, responsible for "two-thirds of all deaths and injuries." Of this total, perhaps a third resulted in death, two-thirds in injuries. Artillery wounded the whole body. If not entirely obliterated, the body was often dismembered, losing arms, legs, ears, noses, and even faces. Even when there was not superficial damage, concussive injuries and "shell shock" put many men out of action. Of course, shooting-in combat as well as from snipers-was another great source of wounding. Gas attacks were a third. Phosgene, chlorine, mustard gas, and tear gas debilitated more than killed, though many ended up suffering long-term disability. Overall the war claimed about 10M military dead, and about 20M-21M military wounded, with perhaps 5% of those wounds life-debilitating, that is, about a million persons.

Outcomes depended on getting treatment quickly. Evacuation and triage became watchwords of the war-wounded. For the British Army, for example, the Royal Army Medical Corps developed an extensive system to move wounded from the front to the rear, with triage at each step. Stretcher bearers evacuated the wounded to Regimental Aid Posts (RAP)-or at least those that they had the means to move, for when stretcher-bearers were few, the worst cases were left on the field of battle. In one report of a man severely wounded in the abdomen, "Since 'death awaited him with certainty . . . I gave him a hypodermic of morphia and we propped him up as comfortably as we could' and left him there." Behind the RAPs were Advanced Dressing Stations, then further back Main Dressing Stations, and finally, Casualty Clearing Stations. Each move to the rear-always challenging in itself-was based on an assessment of the injury and the chances of survival. The lightly wounded-those likely to recover quickly-and the "moribund"-those likely to die-were kept, and the others sent on. Each station provided stabilization and immediate care, with some basic surgeries, such as amputation, at Casualty Clearing Stations. More advanced treatment occurred at hospitals, either back in Britain or in France. As the war wore on, more of the wounded were kept in France, at hospitals far back from the lines. This was to use less transport and to maintain military morale, with the goal of returning the men to the front as quickly as possible. And indeed, American medical entry into the war came first in the form of hospitals. "The first six [mobile hospitals] to arrive in France took over British General Hospitals and provided hospital level care for the British. Other American hospitals arriving later in the summer of 1917, remained assigned to the American forces." The Allied pattern of medical triage and evacuation became the model for American efforts.

How well did the system work? "War is a matter of expedients." The medical operation was persistently understaffed and under-resourced. In the latter part of the war, as the static front changed to a dynamic one, some medical units had difficulty achieving the mobility needed. And inevitably, given the need continually to evaluate the severity of wounds, and the difficulty of transport, some men ended up in the wrong place, with some facilities too crowded, and others underused. Finally, in 1918 the medical system began to be overrun with influenza cases. Overall, though, the magnitude of the challenge needs to be kept in mind. In just the American experience, for an army that numbered almost 2M men in France at the end of the war, 1.2M men passed through the medical system, with about quarter million military wounded. That is an astounding number for which to provide medical services under severe stress.
Interested in reading more accounts of those wounded in war? See these free downloadable books from World War 1!
1. Medical Department. Base Hospitals In The Intermediate And Advanced Zones, 1918-1919.
2. Imbrie, Robert Whitney.Behind the wheel of a war ambulance.
3. Church, James Robb. The doctor's part: what happens to the wounded in war.
4. A war nurse's diary: sketches from a Belgian field hospital.
5. Orr, H. Winnett.An orthopedic surgeon's story of the Great War.
6.In the soldier's service: war experiences of Mary Dexter: England, Belgium, France, 1914-1918.
7.History of the Pennsylvania Hospital Unit (Base Hospital No. 10, U.S.A.) in the Great War.
8.Injuries and diseases of war: a manual based on experience of the present campaign in France : January, 1918.
9. Creswick, Paul.Kent's care for the wounded.

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War Injuries · Yale University Library Online Exhibitions

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For World War I, ideas of the front lines entered the popular imagination through works as disparate as All Quiet on the Western Front and "Blackadder." The strain and the boredom of trench warfare are part of our collective memory; the drama of war comes from two sources: mustard gas and machine guns.

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War Grave Agency Records

If you think a relative may have died in the First World War it should be possible to confirm this by looking at the records held by one of the war grave agencies responsible for the care and maintenance of graves and official memorials for the war dead of the First World War. In most cases the records are available to view for free online. Where they are not, enquiries can be made by letter or telephone and advice will be given to help you locate your relative.

If you can find your relative as a named casualty in the records, you will be able to see the date of death, the location of the grave or place of commemoration together with details about that cemetery or memorial and where to find it. Depending on the type of records held by the relevant war grave agency you may also be able to find details for next of kin if they were recorded and, in the case of British and Commonwealth casualties, find additional invaluable detail such as the age of the casualty, the Service number and the military unit.

Roll of Honour & Other Records

In addition to the war grave agencies there may be other records confirming the death of a person whilst serving in the military. These may take the form of official and private rolls of honour compiled after the First World War. These may be national or local. These might be a war memorial for a town or village or lists of names as rolls of honour dedicated to the men of a particular workplace, church, sports club, school or and so on. There may also be other ways to follow up a Serviceman or woman's death by looking for a death certificate, local newspaper report, a will, a Service Record, and a record of medals awarded.

Information about the war grave agencies and other records for war dead available for you to search is given below.

Records for British & Commonwealth WW1 Dead

If you think a relative may have died in the First World War whilst serving with the British & Commonwealth forces it should be straightforward to find a record of their death.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) holds a register of the death of every member of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Merchant Navy) and Civilians from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa who died in the Great War of 1914-1918. For information about the CWGC, to search the Debt of Honour register and to find out more about its work caring for the graves and memorials of British and Commonwealth Forces around the world visit the CWGC website:

Website: www.cwgc.org

Royal, Indian & Dominion Navy Casualties (pre WW1-2008)

A full list online of Royal Navy casualties by name and date or ship. The list is the result of some 20 years co-operation between Don Kindell, a US-based researcher and the Naval Historical Department at the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence.

Website: www.naval-history.net Casualties Index

Royal Navy and Royal Marines War Graves Roll 1914-1919

The names of Royal Navy and Royal Marine officers and ratings who died in the First World War are listed in the War Graves Roll. The information includes:

Registers of Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel killed and wounded between August 1914 and 1929 are recorded.

The original card index of the naval officers (commissioned and warrant) who died in service between 1914 and 1920 is available.

The War Graves Roll, the registers of killed and wounded and the card index of officers killed are available to view free at the National Archives, Kew, Surrey. For the catalogue references go to:

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

The Roll is also available to view on the following website (records can be viewed by subscription or pay as you go credits):

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll 1914-1919

Royal Naval Division Casualties of The Great War 1914-1924

The Roll is available to view on the following family history website (records can be viewed by subscription). This particular compilation has been corrected and revised from previous listings of Royal Naval Division casualties.

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk Royal Naval Division Casualties of The Great War 1914-1924

Soldiers and Officers Died in the Great War 1914-1919

A list of over 660,000 British soldiers (Other Ranks) who died during the Great War was compiled by the War Office and published by His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) in 1921. The list is contained within 80 volumes. The dates covered for casualties are from and including 4 August 1914 to 11 November 1918. Casualties killed after the end of the war until 25 March 1921 are also included in the listing.

A list of over 41,000 officers who died in the Great War was published in one volume in 1919. The dates covered for casualties are from and including 4 August 1914 to 11 November 1918. Casualties killed after the end of the war until 26 September 1919 are also included in the listing.

The record for an individual contained in this listing does not include the location of a grave. The record does usually contain the following information:

The listings for "Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1918" can be consulted in person for free at the Imperial War Museum London (Department of Printed Books) or The National Archives, Kew, Surrey. The websites are given here to make appointments for visits and viewing:

Website: www.iwm.org.uk

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

The following family history websites have this data listing to search (viewing is by subscription or pay as you go credits):

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919

Website: www.findmypast.co.uk Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919

Website: www.forces-war-records.co.uk Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919

The listing of "Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1918" is available to buy on CD Rom. The 80 volumes have been captured as a digital database and can be purchased from the Naval & Military Press. (The CD Rom may be available on loan from a library.)

Website: www.naval-military-press.org

"Cross of Sacrifice" Volumes

Cross of Sacrifice is a record of all officers of all services who died during the First World War whilst serving with the British, Commonwealth and Colonial regiments and corps. It has been compiled as an alphabetical record by S D and D B Jarvis and was published in 1993. Volumes may be available to see from a library loan or can be seen at the Imperial War Museum London and the National Archives at Kew.

Copies can also be purchased. See Related Reading below.

Website: www.iwm.org.uk

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force Casualties

Casualty cards, giving details of the casualty, the aircraft involved and sometimes the next of kin details are available. These are held at the R.A.F. Museum Hendon in north London.

Website: www.rafmuseum.org.uk

There are also records held at the National Archives at Kew which relate to R.F.C. and R.A.F. casualties, records of squadrons, officers reported missing and messages from the Germans about missing pilots. For catalogue references go to:

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Merchant Navy

The National Archives hold Registers of Deceased Seamen for each year of 1914 to 1918. These provide information for:

full name

age

rank or rating

nationality or birth place

last place of abode

name of ship

official ship number

port of registry

net tonnage

date and place of death

remarks (includes reason for loss of ship)

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour 1914-1924

Five volumes and a sixth volume index containing a biographical record of about 26,000 members of His Majesty's naval and military forces who fell in the First World War. The volumes were compiled by the 9th Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval and were published by the Standard Art Book Co. of London. Some entries include a photograph and may include detail. This is not a complete list of casualties who died, and most of the recorded names in the volumes date from deaths in the early years of the war.

Volumes 1 and 2 are available to search and dowload for free on the California Digital Library website (terms and conditions apply):

Website: www.archive.org Volume 1

Website: www.archive.org Volume 2

Volumes 1-5 are available to search on the following family history websites (access to viewing and downloads is chargeable as a subscription or pay as you go credits):

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk

Website: www.findmypast.co.uk De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour

Website: www.forces-war-records.co.uk De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour

National Roll of the Great War

This is a Roll of those who fought in the Great War and who did not necessarily die. The idea was to compile a biographical list of the participants. 14 volumes were produced by the National Publishing Company, listing approximately 100,000 participants in the war. Of these under 20% of those listed were participants who died. The volumes are arranged into regions as follows:

Section I: London (W, C and N)

Section II: London (W, C and N)

Section III: London (W, C and N)

Section IV: Southampton

Section V: Luton and area (including parts of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire)

Section VI: Birmingham

Section VII: London (W, SE and C)

Section VIII: Leeds

Section IX: Bradford

Section X: Portsmouth

Section XI: Manchester

Section XII: Bedford and Northampton

Section XIII: London (SE)

Section XIV: Salford

The National Roll is available to view on the following websites (records can be viewed by subscription or pay as you go credits):

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk

Website: www.findmypast.co.uk The National Roll of the Great War

Other Rolls of Honour

A Roll of Honour may exist for a particular military unit and might have been published in a unit history. There may be a mention of the individual you are searching for in a locally, privately produced Roll of Honour for the company he worked for, the school he went to, the football or cricket team he played for, the town he lived in or the church where attended.

Town War Memorials

Most towns and villages in the United Kingdom have a war memorial or plaque listing the names of those who died serving their country in the First World War. In many cases names of those men from the locality who were killed during the Second World War have been added to the memorials of 1914-1918.

Those villages whose men all returned safely and which do not, therefore, have a memorial are known as the "Thankful Villages".

War memorials vary in shape and size, they may be official or privately funded, some have fallen into disrepair, but many are carefully looked after.

The UK National Inventory of War Memorials (UKNIWM) was established in 1989 as a project to locate all the war memorials in the United Kingdom and to record the names on them. A television programme on Channel 4 called "Lost Generation" started collecting a nationwide database of the names on war memorials and this data was passed to the UKNIWM. The work to build up the database was taken on by the Imperial War Museum London. The UKNIWM has been renamed as the War Memorials Register and is available to search online via the Imperial War Museum website. For more information visit website at:

Website: www.iwm.org.uk War Memorials

The War Memorials Trust is also compiling an online project to record, conserve and remember war memorials across the United Kingdom. For information see:

Website: www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk

Newspapers

The Times national newspaper included lists of those killed in action or who died of wounds. Local newspapers often included lists and photographs of local men killed or who died of wounds.

The British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale in north London has an archive to view. Local libraries may also hold archive copies of regional newspapers dating back to the 1914-1918 period.

Website: www.bl.uk

Death Certificates

The Death Certificates for British war dead are held by the General Register Office. Enquiries can be made to:

Certificate Services Section, General Register Office, PO Box 2, Southport, Merseyside PR8 2JD

Telephone: 0300 123 1837

Fax: 01704 55 00 13

Email: certificate.services@ips.gsi.gov.uk

Website: www.directgov.uk

French and Belgian Death Certificates

British soldiers who died between 1914 and 1920 in a hospital or outside of the battle zone in France or Belgium were issued with a French or Belgian death certificate. These records will be in French or Flemish.

They are available to view at the National Archives in Kew, Surrey and are archived with the catalogue reference of RG 35/45-69.

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

They are also available online on the official website for Births, Marriages and Deaths. These certificates can be searched for on this website and select the reference RG35-NEW on the index in the right hand margin:

Website: www.bmdregisters.co.uk

British Soldiers' Wills

In August 2013 Her Majesty's Court and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) announced the publication online of thousands of wills written by British soldiers who had lost their lives in the First World War. The collection does, in fact, consist of the wills of soldiers dating from 1850-1986.

In many cases the will comprises a simple, formalized statement by the soldier on a form to pass on his property and effects to his next of kin. However, in some cases there is a final letter or a more detailed will. There may be omissions in availability of a will, as a search by name and date of death does reveal that some deceased soldiers do not appear on the online list. If you find a will for your ancestor it is available to download for a small fee. To search the government website go to:

Website: www.gov.uk/probate-search

Records for Belgian Military Dead in WW1

Records for Belgian war dead of the First World War are held in the archive at the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ieper (Ypres). For information you can enquire via the Research Centre of the In Flanders Fields Museum. The email and website links are at:

Email: Kenniscentrum@ieper.be

Website: www.inflandersfields.be Knowledge Centre

Records for Canadian Military Dead in WW1

Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM)

The Virtual Memorial is an online register of over 118,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who have given their lives while serving in uniform. The names are also inscribed in seven Books of Remembrance. You can find out more and search the online register at this website:

Website: www.veterans.gc.ca Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Circumstances of Death Registers, First World War

Records are held by the Library and Archives Canada. They are grouped into one series for First and Second World War deaths as Accession RG 150, 1992-93/314. They can be searched for free at the Library and Archives Canada website:

Website: www.bac-lac.gc.ca Circumstances of Death Registers

Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) holds a register of the death of every member of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Merchant Navy) and Civilians from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa who died in the Great War of 1914-1918. To search the Debt of Honour register visit the CWGC website:

Website: www.cwgc.org

Records for French Military Dead in WW1

Le Ministère des Pensions

The French war graves agency, Le Ministère des Pensions, was founded during the First World War and cares for French military graves from WW1 to the present day.

For our information page about tracing French military graves go to:
Le Ministère des Pensions
Mémoire des Hommes Website

In memory of the many thousands of French servicemen who have served their country at times of conflict since 1914 the French Ministry of Defence has provided a website (in French, English, German and Spanish) providing thousands of digitalized biographical records. Visit the website at:

Website: www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr

Records for German Military Dead in WW1

Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (VDK)

The German war graves agency, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (VDK), was formally established after the First World War. Individuals can be traced online via the VDK's website. For a history of the organisation and how to contact the VDK go to our page at:

Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge

Records for Ireland Military Dead in WW1

Ireland, Casualties of World War 1, 1914-1922 Roll of Honour

Eight volumes containing the name, rank and regimental number (information may vary) of over 49,000 personnel, compiled by the Irish National War Memorial.

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk Ireland, Casualties of World War 1

Website: www.findmypast.ie Ireland's Memorial Record of World War 1

Records for Italian War Dead in WW1

Commissariato generale per le onoranze ai Caduti di guerra

Russian WW1 Graves in France

There are almost 1,000 Russian WW1 military graves on the Marne battlefield. They are cared for by the French war graves agency Le Ministère des Pensions. See our page for information about the French war graves agency:

Le Ministère des Pensions

Records for United States of America WW1 War Dead

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) is the war graves agency responsible for the care and maintenance of WW1 graves of soldiers serving with the United States Armed Forces during the First World War. For information about the agency and its work see our page at:
American Battle Monuments Commission
Records of the International Red Cross (Prisoners of War)

The Red Cross was used as a "go-between" between the warring nations, whereby the locations of the burials of military dead and captured prisoners by an enemy were recorded and were passed to the enemy nation via the Red Cross. The Red Cross made copies of this information and the archive where this information has been stored since 1918 was "discovered" by British military historian Peter Barton. The records have been safely stored in a basement of the Red Cross Museum in Geneva but were an unknown source of such information to military historians until now. The original records which had been passed to the United Kingdom, France and Germany are believed to have been destroyed by enemy action in the Second World War.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has digitized the archive so that families may be able to access the records and possibly trace the original burial location of a relative who has been recorded as missing.

For free online access to the digitized archive visit the website:

Website: www.grandeguerre.icrc.org Prisoners of the First World War

Related Reading

Cross of Sacrifice, Vol. 1: Officers Who Died in the Service of British, Indian and East African Regiments and Corps, 1914-1919 Vol. 1 (paperback)

by D B Jarvis

Published by Naval & Military Press Ltd (2 Jun 2011), 404 pages. ISBN-10: 1845748867; ISBN-13: 978-1845748869

The Cross of Sacrifice: Officers Who Died in Service of the Royal Navy, Royal Navy Reserve, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, Royal Marines, Royal Naval Service and Royal Air Force, 1914-1919 Vol. 2 (hardback)

by S D Jarvis and D B Jarvis

Published by Naval & Military Press Ltd (second revised edition 1 May 2000), 170 pages. ISBN-10: 1897632878; ISBN-13: 978-1897632871

Cross Of Sacrifice: The Officers, Men And Women Of The Merchant Navy And Mercantile Fleet Auxiliary 1914-1919: Vol. 5 (paperback)

by S D Jarvis

Published by Naval & Military Press Ltd (13 Feb 2009), 226 pages. ISBN-10: 1843426897; ISBN-13: 978-1843426899

Related Topics

WW1 Remembrance Projects: Photographic & Virtual Memorials

See also our page listing a number of projects carried out in recent years to compile virtual Rolls of Honour of the men and women who served in the military during the First World War.
WW1 Remembrance Projects
Tracing World War 1 Family History

For advice and information on how to start tracing an ancestor who served in the military in the First World War 1914-1918 see our page at:
Tracing World War 1 Family History
WW1 Research and Sources of Information

For more information about where to find archives, military records, official publications, maps, War Diaries, medal records and a variety of research material for tracing family history in the First World War period go to our section on research at:
WW1 Research and Sources of Information
Useful Links

The National Archives, Kew, Surrey

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Ancestry.co.uk

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk

Findmypast.co.uk

Website: www.findmypast.co.uk

Forces War Records

Website: www.forces-war-records.co.uk

Photographs Forever: Photo Restoration and Photograph Retouching

Restore and preserve your precious WW1 photographs. Leading photograph restorers Photographs Forever provide a quality Photo Restoration, Photo Retouching Service and Photo Editing Service. Your photographs will be scanned in high resolution, they will be restored and digital files and/or fresh new prints of your old photographs can be provided. See the website for more information:

Website: www.photographsforever.co.uk

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How and where to find records for the War Dead of WW1

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Voices of the First World War: Life On The Home Front

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Episode 35: The First World War had a profound effect on the lives of civilians. In Britain, people found themselves being gradually drawn into a conflict that had, at first, seemed remote. Hear about the main ways the war affected civilians.

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When it comes to the First World War, there's one thing that we all think of. Trenches. Muddy, rat-infested hell holes with death around every corner. Places so bad that only going over the top could actually be worse. Trenches dominate our perspective. But are our perceptions actually accurate? Well, today we're going to answer three big questions: Why did trenches exist? What were they actually like? And how did the Allies manage to break the trench deadlock?

But before we do that, a reminder to subscribe to Imperial War Museums YouTube channel, for more videos just like this every two weeks.

So let's start simple, how prevalent were Trenches during the First World War?

Trenches were really the defining concept of the First World War. They were literally on every front. The Western Front most famously in France and Belgium, they were in Gallipoli, they were in the mountains of Northern Italy, they were in the Middle East, even in Africa. Trenches were everywhere.

Which then begs the question why? What did trenches offer to First World War armies?

Trenches are really an antidote to modern weaponry. When the First World War comes along everybody thinks it's going to be a war of movement with masses of infantry and cavalry moving forward. Classic old-style battle. The reality though was very different. Attacking Armies were confronted with previously unimaginable amounts of firepower thanks to new warfighting technologies. Machine guns are firing hundreds of bullets per minute, a modern magazine rifle can fire 20-30 rounds a minute and then you have artillery firing shrapnel. These are shells that explode in the air and fire lead bullets towards the enemy. An absolute killing zone can be created and that really puts the emphasis and the advantage with the defender. So they begin to dig in in 1914 and they never stop until the end of the war.

Initially, Trenches were seen as a temporary measure, one which armies would move on from soon enough. These early trenches were more like ditches, the kind you'd see at the side of a road today, but over the course of the war they developed into more complex systems.

And you end up with a fire trench, which is your frontline trench, then a support trench and then behind that a reserve trench. So you've got three lines connected by what's called communication trenches so that men and material and supplies can move up and down between the trench lines without having to go over open ground. As trench systems developed, sometimes particular trenches were given names to help identify them. As you can see in this picture, sometimes those names related to familiar places from home.

If you look at the battlements of a castle and you lay them down on the ground that's the pattern you get on a frontline trench. The idea was that if a shell lands in one of these bays it's contained, the explosion's contained so you cut down the casualties.

Though trench systems developed, life inside one was far more rudimentary. When able to rest, soldiers in front line trenches would try and shelter from the elements in dugouts. These varied from deep underground shelters to small hollows in the side of the trench - as shown here. Most activity in front line trenches took place at night under the cover of darkness. While during daytime hours, soldiers would try to get some rest, but we're usually only able to sleep for a few hours at a time.

And of course rats, they proliferate around the trenches, they feed on the dead bodies. Men would wake up face to face with a rat sitting on their chest. You would also get problems in summer or in hotter climates from masses of flies. Of course, flies move from corpses to toilets to food, that way spreading diseases such has dysentery etc. So just your basic daily life is pretty monotonous.

And if you think trench life is boring, the food was worse. According to Harold Mayall of the Durham Light Infantry: "Rations were very poor... You'd try to brew tea and you couldn't, it was always cold and probably the water was all tastedof petrol because it came up in petrol tins - which were never cleaned out properly - and the tea was half petrol and cold. The food, they were supposed to give you some bacon, well you were lucky if you got a piece of bacon it was all cold and greasy. I mean you couldn't get any... And the cooks, probably if a man was a chartered accountant they'd make him a cook or something like that because it was always square pegs in round holes, you know. They couldn't cook; we used to say they couldn't boil water without spoiling it or something. The food was terrible."

Though the food was nothing compared to the ever-present danger. An artillery shell, a sniper's bullet. Those are two of the most almost random ways you can die. The shells aren't aimed they're just aimed at a particular area of trench and if you happen to be there at the wrong time potentially you're going to get killed. One minute you were talking to your best mate and the next minute he could be gone. And that, almost random, death took a real psychological toll on the soldiers.

For that reason, the armies tried to rotate people through the line. So the idea, you'd stay in the frontline for say 4-6 days and then if possible you'd move back to the support line for a similar period of time and then the reserve line and then you'd get a period actually behind the line. Naturally, being behind the line was a favourite time for many soldiers. You could get a hot bath, a good nights sleep and a clean pair of clothes. Many played sports, took part in amateur dramatics or even got to head back to Britain for home leave.

During all this time there were many attempts to break the deadlock, large and small, new ideas were being continuously experimented with.

The First World War is almost like an arms race between the defence and the offence. So the defence develop a new way of holding ground then the attacking side has to find a way of overcoming that. If they achieve that, then again the defence needs to come up with a new tactic. Despite the many well-documented disasters, from the Somme to Passchendaele, all the time armies were learning. Officers who had been trained on classical battle techniques were beginning to learn how trench warfare worked, while generals were beginning to master the management of giant armies.

And they try a number of things. They use massed artillery fire. So they have what are called barrage lifts, where they fire on set lines for a certain period of time, then they lift forward and fire again, then lift forward and fire again and the infantry follow up. They use poison gas as well, the idea of poison gas floating and then later shelled into the lines. The idea is it makes you put on a gas mask. Once you put your gas mask on its very hard to see or hear anything, it's hard to breathe and it just debilitates your ability to actually fight.

In 1916, the British bring the tank onto the battlefield. Initially it's not very successful, later in the war, they redefine the tactics and the way it's used and the numbers of tanks used. They have new infantry tactics. You now have light machine guns, rifle grenades, trench mortars. The light machine guns and mortars etc lay down fire and the infantrymen move forward and occupy a position.

All of these weapons were invented at different times and in 1918 for the Allies, they all come together. At the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, the largest combined arms offensive of the war, the Allies were finally able to break the trench deadlock. Those 4 years of turgid learning finally brought about the resumption of open warfare. In just one day, the allies had made almost unheard of advances. Pushing into the German line 11km deep on a 24km wide front. It was so successful that General Ludendorf called it 'the black day of the German army'.

I think the trench captures the public imagination and probably goes down as the defining feature of the First World War. The incumbent view is that every day was like the first day of the Somme which it blatantly wasn't. Casualties were terrible and on a terrible scale, but we were fighting a total war at that time. The whole trench experience was a terrible experience, but the men fought through it and they never lost their faith in the fact that they had to fight that war to a successful conclusion. And I think that's a really important.

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The image of a soldier in a muddy trench is what many people visualise when they think of the First World War. However, most soldiers would only spend an average of four days at a time in a front line trench. Their daily routine when in the front line varied according to where they were.

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How The West Indies Helped The War Effort

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How The West Indies Helped The War Effort

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When Britain declared war against Germany in 1914, the reach of its empire was so vast that every fourth person on earth owed allegiance to the British Crown.

From the outset, Britain sought to harness the immense resources of its empire to secure victory over Germany. The British colonies in the West Indies played their part in this great struggle.

Some of the items below are on display in our First World War Galleries. You can use this article to guide you to their location in the galleries. We have also included additional information that sheds light on the story of the West Indies' contribution to the war effort.

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How The West Indies Helped The War Effort In The First World War

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When war broke out in 1914, the British colonies in the West Indies quickly pledged their support to Britain in men, money and materials. King George V called for 'men of every class, creed and colour' to join the fight against Germany.

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From Civilian To First World War Soldier In 8 Steps

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After the outbreak of war in August 1914, Britain recruited a huge volunteer citizens’ army. In just eight weeks, over three-quarters of a million men in Britain had joined up. Every volunteer had to undergo a series of medical and fitness tests before being accepted as a soldier.

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The daily routine of front line service varied from the mundane to the dramatic. A typical day would begin with 'stand to arms' at dawn, with all men manning the front line trench. A unit would spend a few days in the front line, followed by periods in reserve and rest. Here are 14 objects from life at the front.

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By 1918, the British were sending over 67 million lbs (30 million kg) of meat to the Western Front each month. Daily rations were meant to include fresh or frozen meat, but many meals would have consisted of tinned food, which became a familiar aspect of the British soldier's diet.

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Dan Snow looks at the morale of men serving in WWI in 1914, from the relationship between officers and their troops, to rest period activities and steeling themselves for combat.

There are now no living veterans of WW1, but it is still possible to go back to the First World War through the memories of those who actually took part. In a unique partnership between the Imperial War Museums and the BBC, two sound archive collections featuring survivors of the war are brought together for the first time. The Imperial War Museums' holdings include a major oral history resource of remarkable recordings made in the 1980s and early 1990s with the remaining survivors of the conflict. The interviews were done not for immediate use or broadcast, but because it was felt that this diminishing resource that could never be replenished, would be of unique value in the future. Speakers recall in great detail as though it were yesterday the conditions of the trenches, the brutality of the battlefield, the experience of seeing their first casualty and hearing their first shell, their daily and nightly routines as soldiers, pilots or navy members of all ranks, and their psychological state in the face of so much trauma. This series will broadcast many of these recordings for the first time. Among the BBC's extensive collection of archive featuring first hand recollections of the conflict a century ago, are the interviews recorded for the 1964 TV series 'The Great War', which vividly bring to life the human experience of those fighting and living through the war.
Dan Snow narrates this new oral history, which will be broadcast in short seasons throughout the commemorative period.

Programme 6 - Morale
Dan Snow looks at the morale of men serving in the First World War in 1914, from the relationship between officers and their troops, to their activities during rest periods, and steeling themselves for combat.

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BBC Radio 4 - Voices of the First World War, Morale

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Dan Snow looks at the morale of men serving in the First World War in 1914.

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Rationing and Food Shortages During the War

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Rationing and Food Shortages During the War

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Many in Britain, as in the other warring nations, expected the First World War to be a short one. In the event, the war was to last for over four years and it would change the cultural, economic, political and social fabric of Britain forever.

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Rationing and Food Shortages During the First World War

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Hunger stalked the civilian populations of all the combatant nations. Agriculture and food distribution suffered from strains imposed by the war and naval blockades reduced food imports.

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Voices of the First World War - The Trenches 1914 - BBC Sounds

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The experiences of soldiers in the trenches during the first few months of the war.

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Voices of the First World War - Gas - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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What was life like in a World War One trench?

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What was it like to live and work in a World War One trench? Find out in this year 5/6 primary history guide from BBC Bitesize.

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The First Indian to Fly With the Royal Flying Corps

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The First Indian to Fly With the Royal Flying Corps

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World War One At Home - Balliol College, Oxford: First Indian to Fly With the Royal Flying Corps - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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BBC - World War One At Home, Britain's Great War - How War Changed the Face of the Nation - Great secrecy surrounded the development of the tank, much of which was undertaken at William Foster & Co Ltd, Lincolnshire

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Explore how war transformed the fields, villages and towns of the UK & Irish Home Front

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BBC - World War One At Home, When Nursing Came Home - Cheltenham Racecourse became a Voluntary Aid (VA) Hospital. Thousands had been treated in the makeshift wards by the war's end

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Home Front hospitals sprang up to cope with the overwhelming numbers of injured soldiers & wounded civilians

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World War One At Home - Cunard Shell Works, Merseyside: Pioneering Women's Wartime Work - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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World War One At Home - Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire: Tractor to Tank - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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How Modern Weapons Changed Combat in WWI

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How Modern Weapons Changed Combat in WWI

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The opening months of the First World War caused profound shock due to the huge casualties caused by modern weapons. Losses on all fronts for the year 1914 topped five million, with a million men killed.

This was a scale of violence unknown in any previous war. The cause was to be found in the lethal combination of mass armies and modern weaponry. Chief among that latter was quick-firing artillery. This used recuperating mechanisms to absorb recoil and return the barrel to firing position after each shot. With no need to re-aim the gun between shots, the rate of fire was greatly increased.

Shells were also more effective than ever before. New propellants increased their range, and they were filled with recently developed high explosive, or with multiple shrapnel balls - deadly to troops in the open. Small arms had undergone a similar revolution in efficiency, with the development of high-velocity cartridges filled with smokeless propellant.

The deadly effectiveness of these weapons was not fully realised until the armies clashed. Their efficiency was heightened by the tactics employed. It was thought that, unless soldiers advanced in relatively close order, it would be impossible to command them or maintain their attacking spirit, especially as the Continental armies featured large numbers of reservists, mobilised only at the outbreak of war.

The terrible casualties sustained in open warfare meant that, within four months, soldiers on all fronts had begun to protect themselves by digging trenches.

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How Modern Weapons Changed Combat In The First World War

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The opening months of the First World War caused profound shock due to the huge casualties caused by modern weapons. Losses on all fronts for the year 1914 topped five million, with a million men killed.

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World War One At Home - Shawbury, Shropshire: A Young Pilot’s Perspective - BBC Sounds

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A young pilot learning new technology and freedom from home before being sent to war

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BBC - World War One At Home, The War in the Air - Albert Ball was the first pilot of the Royal Flying Corps to receive the Victoria Cross. He was shot down on 7 May 1917.

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WW1 saw a fledgling aviation industry take flight & audacious heroics from its pilots