This is a unique perspective of a number of aspects of WWI that have received little or no attention at the time, or by historians since then. The author has provided many cartoons and drawings that have been reproduced through the body of the book, using full colour as appropriate – Highly Recommended.
NAME: Dawn of Victory, Thank You China! Star Shell Reflections 1918- 1919, The Illustrated Diaries of Jim Maultsaid FILE: R2577 AUTHOR: Jim Maultsaid PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: hard back PAGES: 348 PRICE: £30.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWI, World War One, World War 1, First World War, The Great War, Germany, BEF, Western Front, trench warfare, war of attrition, logistics ISBN: 1-47389-190-6 IMAGE: B2577 BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/y8xvc9bo LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This is a unique perspective of a number of aspects of WWI that have received little or no attention at the time, or by historians since then. The author has provided many cartoons and drawings that have been reproduced through the body of the book, using full colour as appropriate – Highly Recommended. WWI saw volunteers coming to Britain from all over the world. The Commonwealth contributed many soldiers who all wanted to help what they saw as the Mother of Empire. Many had never before travelled to Europe and that included large numbers who had never even travelled across the countries they had been brought up in. Irish volunteers came in numbers. In this case, the author was born in the USA of Irish immigrant parents. When he arrived he was taken into the BEF to fight from the trenches and was seriously wounded during the First Day of the Somme 1916. To that point his was a story similar to so many. He was naturally gifted as a wordsmith and artist, producing and illustrating diaries of his military service. This is the third and final book in the trilogy that records his experiences. It is particularly valuable because it covers the period after his wounding and convalescence, when he was judged unfit for active service, commissioned, and sent to work with the Chinese Labour Corps until 1920. The Chinese Labour Corps does not feature in the mountain of histories of the period, even though some 96,000 Chinese served on the Western Front. The Chinese worked very hard, providing critical logistics and turning their hands to every kind of task. This book tells their story graphically through very readable prose and a mass of unique illustrations. From reading the typical histories of the Great War, it is very easy for a reader today to understand that November 1918 was the point where everyone packed up and went home. The scale of the conflict and the massive casualties meant that there was much to do after the Armistice came into force. There were hundreds of thousands of bodies that had never been recovered, identified and suitably buried. Even a hundred years after the events, remains continue to be discovered. Modern forensics science has enabled many of these remains to be identified and they have received full military honours, along with those unknown soldiers who cannot be identified. From that perspective it can be appreciated how large the task was in 1918 through to 1920. Not only were the dead to be identified and buried, but there were mountains of equipment an thousands of tons of materials to be recovered. The Chinese Labour Corp. provided much of the manpower for this work. This book provides a glimpse of their lives on the Western Front and does much to provide the recognition that they deserved.