About this ebook
Using original personal and military diaries, with hundreds of carefully selected newspaper extracts, letters and photographs, this book traces individual stories of tragedy and heroism, involving tradesmen, apprentices, lawyers, musicians, sportsmen, brothers, husbands and fathers from Harrogate and the West Riding. As such, it characterises the experience of the British Infantryman in the Great War.The Territorials of the 1/5th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment were the unsung heroes of the Great War. These Saturday Night Soldiers from York and the northern West Riding of Yorkshire went out to face the might of the German Army in April 1915. Through the hot summer and dark winter that followed, they stopped bullets at the Battle of Aubers Ridge and choked on Phosgene gas at Ypres. Caught in the carnage of the notorious first day on the Somme, the West Yorkshire Territorials were held up by General Haig as convenient scapegoats for his tactical failure, only for the 1/5th Battalion to prove him wrong and redeem itself as an attacking force at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, and then again at Passchendaele in 1917. In the last year of the war, the battalion helped fight a rear-guard action on the Menin Road, and was effectively wiped out at the Second Battle of Kemmel Ridge, only to be re-constituted in time to take part in the bloody advances at Cambrai and Valenciennes, which helped bring the conflict to an end.
Using original personal and military diaries, with hundreds of carefully selected newspaper extracts, letters and photographs, this book traces individual stories of tragedy and heroism, involving tradesmen, apprentices, lawyers, musicians, sportsmen, brothers, husbands and fathers from Harrogate...
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About the author
John Sheehan studied military history at Kings College, London, before qualifying as a lawyer. Later moving to North Yorkshire, he became interested in the history of Harrogate. He has spent thousands of hours burrowing in local archives, and has written numerous articles on the First World War for the Harrogate Advertiser and other papers. John plays village cricket for Burnt Yates CC, and enjoys the magnificent view of Nidderdale from square leg. He is married and has a son.
John Sheehan studied military history at Kings College, London, before qualifying as a lawyer. Later moving to North Yorkshire, he became interested in the history of Harrogate. He has spent thousands of hours burrowing in local archives, and has written numerous articles on the First World War f...
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