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Two World War One eBooks:
1. Kitchener - Organiser of Victory
by Howard Begbie. Published 1915.
Illustrated
  
Biography of England's military hero, touching
briefly on his career in India, Egypt and South Africa. Written in the midst
of World War I, when Kitchener was in charge of building up the British Army,
this describes him as the embodiment of the "will of the entire British
empire."
Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916) was born on
24 June 1850 near Kerry in Ireland.
Trained at the age of 18 at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich until 1870,
Kitchener served briefly with the French Army of the Loire before receiving a
commission into the Royal Engineers in 1871.
Following duty in Palestine and Cyprus he was attached to the Egyptian army in
1883, at that time being re-organised by the British army. Kitchener took part
in the unsuccessful operation to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum in
1884-85.
Appointed Governor General of Eastern Sudan in 1886, a position he held until
1888, he helped turn back the last Mahdist invasion of Egypt in 1889. Made
commander of the Egyptian army in 1892, he began the reconquest of Sudan in
1896 having re-organised the army in the interim. A series of victories
culminated in the battle of Omdurman and the reoccupation of Khartoum in 1898.
Later that year he forestalled a French attempt to claim part of Sudan; he was
subsequently made governor of Sudan.
Appointed chief of staff to Lord Roberts during the Boer War in 1900,
Kitchener re-organised transport, led an (unsuccessful) attack on Paardeberg
and suppressed the Boer revolt near Priska. Lord Roberts returned to England
at the close of 1900, leaving Kitchener behind to mop up continued guerrilla
resistance, a task that took until 1902 and for which Kitchener was much
criticised.
Kitchener was sent to India as commander in chief of the British forces
situated there, remaining in the position until 1909, when he was made Field
Marshal. Kitchener served as Consul General to Egypt from 1911-14, being made
an Earl in 1914.
With the outbreak of the First World War Kitchener was recalled to England and
made secretary of state for war. Almost alone among his colleagues Kitchener
foresaw a war lasting several years, rather than months, and planned
accordingly. He vastly expanded the army from 20 to 70 divisions within two
years. The most famous recruitment poster in history depicted Kitchener with
finger outstretched: "Your country wants you!"
Kitchener effectively oversaw war strategy for the
first year and a half of the war; after the Mons battle in 1914 he travelled
to Ypres to stiffen the weakening resolve of Sir John French, commander of the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Unfortunately his relations with the rest
of the war cabinet were strained. Kitchener was difficult to work with,
finding it hard to develop close working relationships with colleagues.
Following an attack by Lord Northcliffe's newspapers in 1915 over a shortage
of shells, responsibility for munitions was taken from him; later that same
year he was stripped of control over strategy.
Kitchener offered to resign from the cabinet, but his overwhelming popularity
in the country at large made the government fearful of the consequences of
allowing him to leave the cabinet.Kitchener's involvement with the disastrous
Dardanelles campaign led to a further tarnishing of his reputation among the
cabinet. Sent on a mission to Russia in June 1916 to encourage continued
Russian resistance to Germany, Kitchener's ship, H.M.S. Hampshire struck a
German mine off the Orkneys and sank; Kitchener was drowned on 5 June 1916. This PDF ebook is available for ordering and download here
2.
Foch the Man -
A Life of the Supreme Commander of the Allied
Armies
by Clara E. Laughlin. Published 1918. Illustrated
Ferdinand Foch became
supreme commander of Allied forces in World War One. Foch, along with Joseph
Joffre and Philippe Pétain became one of the three most prominent French
military officers in the war.
Ferdinand Foch was
born in 1851 in Tarbes in the Hautes-Pyrenees. Foch fought in the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and became an artillery specialist. In 1907, he
was appointed as head of the École de Guerre, a position he held until 1911.
When war broke out in August 1914, Foch commanded the French Second Army. This
army stopped the German advance on Nancy. As a result of this success, Foch
was given the command of the French Ninth Army which fought at the Battle of
the Marne - the battle that stopped the German advance on Paris. After this
battle, he served in Flanders and became commandant of the French Army Group
that fought at the Battle of the Somme.
In 1916, he retired but returned to duty in May 1917, when he was appointed
chief-of-staff to Marshal Pétain. Those in power in the Allied military
believed that Foch offered a more dynamic leadership potential than Pétain. In
April 1918, Foch was appointed supreme commander of the Allied forces on the
Western Front - a position that gave him supreme command over all Allied
forces on the Western Front. In July 1918, Foch put into operation a
successful counter-offensive against the Germans along the Marne River. In
August 1918, Foch followed this up with a series of operations which led to
the Germans seeking an armistice in November 1918. For this reason, Foch was
credited with masterminding the victory over Germany.
Foch then played a prominent part in the lead up to the Treaty of Versailles
during which he tried to get Georges Clemenceau to impose far more harsh terms
on the Germans so that the Germans could never pose another military threat to
Europe again. After the signing of the treaty, Foch retired from public life.
His position in military history was assured. Foch
is the only French military commander to have been made an honorary field-marshall
in the British Army and his standing was ensured by the placing of a statue of
him in central London.
Marshal Ferdinand Foch died in 1929.
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Note: Illustrations are reduced in scale
compared to the actual facsimile
---o--- This PDF ebook is available for ordering and download here
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