The 1914 campaign of World War I, sparked by the German Army’s invasion of Luxembourg, Belgium, and France, marked a watershed in military history. Advances in weaponry forced both sides to take to the earth in what became a grueling standoff of trench warefare. In a bizarre mix of ancient and modern, some of the last cavalry charges took place in the same theatre in which armoured cars, motorcycles and aeroplanes were beginning to make their presence felt.

 

These dramatic developments were recorded in graphic detail by soldiers who were there in the trenches themselves. Now, with the benefit of these firsthand accounts, historian Matthew Richardson offers a thoroughgoing reassessment of the 1914 campaign. His vivid narrative emphasises the perspective of the private soldiers and junior officers of the British Army and includes full colour plates containing over one hundred illustrations.

 

1914: Voices from the Battlefields was a Britain At War Magazine Book of the Month in February 2014.