by Dr ROBERT T. FOLEY For most in Britain, September 1915 is best remembered for the battle of Loos, which saw the first British use of poison gas and the first extensive use of Kitchener’s ‘new army divisions’ in battle. It is also remembered as a great ‘what-if’ of history, as British successes at Loos… Read More German Defence of the Western Front, September-October 1915
by Dr DAVID JORDAN In the introduction to his excellent book on the battle, my colleague Nick Lloyd observed that the battle of Loos remained forgotten, ‘lost in the myths of rumour, hearsay and myth’, even though it was the largest land battle that Britain had fought up until that point, and was marked by… Read More The Royal Flying Corps and Preparing for the Battle of Loos, 1915: Developing an Air Force
by Ewan Lawson The campaigns in the Western Desert in the Second World War are well known with locations like Sollum and Bir El Hakim having secured their place in history. What is less well known is that this area had previously been fought over some 25 years before during the Great War. Part of… Read More Defeating the Senussi (December 1915-March 1916): The appliance of science?
by Dr DAVID MORGAN-OWEN Both at the time and since, the natural reaction to the Allied failure to capture the Gallipoli Peninsular has been to interrogate the records in search of lessons to be learned. The numerous shortcomings in planning and execution evident in the operation have provided ample opportunity for those searching for ways… Read More Lessons Learned from Gallipoli
by Dr ROBERT T. FOLEY Undoubtedly, the year 1915 has been largely ignored, if not forgotten, by British historians of the First World War. In part, this is because the year was one of success for Central Powers and failure for the Entente. In the West, the ‘Iron Wall’ of the German army repelled numerous… Read More Forgotten Battles: Gorlice-Tarnow, May-June 1915
In a recent post, Dr Nick Lloyd described 1915 as the ‘forgotten year‘ of the First World War. To correct this, in occasional posts throughout 2015 members of the First World War Research Group based in the Defence Studies Department will examine unknown or forgotten aspects of the war during 1915. by Dr IAN GOODERSON… Read More Towards Systematic Bombing: The Royal Flying Corps and Experience on the Western Front, 1915
by Dr ROBERT T. FOLEY On 25 April 1915, units of General Sir Ian Hamilton’s Mediterranean Expeditionary Force landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The goal of this force was to clear the peninsula of Turkish defenders, and in particular their heavy artillery, in order to allow an Anglo-French naval force to sweep the Dardanelles Straits… Read More From the Archives: A Disastrous Campaign: The US View of Gallipoli
In a recent post, Dr Nick Lloyd described 1915 as the ‘forgotten year‘ of the First World War. To correct this, in occasional posts throughout 2015 members of the First World War Research Group based in the Defence Studies Department will examine unknown or forgotten aspects of the war during 1915. by Dr DAVID MORGAN-OWEN… Read More The Turning Point of the First World War, 1915
by DR NICK LLOYD 2015 is the hundredth anniversary of one of the most important, yet little remembered, years in the history of Britain and her armed forces. Often overshadowed by the rush to war in 1914 and the momentous offensive on the Somme in 1916, the battles that the British Expeditionary Force fought on… Read More THE FORGOTTEN YEAR: 1915
Defence-In-Depth 