Turner Donovan Military Books - The world’s finest selection of rare and out-of-print books on British military history from 1800 to 1945
  Stock last updated on 19 April 2024
 
   

Ancre   10 Books
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BOLTON (E.J.) Some Memories 1916-17. 1st Ed., vii+39pp. Printed by Waterlow & Sons. nd [1923].  #65997
[HLMainPic] Introductory note explains that Eric John Bolton was born in 1897, Ed. at Sherborne & left to take up a commission in the Dorset Regiment. During the war he lost an eye & won the MC during the 3rd Battle of Ypres. This is not a Great War memorial volume as such, in that, although severely wounded, he survived the war, but his health broke down & he died in 1922. This MS. description of his active service was found among his papers. In it he describes events in France & Flanders 1916-17 with the 5th (S) Bn. Dorsets: the awful winter of 1916 when in the line: "there was not the least possibility of comfort or of sleep, so that 48 hours in the front line was as much as any man could stand. We officers had a slight pull; being out of direct rifle fire, we could squelch from post to post, thereby restoring a little warmth to our numbed feet... The darkness used to fall between four & five, & from then until dawn no officer or man in the front line might sleep... Every few hours a circle of blue faces & numbed hands would gather around a cooker & brew hot cocoa, & perhaps one of us would still have a little of his rum left. And then dawn slowly creeps into the sky to show a dead world; dawn, when rifles must be cleaned & the work started all over again..." Later, at Ypres, his wound: "a rifle grenade, which caught me full in the face. I remember carefully feeling my features one by one to see if there was anything left..." A concise but most interesting & exceptionally rare privately printed memoir. Orig. blue cloth, gilt title to front, VG with loosely inserted presentation letter from John Bolton, his father. See illustrations on our website.   £245
CALLINGHAM (L.F.) Letters & Records of Laurence Frederick Callingham, MA, LL.M., Written during the Great War (1914-1918). 1st Ed., xi+182pp., portrait frontis., 14 photos., fldg. map of Beaucourt. Privately printed at The Chiswick Press. 1928  #67051
[HLMainPic] Callingham's "War letters & records... written on the spot" but with minor notes identified by square brackets which he added "by way of explanation." Commences with enlistment in the Aritists' Rifles in August 1914 & service with the Artists' in France & Flanders from October 1914-May 1915 when he returned to the UK & was commissioned in the RND. He joined the Hood Bn. at Gallipoli in October 1915 & was evacuated with jaundice on Christmas day 1915; rejoined the Hood in January 1916 & served in France until wounded with the bn. on the Ancre in November (he provides a great deal of information on the RND on the Ancre, including a detailed timetable of the 63rd Divisional attack extracted from original War Diaries). Recovering from his wounds, he was sent to Whale Island for a gunnery course & ended the war in the North Sea. A fine account largely reproducing his detailed & interesting letters written on active service & during periods of training, plus several scarce photos. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG throughout & rare. See illustrations on our website.   £275
EDMONDS (Sir James) Military Operations France & Belgium 1916 Part I: Sir Douglas Haig's Command to 1st July 1916: The Battle of the Somme. Appendices: 1st Ed., viii+232pp. Macmillan. 1932  #62945
[HLMainPic] Various correspondence, orders & instructions relating to the Somme offensive on 1st July 1916 &c. Orig. red cloth, gilt, VG. See illustration on our website.   £60
EDMONDS (Sir James) Military Operations France & Belgium 1916 Part II: 2nd July 1916 to the end of the Battles of the Somme. Text plus Map & Appendices volumes: 1st Eds., xlv+601pp., frontis., 51 sketch maps & x+119pp., frontis., 6 fldg. maps in end-pocket. VG in dws. Macmillan. 1938  #61690
[HLMainPic] Text plus Maps & Appendices volumes covering all operations on the Somme subsequent to the first day: Battles of Flers, Morval, Thiepval Ridge, Transloy Ridges, Ancre &c. Also includes specimen orders & instructions re Battle of Flers-Courcelette, Transloy Ridges, Ancre &c. in the Appendices volume. Both volumes near fine in dws (with small & neat labels of the Macmillan Co., NY, added to spines). Rare in dws. See illustration on our website.   £275
JERROLD (Douglas) The Hawke Battalion: Some Personal Records of Four Years, 1914-1918. 1st Ed., 240pp., 16 plates, 6 fldg. maps + 3 in text. Benn. 1925  #65375
[HLMainPic] Gallipoli & Western Front with 63rd RN Div. Jerrold, also the divisional historian, served with the Hawke. Falls thought him "...about the best writer who has hitherto applied himself to formation & unit histories. The peculiar spirit of the bn., & indeed of the whole division, is made very real... This is good literature as well as history." Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG, nice clean copy with an interesting association copy with ownership inscrip. of "Marjorie (now Ricketts) but nee Ellis" whose forebears, Bernard & Evelyn are mentioned in the text. See illustrations on our website.   £75
JERROLD (Douglas) The Royal Naval Division. 1st Ed., xix+368pp., portrait frontis., 23 plates, 8 fldg. maps. Hutchinson. 1923  #64072
[HLMainPic] Excellent history of the 63rd RN Div., in which author served with Hawke Bn. at Antwerp in 1914, Gallipoli & on the Western Front 1916-18. "It is fitting that a division which had more celebrated writers, both of poetry & prose, in its ranks than probably any other should have had a historian who is an accomplished writer... Mr Jerrold records the doings of the division in each theatre equally well" - Falls (awarding two stars). Orig. blue cloth, gilt, very nice, near fine copy. See illustration on our website.   £95
SPARROW (Geoffrey, MC) & MACBEAN ROSS (J.N., MC) On Four Fronts with the Royal Naval Division. 1st Ed., xxi+[261]pp., 4 plates, sketches & maps in text. H&S. 1918  #61146
[HLMainPic] Both authors were surgeons in the RND; their experiences encompass Antwerp, Gallipoli, Salonika & Western Front. A valuable personal & divisional record. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG, nice clean copy. See illustration on our website.   £65
TROUNCE (Capt. H.D.) Fighting the Boche Underground. 1st Ed., vii+234p., portrait frontis., 7 plates, fldg. sketch of trenches & tunnel systems. NY: Scribner's. 1918  #65946
[HLMainPic] Memoirs of tunneling & mining by an American officer of the Royal Engineers (who later served in the USA Engineers), including operations at Vimy Ridge, Ancre, Arras, &c. The folding sketch is a remarkably interesting view of trench systems & tunnels, both above & below ground, detailing the opposing front lines & the organisation of the tunnels, from behind-the lines shelters & shafts to the front-end galleries &c. Orig. dec. printed paper covd. boards with green cloth backstrip, sp. marked, o/w VG & rare original edition. See illustrations on our website.   £125
WARD (Major C.H. Dudley, DSO, MC) Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (23rd Regt.). Vol. III: 1914-18 France & Flanders. 1st Ed., xv+498pp. + [18]pp. index, 4to, 21 illus., 50 maps, sketches of divl. signs &c. Forster Groom. 1928  #65875
[HLMainPic] The Western Front volume of the detailed substantial history of the 'literary regiment of WW1' in which soldiered Sassoon, Graves, Dunn, Adams, de Sola Pinto & Frank Richards. Roll of Hon. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, to sp. & red "R.W.F." lettering & dragon symbol to front, somewhat rubbed but generally VG copy of the excellent quality original edition. See illustration on our website.   £60
WYRALL (Everard) The 17th (S) Bn. Royal Fusiliers 1914-1919. 1st Ed., viii+312pp., map. Methuen. 1930  #67167
[HLMainPic] Western Front 1915-18: Battles of the Somme & Ancre, Arras, Bourlon Wood, German Offensive & Final Advance. Nominal roll, Roll of Hon. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG. See illustration on our website.   £45

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