Britain’s Last Tommies: Final Memories from Soldiers of the 1914-18 War - In Their Own Words

In the later 2nd century BC, after a period of rapid expansion and conquest, the Roman Republic found itself in crisis. In North Africa her armies were already bogged down in a long difficult guerrilla war in a harsh environment when invasion by a coalition of Germanic tribes, the Cimbri, Teutones and Ambrones, threatened Italy and Rome itself, inflicting painful defeats on Roman forces in pitched battle Gaius Marius was the man of the hour. The first war he brought to an end through tactical brilliance, bringing the Numidian King Jugurtha back in chains. Before his ship even returned to Italy, the senate elected Marius to lead the war against the northern invaders. Reorganizing and reinvigorating the demoralized Roman legions, he led them to two remarkable victories in the space of months, crushing the Teutones and Ambrones at Aquiae Sextae and the Cimbri at Vercellae. The Roman army emerged from this period of crisis a much leaner and more professional force and the author examines the extent to which the 'Marian Reforms' were responsible for this and the extent to which they can be attributed to Marius himself. The First World War as a living history is to all intents and purposes over. As of today February 2005, there are only twelve veterans from six million alive who served on the Western Front. Richard has spent the last 20 years interviewing and carefully recording the memories of over 270 veterans and this book is a culmination of his 20 years of work.The book will be an extraordinary collection of stories told by the veterans themselves but also through the author's memories of them: the remarkable, the sad, the funny, the moving. It will also feature an outstanding collection of photographs taken of the veterans as they were, as soldiers during the war together with recent images of almost all of these men, taken at home, back on the Western Front, at the final veterans' reunion, and at various investitures. Britain's Last Tommies will also offer a unique list of veterans, all of who individually hold the poignant title of being the last Gallipoli veteran, the last Royal Flying Corps veteran, the last Distinguished Conduct Medal holder, the last cavalryman, the last Prisoner of War. [Elib] "It is now more than 90 years since the outbreak of war in 1914, and, incredibly, a very few of the six million men who served in that bloodiest of wars are still alive. These are the stories of those men and of the many who lived to a very old age and died only recently. They tell in their own words of suffering and courage, of humour and comradeship and of experiences that some of them say they would not have missed for the world, in spite of the cost. Richard Van Emden has interviewed veterans over many years, and has not only recorded their words and given a brief historical background to each chapter, but uniquely, included his own memories of these remarkable men, so that in the book we get to meet and to know them"--Jacket A collection of stories told by World War I veterans themselves but also through the author's memories of them: the remarkable, the sad, the funny, and the moving. It offers a list of veterans, who hold the poignant title of being the last Gallipoli veteran, the last Royal Flying Corps veteran, the last Prisoner of War etc.