The Tigers: 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th (Service) Battalions of the Leicestershire Regiment

Great Britain's Regular Army was large enough to contain the initial German Advance of 1914, but heavy casualties and the prospect of a long World War forced the British to tap new manpower sources. Lord Kitchener, the British supreme commander, called for the creation of a New Army from civilian volunteers. This new army required Britain's existing regiments to raise wartime Service battalions with a strong regional identity.This volume covers in great detail the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Service battalions raised by the Leicestershire Regiment, a unit best known for its bayonet charge against Washington's troops at Princeton in 1777. The new volunteers, often coming from such quaint localities as Coalville, Market Harborough and Wigston, underwent military training with enthusiasm and arrived on the Western Front in late 1915. Steel helmets had not yet been issued and the four battalions were readily identified by the Tiger badge of the Leicesters worn on their cloth caps. Leicestershire maintained its four battalions through the fruitless campaigns of 1916 and 1917, but the original batch of volunteers, identifiable by their black collar patches, became fewer and fewer as the months rolled by. This vivid account is backed up by 200 photographs, most never before published, maps, and rolls of the names of participants. It is a unique exercise in both local and military history The Tigers Is The First Major History Of The Leicestershire Regiment In The Great War To Be Published Since The 1930s. Weaving Personal Recollections And Testimony With Official Accounts, It Brings Vividly To Life The Characters Of The Four Battalions Raised By Leicestershire In Response To Lord Kitchener's Call For Volunteers. The Book Contains Information On Every Major Figure In Each Battalion (including Lieutenant-colonel Pe Bent Vc) And Contains The Testimony Of Men Not Just From Leicester, But Also From Loughborough, Coalville, Hinckley, Rutland, Market Harborough And Wigston. It Follows Them From Training On Salisbury Plain Through To The Battles Whose Names Are Etched Into The History Of The Great War: The Somme, Arras And Passchendaele Among Them--dust Jacket. Kitchener's Army -- We Band Of Brothers -- Forging A New Brigade : Training At Aldershot And On The South Coast -- Foreign Fields : France At Last -- 'thou Hast Brought His Strongholds To Ruin' : The Battle Of The Bazentin Ridge -- Gueudecourt : The Somme Once More -- Force Of Arms : Fontaine And The Hindenburg Line -- 'go On, Tigers!' : The Fighting At Polygon Wood -- Heroic Resistance; Desperate Endeavour : The Spring Offensives -- No Quarter Asked Or Given : The Battle Of The Aisne -- The Final Advance -- A Land Fit For Heroes. Matthew Richardson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 281-282) And Index. "The Tigers' is the first major history of the Leicestershire Regiment in the Great War to be published since the 1930's. Weaving personal recollections with official accounts, it brings the character of the four battalions raised in Leicestershire in response to Lord Kitchener's call for volunteers vividly to life. The book contains information on every major figure in each This is the first major history of the Leicestershire Regiment in the Great war to be published since the 1930s. Weaving personal recollections with official accounts, it brings the character of the four battalions raised in Leicestershire vividly to life. There are over 200 photographs, many from private collections, maps and several appendices.