[Dbm Army Lists Book 1
Amancio Mccrae
This collection contains lists of individuals who served in the British Army between 1882 and 1962. These images do not include all possible years, though the years spanning WWI and WWII are all covered.
On 28 June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated. Austria-Hungary then issued an ultimatum of demands, to which Serbia failed to reply. War in Europe and across the world would soon follow, with Britain declaring war on German on 4 August. The main protagonists fell into two coalitions: the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire), and the Allies (France, Russia, Britain and its Empire, Japan and later Italy and the United States). The war raged across the globe, with fighting taking place on the land, in the sea and in the air. Trench warfare would come to characterise the conflict, with both sides sustaining huge loses for small patches of land. Despite heavy losses, the Allies were able to resist German advances and eventually forced Germany to accept the armistice on 11 November, 1918, ending the war.
On 28 June, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria-Hungary issued a harsh ultimatum, and when Serbia failed to reply, they declared war, backed by German reassurances of support. Tensions escalated, alliances were formed, and by early August Britain had declared war on Germany
Shortly after the British declaration of war, British forces arrived in France to help support the French Army on the Belgian frontier against the German assault. The latter had invaded through Belgium and began a destructive assault on Liege as part of the Schlieffen Plan to capture France before its allies could arrive.
British forces were called into action again on 6 September, 1914, at the First Battle of the Marne, where French and British troops confronted the invading Germans. They halted the German advance and mounted a successful counteroffensive, pushing the Germans back and stopping their progression toward Paris. After this victory, the Western Front settled into a stalemate, and both sides dug trenches and settled in for a long war of attrition.
Without a large standing army, Britain called for volunteers to bolster its ranks from the British Isles. These volunteers, often referred to as Kitchener's Army, fought on land, and sea and in the air. Britain also benefiting from the large sources of manpower it could draw on from the Commonwealth and Empire.
In the east, the Allies mounted an attack on the Ottoman Empire in the Dardanelles Straits. Unable to overpower the Ottoman defences via naval attacks, they switched strategies. In April 1915, the Allies launched a land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula, a small stretch of land between the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The invasion was unsuccessful, and after heavy fighting, the Allies abandoned the campaign and began evacuating its forces in December 1915, concluding in January 1916.
In that same month, Britain introduced conscription for the first time in its history. Single men between the ages of 18 and 41 were conscripted into the military from England, Wales, and Scotland; in May, conscription was extended to married men.
Britain would need the additional troops as 1916 saw them fight in both Jutland and the Somme. Jutland was the biggest naval battle of the war with 250 ships and about 100,000 naval personnel involved, as the British and German navies went head to head. Both sides incurred heavy losses, and while Germany inflicted heavier losses in terms of shipping and casualties, the Royal Navy was back in action the following day and maintained control of the North Sea.
The war at sea was also taking its toll on British shipping, as the latter struggled to combat German submarine attacks. At the beginning of the war, Germany had indiscriminately attacked merchant and passenger ships but later agreed to cease attacks on unarmed passenger ships after the tragic sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915. This peace did not last though, and in February 1917, Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare and established the waters around the British Isles as war zones. Within two months of this announcement, and following leaks of a German attempt to form an anti-American allegiance with Mexico, the US declared war on Germany and joined the Allies. The damage to British shipping, meanwhile, was almost disastrous for the Allies, had it not been for the convoy system introduced to combat German attacks on shipping.
Back on land, Germany launched its Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. Small infantry groups and brief artillery fire allowed German forces to push into France and get within 75 miles of Paris; the situation looked desperate for the Allies. However, bolstered by American reinforcements, Allied forces were able to resist the German offensives. They then launched their own push, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, on 8 August, a series of coordinated attacks across the Western Front. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, Germany agreed to an armistice on 11 November, 1918. After more than four years of fighting, the war was finally over.
Many soldiers, sailors and airmen were awarded medals and pensions for their service, but not everyone returned home. An estimated 880,000 British forces died during the war. They are commemorated on memorials and in cemeteries across the world, their final resting place a reminder of the sacrifices made by a generation of men and women caught up in one of the most brutal conflicts in history.
The Second World War broke out in Europe when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Britain, along with France, soon declared war on Germany and Britain sent troops to France under the British Expeditionary Force. The following Spring, Germany began to expand north into Scandinavia, west into France and eventually set its sights east, on its ally, the Soviet Union. Britain withstood an invasion scare with victory in the battle of Britain in 1940, and endured destructive aerial bombing campaigns during the Blitz and subsequent attacks. Fighting occurred in the desert against German and Italian forces, and later in the Far East and Pacific and Japan, following the latter's attack on Pearl Harbour which drew the United States into the War. In 1943 the Allies went on the offensive in Sicily and Italy and the following year, launched their assault on North-West Europe. On 6 June, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and pushed the Germans back across France and into other occupied territories. In March 1945 they then advanced into Germany and received the Nazi's unconditional surrender on 7 May, 1945; the following day would become, V-E day in Europe. Three months later, Japan surrendered on 15 August on what is now V-J Day, and WWII ended.
When Germany invaded the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia, the British Government followed a policy of appeasement which it had employed throughout the 1930s, and signed the Munich Pact. This allowed Germany to legally annex the Sudetenland; however, they did not stop there and set their sights on further expansion in central Europe.
When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September, 1939, Britain stood by its promise to defend Polish borders and declared war on Germany two days later. Mobilisation of troops was slow though, and Poland fell within a month. Fearing the threat posed to its citizens, the British Government launched Operation Pied Piper on 1 September. Over the course of three days, 1.5 million vulnerable people, such as children, pregnant women and disabled people, were evacuated out of the target areas into the reception areas in the countryside.
Within a couple months, Germany had captured much of northern and western Europe using what they called Blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Suddenly, the invasion threat was a very real prospect for the British Government and public. On 10 July, 1940, the Battle of Britain began over Southern England. The German air force, known as the Luftwaffe, began a campaign of destruction against the Royal Air Force, aiming to gain air superiority over RAF and limit its ability to defend Britain against invasion. The RAF resisted the attacks and scored a decisive defensive victory, with the Battle of Britain coming to an end in late October 1940.
British and Allied forces were battling the Axis in the desert too. An iconic victory came during the Second Battle of El Alamein between October and November 1942. This represented the first major victory on land for British forces during the war, and represented a shift in the North African Campaign, which would end with an Allied victory in May 1943.
In July 1943, the Allies launched an amphibious landing in Sicily, followed by an invasion of mainland Italy in September. British forces played a pivotal role right up to the end of the Italian Campaign in May 1945, with battles such as Anzio and Monte Casino written into British military history.
Allied forces continued to advance across occupied Europe. With a final offensive, German forces attempted to resist the Allied invasion. For almost six weeks, neither side gained ground in the Battle of the Bulge. The forested Ardennes made it difficult to advance, but the Allies were victorious, eventually crossing the River Rhine in late March 1945 and began a march toward Berlin. During this time, Allied forces discovered the atrocities of the Holocaust. They learned of the mass killings and internment of Jews, ethnic minorities, Soviet citizens, and many other groups against whom Hitler discriminated.
In April 1945, Soviet forces arrived in Berlin, and Hitler committed suicide. Without a leader and with enemies on all sides, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies on 7 May, 1945, and came into effect the following day.
It is estimated that Britain lost 384,000 members of its armed forces during the war, in addition to 70,000 civilians killed. Tens of thousands of British personnel were held as prisoners of war by Germany and Japan.
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