Authors: Richard Holmes
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Pollock, John,
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Prior, Robin, and Wilson, Trevor,
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Pugh, Stevenson, (ed.),
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Ramsbottom, Ray F.,
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Reith, John,
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Richards, Frank,
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Richter, Donald,
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Rogerson, Sidney,
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With the Rank and Pay of a Sapper
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Sassoon, Siegfried,
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Simkins, Peter,
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Sitwell, Osbert,
Great Morning
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Spears, Edward,
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Spears, E. L.,
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Spicer, Lancelot Dykes,
Letters from France
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Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the War
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Swinton, Maj. Gen. Sir Ernest,
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Talbot Kelly, R. B.,
Subaltern's Odyssey
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Tennant, Norman,
A Saturday Night Soldier's War 1913â18
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Terraine, John,
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Thompson, Flora
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Vansittart, Peter,
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Articles
Burke, Tom, âIn Memory of Tom Kettle',
The Blue Cap: Journal of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association,
Vol. 9, September 2002
Corns, Cathryn, âSo Ended the Golden Age: 9th York and Lancaster Regiment on 1st July 1916',
Battlefields Review,
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Daily Telegraph,
16 August 1998
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Past and Present,
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Imperial War Museum Review,
No. 1, 1986
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Stand To: The Journal of the Western Front Association,
No. 33, Winter 1991
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No. 37, Vol. 1, 1994
Philpott, William, âWhy the British Were Really on the Somme: A Reply to Elizabeth Greenhalgh',
War in History,
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Sheffield, G. D., âThe Australians at Poizières: Command and Control on the Somme, 1916', in French, David, and Reid, Brian Holden,
The British General Staff: Reform Innovations c. 1890â1939),
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Stand To,
No. 34, Summer 1992
Tanner, Alyn, âSergeant Sidney Farmer MM â Seventeen Times
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Journal of the Orders and Medals Research Society,
Vol. 41, No. 4, December 2002 Tawney, R. H., âSome Reflections of a Soldier',
Nation,
October 1916
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Stand To,
No. 65, September 2002
Williams, M. J., âThirty Per Cent: A Study in Casualty Statistics',
Journal of the Royal United Services Institute,
February 1964
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Journal of the Royal United Services Institute,
February 1966
On-line
www.wardiaries.co.uk
AA & QMG | assistant adjutant and quartermaster general (the principal administrative staff officer in a division) |
ADC | aide de camp (usually a lieutenant or captain on a general's personal staff) |
Adj | adjutant (generally a captain, the staff officer to the commanding officer of a battalion or equivalent) |
ADMS | assistant director of Medical Services (the senior medical officer in a division) |
ADS | advance dressing station (the second link in the chain of medical evacuation) |
AG | adjutant general |
Alleyman | slang for a German (from French allemand) |
APM | assistant provost marshal (responsible for military police matters at division, corps and army headquarters) |
Archie | anti-aircraft gun or gunfire. From a music-hall song with the words âArchibald â certainly not!' |
ASC | Army Service Corps (or, unkindly, Ally Sloper's Cavalry) |
AVC | Army Veterinary Corps |
BC | battery commander |
BEF | British Expeditionary Force |
BGGS | brigadier general, general staff (chief of staff of a corps) |
Blighty | Home, Britain |
BM | brigade major (chief of staff of a brigade) |
BQMS | battery quartermaster sergeant: the equivalent ofCQMS in the Royal Artillery |
BSM | battery sergeant major (ranking as warrant officer class 2) |
bullring | training area at the base |
Canary | training NCO at the base (so called because of his yellow armband) |
CB | Companion of the Order of the Bath confined to barracks counter battery |
CCS | casualty clearing station (the third link in the chain of medical evacuation) |
CGS | chief of the general staff (chief of staff of the British Expeditionary Force) |
CIGS | chief of the imperial general staff (professional head of the British army) |
CMC | Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George |
C in C | commander in chief (overall commander of the BEF: until December 1915 Field Marshal Sir John French, and then General (later Field Marshal) Sir Douglas Haig |
CO | commanding officer (properly used for commanding officers of battalions or their equivalents in other arms, though sometimes blurred with OC [qv]) |
Coal Box | German heavy shell (so named because of its cloud of black smoke: see also Jack Johnson') |
CQMS | company quartermaster sergeant (senior NCO, ranking as staff sergeant, responsible for administration at company or equivalent level) |
CRA | commander Royal Artillery (artillery commander in adivision) |
CRE | commander Royal Engineers (engineer commander in a division) |
Crump | German heavy shell |
CSM | company sergeant major (ranking as warrant officer class 2) |
DAA & | QMG deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general (subordinate administrative staff officer) |
DAD MS | deputy assistant director of Medical Services (subordinate medical staff officer) |
DADOS | deputy assistant director of Ordnance Services (the senior ordnance officer in a division) |
DAQMG | deputy assistant quartermaster general (subordinate administrative staff officer) |
DCM | Distinguished Conduct Medal |
DSO | Distinguished Service Order |
FGCM | Field General Court Martial |
Flying pig | type of trench mortar bomb |
FOO | forward observation officer |
GHQ | general headquarters (headquarters of the BEF, established at St-Omer in the autumn of 1914, moving to Montreuilsur-Mer in 1916) |
GOC | general officer commanding (the commander of a brigade, division, corps or army) |
GS | General Service, as in GS wagon |
GSO | general staff officer |
GSOl | general staff officer 1st grade (Lt. Col.). In a division, its chief of staff |
GSO2 | general staff officer 2nd grade (Maj.) |
GSO3 | general staff officer 3rd Grade (Capt.) |
Jack Johnson | German heavy shell (named after the famous black heavyweight boxer, 1878â1946). See Coal Box. |
KCB | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |
L of C | lines of communication |
MC | Military Cross |
MG | machine gun |
MGGS | major general General Staff (chief of staff of an army) |
MGRA | major general Royal Artillery (senior artillery officer in an army) |
Minnie | from Minenwerfer, German trench mortar |
MM | Military Medal |
MO | medical officer |
MS | military secretary |
NCO | non-commissioned officer |
OC | officer commanding (properly used for officers commanding companies and platoons or their equivalents in other arms, though sometimes blurred with CO [qv]) |
OR | other ranks: private soldiers and NCOs, as distinct from officers |
Pipsqueak | small-calibre German shell (see whiz-bang) |
QM | quartermaster (the administrative staff officer to a battalion or equivalent: in the British army always an officer promoted from the ranks) |
QMG | quartermaster general |
RAMC | Royal Army Medical Corps |
RAP | regimental aid post (the first link in the chain of medical evacuation) |
RE | Royal Engineers |
register | to adjust artillery fire onto a target |
RFA | Royal Field Artillery |
RFC | Royal Flying Corps (became RAF on 1 April 1918) |
RGA | Royal Garrison Artillery |
RHA | Royal Horse Artillery |
RMO | regimental medical officer (generally a lieutenant or captain RAMC). Often simply MO |
RQMS | regimental quartermaster sergeant (ranking as warrantofficer class 2 in a battalion or equivalent, the quartermaster's principal assistant) |
RSM | regimental sergeant major (ranking as warrant officer class 1) |
RTO | railway transport officer |
SAA | small-arms ammunition |
SB | stretcher-bearer |
SIW | self-inflicted wound |
SOS | Save Our Souls: the close protective target on which field artillery was laid when not otherwise engaged |
stand to | from âstand to your arms'. The period at dusk and dawn when troops were required to man their battle positions to repel an attack |
TM | trench mortar |
TMB | trench mortar battery |
Toffee Apple | type of trench mortar bomb |
VC | Victoria Cross |
Whiz-bang | small-calibre German shell (see âPipsqueak') |
WO | warrant officer |