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March Retreat   18 Books
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332 Siege Battery R.G.A. An Account of its Adventures in the Great War, 1917-18. Compiled from Notes & Recollections of Officers of the Battery. 1st Ed., ix+134pp., 22 photos., 5 fldg. maps. Windsor: Oxley & Son, Printers. nd (c.1920s)  #61958
[HLMainPic] 6-In. How. Battery formed Jan. 1917: F&F from May starting in Ploegsteert Sector then 3rd Ypres, down to Bertrancourt for March Retreat & Final Advance from Mericourt to Bois l'Evecque. Detailed history. Roll of officers & WOs (with brief services), Roll of Hon. Orig. dec. blue cloth, VG & scarce. See illustration on our website.   £95
King's Royal Rifle Corps Chronicle 1918. 1st Ed., xv+339pp., 7 illus., 8 fldg. maps. Winchester: Warren & Sons. 1919  #64659
Detailed war records of all bns. on service inc. March Retreat, Final Advance &c., excellent maps inc. coloured trench maps. Rolls of officers killed & wounded, obituaries, roll of awards. Orig. green cloth, silver gilt, sp. chipped & somewhat worn, generally sound & VG. See illustration on our website.   £45
Poems by Claude L. Penrose, with a Biographical Preface. 1st Ed., vi+271pp., 4to, portrait frontis., 51 photos. & other illus. inc. several of Penrose's decorative designs & watercolours of Western Front scenes, 3 text decorations. Privately printed by Harrison & Sons. 1919  #66403
[HLMainPic] A misleadingly titled very substantial memorial to a regular gunner, Major Claude Quayle Lewis Penrose, M.C. & Bar. He was born in Florida in 1893 & in early youth had a disturbing method of "experimenting on his powers of endurance by knocking his curly head against a wall & persisting in the exercise until he made himself cry." His family returned to Europe when he was four & he was educated at the United Services College & the RMA Woolwich. Commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1913, he went to France in November 1914, served with 119th Heavy Battery from January 1915 & was attached to 4th Field Survey Company on the Somme, planning counter-battery work & preparing panoramic photographs (he was awarded the MC for this work). Later he was appointed to command 245th Siege Battery (XIX Corps Heavies), won the Bar to his MC during the March Retreat & was mortally wounded by a shell which hit his Battery Command post on 31st July 1918 east of Ypres, then aged twenty-four. He died of wounds the following day at the 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station & his grave lies in Esquelbecq Military Cemetery. The first 173 pages consist of extracts from his voluminous and detailed letters and material contributed by colleagues to give a full account of his life & services, including much on the Somme 1916, also various extracts from his diaries, followed by 90pp. of his poetry; the last eight being on war themes. Orig. delicate cushioned glazed purple cloth binding, a comparatively VG copy as most encountered are dry & worn due to the delicate nature of the binding, sp. sunned o/w nice copy. See illustrations on our website.   £275
With The Forty-Fourths: Being a Record of the Doings of the 44th Field Ambulance (14th Division). 1st Ed., 83pp., portrait frontis. (of five officers), several sketches, 4 maps, diagram of the method of evacuation of wounded from front line to base. Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. 1922  #66926
[HLMainPic] With the 14th (Light) Div. throughout the war: from training in the UK to Ypres Salient 1915, Somme 1916, Arras 1917, March Retreat &c. Nominal roll (noting those killed & wounded). Deluxe full maroon morocco binding (has also been seen in printed wraps.), VG & rare in any form. See illustration on our website.   £125
AQUILA [Pseud. of DELIUS (Capt. J.D.)] With the Cavalry in the West. 1st Ed., 246pp., 8 plates by F.W. Reed, 2 maps. John Lane/Bodley Head (On Active Service series). 1922  #63931
[HLMainPic] Unusual, & thus valuable, anonymous first-hand account by a junior officer: wartime Sandhurst course, then with a regiment of 2nd Cav. Div. (4th Hussars, 5th Cavd. Bde.) in France & Flanders from Oct. 1915-armistice inc. battles of Somme, Arras, Cambrai, March Retreat, Amiens & Final Advance. He records disappointments as, time after time, his regiment was held in readiness for a breakthrough but denied the opportunity to act; in between it was employed on working parties, dismounted infantry in trench warfare &c. The author was a troop commander & then adjt. during most of 1918. Orig. orange cloth, blindstamped & title in black, covers stained & worn, yet sound, & scarce. The author was the younger brother of the famous composer Frederick Delius. See illustration on our website.   £75
BEHREND (Capt. & Adjt. A.F.) Nine Days: Adventures of a Heavy Artillery Brigade of the Third Army during the German Offensive of March 21-29 1918. 2nd Ed., xvi+115pp., 13 photos., 3 drawings, 2 fldg. maps. Privately printed at Cambridge by Heffer & Sons. 1921  #62110
[HLMainPic] Appealing & detailed account of the activities of 90th Bde. RGA during this hectic period. Roll of Officers & WOs. Orig. pale blue cloth, gilt, dec. with Bde. sign to front, VG. See illustration on our website.   £95
BENSTEAD (C.R.) Retreat: A Story of 1918. 4th & Cheaper Ed., 318pp., ep map (Distribution of British & German Divisions for the Initial Attack on 21st March 1918, & the Area Covered by the Subsequent Retreat). VG in worn dw. Methuen. 1931  #64514
[HLMainPic] Controversial novel of the German offensive taking as its theme the inefficacy of chaplains at the front. Lauded by Falls who - awarding a star - stated: "...a fine book, giving us to alternate with pictures of [the chaplain] Warne's misery unforgettable glimpses of the retreat of the Fifth Army. The saddest part of the book is the chaplain's yearning to minister to the spiritual needs of his flock & that flock's complete indifference to him." Orig. light brown cloth, titled in black, VG in chipped & torn dw (with loss at head & tail of sp. panel). See illustration on our website.   £45
BOYD (Donald [F., MC]) Salute of Guns. 1st Ed., 389pp., 4 plates (from aerial photos.). Cape. 1930  #65955
[HLMainPic] Eloquent & scarce memoirs of war commissioned RFA officer in France May 1915-Oct. 1918 (with one six-month break); much on the Somme, 3rd Ypres & March Retreat. The late Bob Wyatt included the work in his revised edition of Falls (Greenhill, 1989): "...describes attitudes of Indian Army Regulars to the newly joined schoolboys; the Somme, Hill 60, Arras & the Spring Retreat are all covered with the sort of skill one usually expects only from writers such as Sassoon & Blunden. The story is told here of the deserters who lived in High Wood who came out at night to search for food amongst the corpses & when the Gunners went out to capture them seven or eight surrendered & the rest were bombed in their dug-out..." Orig. orange cloth, gilt, VG. See illustration on our website.   £125
COUSLAND (Kenneth H., MC) The Great War 1914-1918: A Former Gunner of the First World War Looks Back. [xiv]+204pp., printed card wraps., 4to, dup. typescript, portrait frontis., 33 photos., real photo. col. plate of author's medals (MC, 1914 Star trio [although entitled to 1914-15 Star], French & Belgian Croix de Guerre), 2 maps. Privately compiled by the author in Canada, c.1974.  #66548
[HLMainPic] Cousland was Ed. at George Watson's College & in August 1914 was at Edinburgh University, where he was a member of the OTC. He applied for a commission & was posted to the 1st City of Edinburgh Battery: after various courses he served in France from Sept. 1915 where he spent two months; then posted back to England to command C Battery, 325th Brigade; to France again in May 1916 with 17th Battery, 6th London Field Artillery Brigade until wounded the following month. Returned to France in May 1917 with 383 Battery & participated in operations at Vimy, Lens, Hill 70 &c. November 1917 was spent at a Battery Commander's Course at Shoeburyness, then in France 1917-18 inc. Welsh Ridge (Cambrai), German attack at St. Quentin in March 1918, Battles of Amiens & Final Advance. Three times wounded, three times MiD, MC &c. An in-depth record of his various services based on his diary & letters home, including excellent recollections of service life, various operations & training procedures. Various details of artillery work are contained in appendices. Produced to a high standard: the portrait frontis. & other photos. reproduced on art paper. VG throughout & signed by author on title page, & presumably printed in a very small edition for family circulation. See illustrations on our website.   £275
FRANCIS (Sgt. A.E.F.) History of the 2/3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance: The Story of a 3rd Line Territorial Unit 1914-1919. 1st Ed., ix+150pp., portrait frontis., 22 photos. (mostly portraits). Salford: Manor Press. nd (c.1930).  #66924
[HLMainPic] Western Front from March 1917 with 66th Div., 3rd Ypres, March Retreat &c. Roll of Hon. & many rolls of drafts, officers &c. in text. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, with paper onlay of unit patch laid down to front, VG in dw & scarce thus. See illustration on our website.   £120

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