Turner Donovan Military Books - The world’s finest selection of rare and out-of-print books on British military history from 1800 to 1945
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The First World War The First World War, Personal memoirs of soldiers of all nations on all fronts, anthologies, literature and fiction, history and analysis   913 Books
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The ANZAC Book: Written & Illustrated in Gallipoli by men of ANZAC. 1st Ed., xv+169pp., 4to, 11 col. & 2 b/w plates., illus. throughout. Cassell. 1916  #61048
[HLMainPic] Collection of stories, rhymes, recollections of Gallipoli &c., sold for the benefit of patriotic funds connected with ANZAC. Attractive work, little rubbed but entirely sound orig. blue cloth with col. onlay on front board depicting an ANZAC in martial pose. Nice ink presentation inscrip. "Norman Campell Maughan from W.R. Matthews A.I.F. Baiuleul [sic] 1918." The only person with the name of the recipient that I can locate was born 1908 & died 1987; the giver was William Robert Matthews, a farm labourer from South Australia who enlisted in 1916, served with the 50th Bn. AIF & was wounded by gunshot on 20/10/17 & again on 16/6/18. A copy of his service record is included.   £50
Memoir of Capt. Geoffrey Grenside Bowen, M.C., The Lancashire Fusiliers. 1st Ed., [iii]+121pp., portrait frontis., 2 photos., fldg. map. Printed by Richmond Hill Printing Works, Ltd., Bournemouth. nd [c.1919].  #65271
[HLMainPic] Ed. at Charterhouse 1909-13 & passed into Sandhurst. Commissioned August 1914, Lancashire Fusiliers & joined 3rd (SR) Bn. on the East Coast for a few weeks before being posted to the 2nd Bn. in France in Sept. Wounded 21/10/14 at Le Touquet, near Ploegsteert & returned to England. Back to the 2nd Bn. in Jan. 1915 & on Bde. staff during 2nd Ypres until evacuated with jaundice. On his recovery he was posted to the 19th (S) Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers as adjutant & accompanied them to France in November 1915, but returned to the 2nd Bn. in May 1916. He was wounded on 1/7/16 between Serre & Beaumont Hamel & invalided to England once more; returned in Nov. 1916 & was awarded MC & Mentioned in Despatches for work at Arras in the spring of 1917; later served during 3rd Ypres then attached 2/2nd Lovats Scouts in UK, Nov. 1917-April 1918. Rejoined 2nd Bn. & took part in the Final Advance. He was Killed in Action commanding "B" Coy. in an attack on the Drocourt-Queant Line on 2/9/18. "Granny" Bowen wrote most informative letters to members of his family as well as keeping a daily diary for longish periods. These documents largely make up this book & provide an extremely valuable record of the life of a regular infantry officer in all its facets from the daily routine to active operations, courses of instruction &c. Concludes with letters of condolence from regimental officers, describing his death & burial. Orig. red cloth. leather sp. label, sp. little rubbed & worn o/w VG & inscribed: "Evelyn Barron Christmas 1931. J.C.G. Bowen, Zo. W. Bowen." See illustrations on our website.   £225
List of British Officers Taken Prisoner in the various Theatres of War between August, 1914 & November, 1918. Facsimile reprint of 1919 Ed., 218pp., printed card covs. LSE/Toad Hall. 1988  #67221
[HLMainPic] Valuable listing of nearly 8000 officers PoWs noting date missing & repatriated, successful escapes noted also if interned to Holland, died &c. VG. See illustration on our website.   £25
A Short History of the Revival of the Small Torpedo Boats (C.M.B.s) during the Great War & subsequently in The Kronstadt, Archangel & Caspian Sea Expeditions of 1919. Orig. dec. wraps., 44pp., 4to, approx. 4o photos., several sketches & plans, charts & maps (of operations named in the title). Printed by Vacher & Sons Ltd. for Thornycroft & Co. Ltd. March, 1920.  #67231
[HLMainPic] Typically handsome & finely illustrated work sponsored by the manufacturers of these Coastal Motor Boats, containing interesting accounts of their operations during the war & most notably in the Allied Intervention in north & south Russia during 1919, including the epic raid on Kronstadt harbour &c. Includes many finely produced photographs, sketches & plans of the craft involved, diagrams of the actions, together with a roll of the naval officers (RN, RNVR & RNR) appointed to the first twelve boats (& a named group photograph of these officers), lists of officers taking part in the Russian expeditions & of officers & ratings killed, wounded or taken prisoner during the Kronstadt raid. Attractive orig. card wraps., covers somewhat marked, staples rusting, generally VG, rare & well-illustrated record of these small vessels, their crews & operations.   £145
The Letters of Major Henry Bentinck, Coldstream Guards. 1st Ed., vi+138pp., portrait frontis., 3 plates. VG in sl. chipped dw. Robert Scott. 1919  #65201
[HLMainPic] Henry Duncan Bentinck was ed. at Harrow & Trinity College, Cambridge. Commissioned Coldstream Guards in 1903, served in Egypt/Sudan 1903-1911 & 1913-1915 (with XII Sudanese). He joined the 2nd Coldstream in France in April 1915 & Died of Wounds on 2/10/1916, of wounds received on the Somme. Contains a memoir & his letters including those from France April 1915-Sept. 1916. Of interest for life in trenches, Guards characters, &c. Orig. red cloth, VG in sl. chipped dw & scarce, especially in dw. See illustrations on our website.   £175
Letters from Flanders written by 2nd Lieut. A.D. Gillespie Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders to his Home People. 3rd Ed., with an Appendix, xvi+326pp., portrait frontis., 2 other portraits. Smith, Elder. 1916  #65190
[HLMainPic] Alexander Douglas Gillespie was Ed. at Winchester & New College, Oxford, commissioned in the 4th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders & went to the Front in Feb. 1915. He was killed in action on 26th September 1915 with the 2nd Bn. near La Bassée, during the Battle of Loos (his only brother, Thomas Cunningham Gillespie, 2nd Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers, had been killed near the same place on 18th October 1914). A.D.G. was twenty-six and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial. Contains one long letter from T.C.G. dated 16th October 1914, relating recent experiences in action etc. Almost all the book comprises A.D.G.'s lengthy letters from the Front, February 1915 onwards, describing life in trenches and billets, from the antagonistic activities of the Germans opposite to the habits of Sonia the cat that shared their trenches (and her kittens), changing conditions of warfare (issue of respirators etc.), curious rumours (streams poisoned with arsenic; booby-trapped corpses) and much more. Orig. red cloth, gilt, minor wear, VG. See illustration on our website.   £120
On the ANZAC Trail: Being Extracts from the Diary of a New Zealand Sapper. By "ANZAC." 1st Ed., ix+210pp. Heinemann. 1916  #60901
[HLMainPic] The author served in the Boer War & had lived in NZ but was with his parents in Ireland in 1914. Answered an advert for New Zealanders to enlist at the High Commission in London & trained with this contingent of about 200 men at Salisbury Plain until shipped out to Egypt in December: describes life in Zeitoun camp, the Aussie riots in Cairo which he witnessed, then diary of a month at Gallipoli until severely wounded (probably at Quinn's Post) & invalided. Orig. red cloth, blocked black, VG. See illustration on our website.   £75
Rhenish Prussia & Birkenfeld. 1st Ed., orig. printed wraps., iv+84pp., fldg. map in endpocket. HMSO. April 1919  #63768
[HLMainPic] CONFIDENTIAL. No. 33 in a series of Handbooks Prepared under the Direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office, containing notes on the Geography, Political History, Social & Political Conditions & Economic Conditions of these territories. Orig. grey printed wraps., VG. See illustration on our website.   £125
Frederick Goodyear: Letters & Remains 1887-1917. 1st Ed., xv+193pp., portrait frontis. McBride Nast & Co. 1920  #64882
[HLMainPic] Memorial volume including letters from the Front. UCS & Brasenose College Oxford (where he was regarded as "unambitious & dilatory"); became Assistant Manager of the Oxford Univ. Press at Bombay, but came home in 1914 to enlist in the ranks of the Artist's Rifles: served with them in France from May-Sept. 1915 when he transferred to the RE (Meteorological Dept.) then commissioned in the Essex Regt. in Feb. 1917, joined the 2nd Essex on 16th March 1917, wounded at Fampoux during Battle of Arras, 12th May 1917 & Died of Wounds on the 23rd May inst. Contents include letters from India & around 45pp. letters from France 1915-17. These are followed by a selection of poetry & prose compositions. Blue cloth, gilt to spine, some splitting to sp., generally VG with neat ink presentation inscription: "Miss Wood 'Rita' From F. Goodyear 1922." See illustration on our website.   £125
Diary of an Officer of "U.C. 26." May 1917. 1st Ed., orig. blue printed paper wraps., 4pp., foolscap. Admiralty War Staff, Intelligence Division. May 1917  #61756
[HLMainPic] I.D. 1156. For Official Use Only. Translation of the diary of Leutnant D. Reserve (or Sub.-Lt. of the Reserve) Heinrich Petersen, second-in-command of submarine U.C. 26, 30 April 1917 [leaving Bruges] until 7th May 1917, detailing operations in the English Channel during these few days. They found a gap in the RN barrage on 1st May & steered for Havre. The submarine laid mines & sank a Norwegian steamer by torpedo, but U.C. 26 was herself sunk on 9th May. Detailed diary of a week at sea. VG & rare. See illustration on our website.   £95

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