Behind the Front: British Soldiers and French Civilians, 1914–1918Until now scholars have looked for the source of the indomitable Tommy morale on the Western Front in innate British bloody-mindedness and irony, not to mention material concerns such as leave, food, rum, brothels, regimental pride, and male bonding. However, re-examining previously used sources alongside never-before consulted archives, Craig Gibson shifts the focus away from battle and the trenches to times behind the front, where the British intermingled with a vast population of allied civilians, whom Lord Kitchener had instructed the troops to 'avoid'. Besides providing a comprehensive examination of soldiers' encounters with local French and Belgian inhabitants which were not only unavoidable but also challenging, symbiotic and uplifting in equal measure, Gibson contends that such relationships were crucial to how the war was fought on the Western Front and, ultimately, to British victory in 1918. What emerges is a novel interpretation of the British and Dominion soldier at war. |
Other editions - View all
Behind the Front: British Soldiers and French Civilians, 1914–1918 Craig Gibson Limited preview - 2014 |
Behind the Front: British Soldiers and French Civilians, 1914-1918 Craig Gibson No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
2nd Canadian Division 2nd Cdn Div ADPC agricultural allied Amiens Amount awarded Claims Anzac Corps Appx April Archives Armentières Arras August Australian Division authorities awarded Claims allowed Battalion BEF’s Belgian gendarmerie Belgium Belgium & France Béthune billets British Army British soldiers British troops Canadian Corps CCAm civilians Claims allowed Claims Claims Claims Claims Claims Commission Claims Officer Commanding damage December decided Belgium Diary divisional estaminets evacuated farmers farms February Flemish France France combined German Guerre Huguet ibid Infantry inhabitants IX Corps January Jarvis Jarvis’s July June Kemmel Letters lines London maire March military Mottram Nord November occupied October offensive Pas-de-Calais police Poperinghe population prefect préfet problems refugees Regiment requisitioning RG 9 September 1915 shelling Somme Summary of Claims Three Personal Records trench warfare units village wartime West Flanders western front woman women wrote Ypres