The Imperial War Museum Book of 1914

by Malcolm Brown

"The sky was lit by burning villages and houses . . . Rivers and seas of flame leaping up hundreds of feet, crowned by black smoke that covered the entire heaven. It lit up houses wrecked by shells, dead horses, demolished railway stations, engines that had been taken up with their lines and signals, and all twisted round and pulled up, as a bad child spoils a toy. And there we joined the refugees, with all their goods on barrows and carts, in a double line moving forwards about a hundred yards an hour, white and drawn and beyond emotion."

In 1914, the summer peace was shattered by an assassination in the Balkans and, within weeks, a continent was engulfed in war. Eager volunteers rushed to enlist. All the nations involved felt the righteousness of their cause, and everybody believed the fighting would be over in weeks. The reality was very different. War that seemed glorious in August had become hellish by September. British soldiers sent across the Channel found the roads clogged by desolate crowds of French and Belgian refugees, their lives destroyed. The suffering caused by the siege of Antwerp, the grueling battles of Mons and Ypres, even the fragile Christmas Truce, brought home the awful reality of war. Using new letters and diaries from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, Malcolm Brown skillfully recreates this pivotal year through the moving experiences of men and women who felt the war first-hand, vividly capturing the brutal reality of war as well as moments of great humanity.

Genres: History, World War I, Nonfiction

337 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Malcolm Brown is a best-selling popular military historian. Originally a television producer specialising in military documentaries, he has been a freelance historian at the Imperial War Museum since 1989. Brown has researched and written extensively on the First and Second World Wars. He is a regular contributor to BBC History Magazine, and lives in Reading.

Reviews

[Jbondandrews]

I enjoyed reading the book 1914:The Men Who Went to War, as it gave me an opportunity to read about what my Great Grandfather and his younger brother went through while they were in France during those first few months of the war.

[Shaun Major]

The death of the BEF is an incredible tale, and it is hard to imagine anyone laying it out better and with better resources than the Imperial War Museum. The records they have are intelligently present here and the writing is elegant and absorbing.