{"title":"Laurie Milner","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"leeds-pals-a-history-of-the-15th-service-battalion-1st-leeds-the-prince-of-wales-book-laurie-milner-9780850523355","title":"Leeds Pals: a History of the 15th (service) Battalion (1st Leeds), the Prince of Wales Own","description":"The \"Pals\" battalions were a phenomenon of the Great War, never repeated since. Under Lord Derby's scheme, and in response to Kitchener's famous call for a million volunteers, local communities raised (and initially often paid for) entire battalions for service on the Western Front. Their experience was all too frequently tragic, as men who had known each other all their lives, had worked, volunteered, and trained together, and had been shipped to France together, encountered the first full fury of modern battle on the Somme in July 1916. Many of the Pals battalions would not long survive that first brutal baptism, but their spirit and fighting qualities have gone down into history. This book tells the history of one of the best and most successful of these remarkable units - the one raised from among the thriving business community of Leeds. The book is based upon research in local and national archives, including contemporary press reports, and upon interviews with the battalion's handful of survivors and their relations and descendants, and contains many hitherto-unpublished eye-witness accounts and photographs.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49539487138065,"sku":"GOR004563989","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49559640113425,"sku":"GOR004615564","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49636423663889,"sku":"GOR003059531","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0850523354.jpg?v=1750849727"},{"product_id":"leeds-pals-book-laurie-milner-9781473841819","title":"Leeds Pals","description":"The British Army's losses on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme - 1 July 1916 - amounted to some 57,000 men killed, wounded or missing. Few units, however, suffered as terribly as the famous 'Pals' battalions, raised from volunteers who had flocked to answer Lord Kitchener's 'Call to Arms'. In the North of England particularly, whole cities and towns went into mourning as news of that awful first day's casualties came through. What is less well-known is that some of these battalions were brought up to strength with reinforcements - often from the cities in which they had been raised - and sent back into action again and again  This is the story of one such battalion, the Leeds Pals, which by the war's end in 1918, was described as having been 'four times wiped out but fighting to the end'. It is a story which traces, in great and fascinating detail, the raising and training of the battalion in and around Leeds, their service in Egypt before being sent to France in December 1915, their heavy losses in their baptism of fire on the Somme, 1916, in the Battle of Arras a year later, and during the German offensives of March and April 1918.Based upon the accounts of survivors, private diaries, letters and papers, official archives, contemporary newspaper accounts, and a wealth of unpublished photographs, it is a story of patriotism, entusiasm, humour, and great courage. Ultimately, however, it is a tale of great tragedy, for though the Leeds Pals took part in the final advance to victory, their three years in France had cost them 733 men killed, 1,861 wounded and 776 missing or captured.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49571375743249,"sku":"GOR006712677","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/147384181X.jpg?v=1751210143"},{"product_id":"royal-scots-in-the-gulf-book-laurie-milner-9780850522730","title":"Royal Scots in the Gulf","description":"The brevity of the ground war in the Gulf is well known, just 100 hours. By the end of the war, press reports of the massive numbers of Iraqi prisoners taken, and equipment destroyed, compared to our own losses, suggested that it was a walkover. In hindsight it would seem so; however, the experts', not to mention the media's, estimates of the Iraqi's strength and capabilities, and the wild predictions of heavy casualties, are decidedly at odds with the outcome. This book tries to answer why. In telling the story of The Royal Scots Battle Group, Laurie Milner reveals the remarkable single-mindedness and courage of the soldiers of Britain's present-day Army in the face of a numerically superior, well-equipped and well dug-in enemy, whose level of resistance could not be accurately assessed. While the pundits in Britain were judging our Army's likely performance on the peacetime training expediencies of BAOR, The Royal Scots, Britain's oldest infantry regiment, were carefully preparing their vehicles, weapons and soldiers for war. The extent of their final preparations and potential is chilling. It is little wonder that they won, for they left nothing to chance.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50287169110289,"sku":"GOR004653976","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0850522730.jpg?v=1751233823"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-laurie-milner.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}