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World War I Battlefield Guides
Updated: July 2010
WFA-USA Members On Their 2007 Battlefield Tour
At Mont Sec, St. Mihiel Sector: Captured September 12, 1918
| Presented here are works that are primarily guideboks for travelers to the battlefields of the First World War. Often, however, battle histories have a brief -- and sometimes very informative -- chapter on visiting that particular battlefield. Those works can be found in the other sections of the Bookshelf. |
General Works - Western or Other Full Fronts
Walking Verdun: A Guide to the Battlefield, Christina Holstein, Pen & Sword, 2009, 176 pages, maps, photos, index, ISBN978 1 8441 5867 6, £19.99 paperback. A New work by long-time battlefield guide and WFA member who also wrote an earlier Pen & Sword book on Ft. Douaumont.
Before Endeavours Fade: A Guide to the Battlefields of the First World War, Rose E. B. Coombs, MBE, with Karel Margey (ed.), After the Battle, 2006, 240 pages, over 850 illustrations, maps, photos, index, ISBN 1 870067 62 2 (soft cover) 1 870067 63 2 (cloth), £19.95 (paper), £24,95 (cloth). Revised and updated edition of a highly respected guide first published in 1983 and written by a longtime Imperial War Museum staffer. Includes all the major BEF battles and American battlefields in the Argonne and at St. Mihiel, as well as French battles on the Chemin des Dames, at Champaign, Verdun, and as well as battles along the Yser and near Ypres.
Major & Mrs. Holts Battle Atlas of the WWI Western Front, Pen & Sword, 2006, maps and brief description of individual battles, ISBN 1 84415 400 5, $16.95 paperback. Covers Mons, Le Cateau, Notre Dame de la Lorette, The Yser, First Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge, Festaubert-Givenchy, Second Ypres, Loos, Fromelles, Vimy-Arras, Pesschendaele, Fourth Ypres, First Marne, St. Mihiel, The Aisne, Verdun, The Somme, Chemin des Dames, Cambrai, Kaiser's Offensive, Château Thierry, Champaign, Meuse-Argonne, and the Hindenburg Line.
Battlefields of the First World War: The Unseen Panoramas of the Western Front, Peter Barton, Constable and Robinson, London, 2005, 375 pages, index, photos, maps, CD-ROMs, 375 pages, ISBN 1 84119 745 9, $85.00; in cooperation with the Imperial War Museum with a foreword by Richard Holmes. Also published by Osprey under the title Battlefields of the First World War: From the First Battle of Ypres to Passchendaele.
The War Walk: A Journey Along the Western Front, Nigel Jones, Cassell, 2005, 258 pages, halftones, ISBN 0 304 56683 6, $9.95 paperback. A combination of history, travel and personal anecdotes from a rapidly dwindling number of surviving veterans.
The Fallen - A Photographic Journey Through the War Cemeteries and Memorials of the Great War, John Garfield, Spellmount, 2003, 176 pages, 142 b&w photographs, 4 maps, ISBN 1 86227 261 6 $34.95 hardback. Available in America from Casemate Publishing.
Fields of War: A Visitor's Guide to Fifty Key Battlefields in France & Belgium, Robert Mueller, 2010, 467 pages, maps, photos, ISBN 978 0 8923 6770 4, $25.95 paperback. A guide to 600 years of warfare in northwestern France and Flanders; from Crecy to Bastogne. Order from sales@frenchbattlefields.com or fax (224) 735-4378.
American Armies and Battlefields in Europe, American Battle Monuments Commission; 1927 original, revised several times since. A combination history, photoalbum, atlas and battlefield guide for the American Expeditionary Force, this classic is now best ordered as part of the 3-CD set, The U.S. Army in World War I, offered by the U.S. Army Center for Military History at their website: (http://www.army.mil/cmh/catalog/pubs/em/em.html#em_0023)
Trench Maps and Atlases
 Program for Homecoming 27th NY National Guard 25 March 1919 |
Contact G. H. Smith & Son by e-mail at ghsmith@mail.globalnet.co.uk or use their website for ordering printed materials at http://www.ghsmith.com/worldwar1/
The Western Front Association (WFA) in the United Kingdom also makes copies of Western Front trench maps available to its members. For more information go to http://westernfront.co.uk/
Naval and Military Press in the UK offers a selection of trench and battlefield maps at their websites:
Historical Maps of World War I, Simon Forty, PRC Publishing, 2004, 144 pages, index, photos, ISBN 1 85648 734 2, $24.95 paper; $9.98 from Barnes & Noble. One hundred twenty five contemporary maps including trench maps covering the entire war with emphasis on the Western Front, but including Palestine, Gallipoli, Salonica, the Italian Front, the Caucasus and East Africa as well as the war as sea. Also contains graphs and maps showing orders of battle, railways, locations of hospitals and supply dumps, U-boat sinkings, shell supplies and other salient features of the conflict including war aims.
Specific Areas
 Voie Sacree Marker |
Pen & Sword offers several Western Front and Gallipoli guides by Martin Middlebrook, and Christina Holstein among others. Order from www.pen-and-sword.co.uk.
Verdun 1916: Battlefield Guide, William F. Buckingham; NPI Media Group, 2007, 192 pages, maps, photos, ISBN 0 75244 146 1, £12.99 paper. Traces the history of Verdun from the iron age to modern times.
The Somme 1916: A Battlefield Companion, Gerald Gliddon, Sutton, 2006, ISBN 0 75093 690 8, £25 available from Haynes Publishing, Sparkford, Nr Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ, England (MasterCard or Visa accepted). A reference work first published as As the Barrage Lifts in 1987 and updated for the 90th anniversary of the Somme battle.
Major & Mrs. Holt's Pocket Battlefield Guide to the Somme Battles, Pen & Sword, 2006, 112 pages, maps, illustrations, ISBN 1 84415 395 9, $12.95 paperback. Covers the 1916 battles, the Kaiser's Offensive of March-April 1918 and the American-Canadian sectors of 1918.
Sergeant York of the Argonne Tour Guide, Michael Kelly, Ennogra, 2008, 76 pages, maps, sketches, tables, photos, GPS coordinates, ISBN 978 0 9559286 0 3, $19.95 paper. Order from www.sergeantyorkproject.com. A new, concise portable guide for battlefield travelers visiting the Argonne Forest and the now-well-marked site where the legendary Alvin York won his Medal of Honor in 1918.
Middlebrook Guide to the Somme Battlefields, Martin and Mary Middlebrook, Pen & Sword, 2007, 400 pages, maps, illustrations, ISBN 978 1 84415 533 0, $50 hardcover. A new guide by the author of the iconic First Day on the Somme.
The Somme Ninety Years On: A Visual History, Duncan Youel, Dorling Kindsersley, 2006, 208 pages, photos, ISBN 1 40531 747 7, £25, hardcover. A then-and-now photo history with a synopsis of the battle.
American Battlegrounds of World War One then and New - A Battlefield Guide -- Enter the Yanks: the Battle of Chateau-Thierry, David Homsher, Battleground Productions, 2006, 304 pages, photos, maps index, bibliography, ISBN: 0970244304, $39.95. Available from the author at 85 Tilton Avenue, #4, Box 624, San Mateo, CA 94401, URL www.battlegroundpro.com, e-mail: daveh@battlegroundpro.com. First in a new series of guides, the first new guides to American battlefields in many years.
Major and Mrs. Holt's Battle Atlas to the Western Front, Tony & Valmai Holt, Pen & Sword, 2006, 128 pages, ISBN 1 84415 400 9, £8.99. Covers the Somme and other British battlefields. From the authors of several excellent battlefield guides.
Major & Mrs. Holt's Pocket Battlefield Guide to Ypres and Passchendaele, Pen & Sword, 2006, maps, photos, ISBN 1 84415 377 0, $12.95 paperback. Includes, 1st, 2nd and 3rd (Passchendaele) and 4th Ypres (Lys).
Major and Mrs. Holt's Pocket Battlefield Guide to the Somme 1918, Tony and Valmy Holt, Pen & Sword, 2007, ISBN 1 84415395 9, £6.99 paper.
Major and Mrs. Holt's Pocket Battlefield Guide to Ypres and Passchendale, Tony & Valmy Holt, Pen & Sword, 2008, ISBN 978 18441 537 70, £6.99 paperback.
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Das Begleitbuch zu Ernst Jünger, Nils Fabiansson, E. S Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Hamburg, 2007, 160 pages, maps, photos, drawings, ISBN 3 81320 888 5, €19.90 available in the USA from www.abebooks.com and www.bookfinder.com. A reader's companion and battlefield guide to Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel (1920).
Salient Points 4, Ted Smith and Tony Spagnoly, Pen & Sword, 2005, 116 pages, illustrations, maps, ISBN 0 85052 932 8, $19.95 paper. Another battlefield guide in the
Cameos of the Western Front Series written by two experienced WWI historians and covering the Ploegsteert and Neuve Eglise sectors of the BEF line in Belgium.
Major & Mrs. Holt's Concise Illustrated Battlefield Guide to the Western Front-North, Tonie and Valmi Holt, Pen and Sword Books, 2004, 288 pages, photos, maps, drawings, index, ISBN 0-85052-933-6, $29.99 soft cover. An excellent Guidebook to the Ypres, Yser, Vimy Ridge, Arras and other Flanders battlefields with concise descriptions of the battles from 1914 to 1918 and directions for tours and routes.
Gallipoli, L. A. Carlyon, Doubleday, 2002 based on the authors detailed personal walking examination of the battlefield.
1061 Warrior Road, Suite C Drexel Hill, PA 19026 US distributors Pen & Sword Battlefield Europe Guides Website Link |
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