Many people have encouraged me over the years to explore different aspects of the First World War, or have guided me towards little-known shelves and corners of the vast literature. Charles Mahjoubian, a survivor of the massacre of the Armenians, encouraged me to make the story of the Armenian massacres an integral part of the narrative. Two of my doctoral students, Martin Ceadel and John Turner, chose the First World War as their ‘period’. Both have since published books to which all students of the war are grateful, none more so than their former supervisor. Larry Arnn’s doctoral thesis, ‘Winston S. Churchill as Minister of Munitions’, has also been of value to a former boss, and long-standing friend.
My bibliographical and factual knowledge has been enhanced by the help of several friends, among them Clinton Bailey, David Harman, Zena Harman, Jeffrey Siegel, Sarah Meron and Simon Broadbent. As always, Erich Segal has been my guide to all classical allusions. Others who have sent me information are J.W. Bakewell, Dr Vojtech Blodig (Theresienstadt Museum), I.L. Buxton, Andrew Baker, Robert Craig, Sir Brian Fall, Martin Greenwood (Assistant Curator, Kenwood House), Bruce Gaynor, J.P. Gee (Commonwealth War Graves Commission), Julie Kessler, Michael Levine, Len Mader (External Affairs and International Trade, Canada), T.P. Penfold (Commonwealth War Graves Commission), J.P. Rudman (The Archivist, Uppingham School), Colonel William E. Ryan Jr (The American Battle Monuments Commission, Washington DC), Jean Saunders, Dr Harry Shukman, Chris Thomas (Bank of England Reference Library), Sir David Williams, Georgina Wilson, and the Claremont Institute of Claremont, California. I am also grateful for bibliographic help to Professor Oleg Rzheshevski of Moscow and Pauline Underwood (the Macmillan Press Ltd). Like all those who have made use of the British Government archives, I am grateful to the Keeper and staff of the Public Record Office at Kew.
The excerpts from Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain are included with the permission of Paul Berry, her literary executor, Victor Gollancz Ltd (for the British edition) and the Virago Press, London (for the United States edition). I am grateful to the following for permission to reproduce poetry: to George Sassoon, for poems by Siegfried Sassoon (from Collected Poems 1908–1956, Faber & Faber); to A. P. Watt on behalf of Crystal Hale and Jocelyn Herbert, for a poem by A. P. Herbert; to Macmillan Publishers Ltd, for a poem by E. Hilton Young (from A Muse at Sea, Sidgwick & Jackson); and to David Higham Associates, for a poem by Herbert Read (from Selected Poetry, Faber & Faber).
I found all the photographs in this book in the Robert Hunt Library, to whose treasures I was first introduced for my Second World War history by Graham Mason, who also let me range freely through the Library’s voluminous holdings on the First World War. I have listed the copyright holders for each picture in the list of illustrations. The maps were drawn from my rough drafts by Tim Aspden, who has given them the benefit of his cartographic skills. The typescript was read by my former teacher, Alan Palmer, and gained considerably (as my school essays did forty years ago) from his thoughts and guidance. The expert eye of Dr A.J. Peacock, editor of Gun Fire, A Journal of First World War History, has also been of great value. Ben Helfgott made many useful points of style and content. Proofreading was done by Chris Bessant in Britain and by Arthur Neuhauser in the United States; I am grateful to both of them for their vigilance. Benjamin Buchan at Weidenfeld and Nicolson was helpful on various points of content, as was Ion Trewin. Rachelle Gryn helped in tracking down many elusive facts, as did Kay Thomson, who also helped with the correspondence and revisions. Susie Gilbert has, as with all my work, given the text her scrutiny and guidance.