193. The guns, at last, fall silent
The last year of the First World War was one of startling about turns in fortune. In the spring, making highly effective use of a different approach to artillery in combination with new tactics for in...
5 Maj 202414min
192. Another shot to the foot
In 1917, all the belligerents in the First World War were reaching the limits of their resources, certainly in finances, but also in manpower. It looked as though the Central Powers weren’t doing too ...
28 Apr 202414min
191. Manpower and the man of the moment
Lloyd George was a Liberal, but he led a coalition government even more dependent on Conservative votes than the one he replaced under Asquith. And, not only was he dependent on the Conservatives, he ...
21 Apr 202414min
190. Man of the moment
On Easter Monday in 1916, a group of armed Irish republicans took over the main post office in Dublin and several other public buildings. They had little enough popular support, and the British author...
14 Apr 202414min
189 If at first you don't succeed, fail, fail and fail again
One of the men included in Asquith’s government in coalition with the Conservatives was the former Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour. He took over as First Lord of the Admiralty, the post Churchill was f...
7 Apr 202414min
188. Mounting casualties, in battle and in government
The fallout from the disastrous Gallipoli campaign together with the so-called ‘Shell crisis’, when the army began to find itself short of explosive shells for its artillery, combined to produce an in...
31 Mars 202414min
187. Cockup to catastrophe
The First World War was a wonderful opportunity for cockups, seized on with glee by many military commanders or political leaders. In peacetime, such cockups do relatively little harm. In wartime they...
24 Mars 202414min
186. Never fear, the Brits are here
We’ve been talking about the start of the First World War and, in particular, about the offensives and counter-offensives between French and Germans on the Western Front. What we haven’t considered wa...
17 Mars 202414min
