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Chargement... The Manchester Bantams: The Story of a Pals Battalion and a City at War - 23rd (Service) Battalion the Manchester Regiment (8th City)par Caroline Scott
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In May 1916 Major Eustace Lockhart Maxwell, a former Indian cavalry officer, was given command of an infantry battalion in France. After 48 hours with his new unit, Maxwell wrote to his family: The outstanding characteristic of those who belong to it seems to be their extraordinary self-complacency! Esprit de corps is a fine thing, but the satisfaction with which they regard themselves, their battalion, its internal economy, its gallantry, its discipline, its everything else, is almost indecent! If at the end of a month my opinion of them is half as good as their own, I shall think myself uncommonly lucky. This was the 23rd Manchester Bantam Battalion, a unit entirely composed of men of a height between 5ft and 5ft 3, and its esprit de corps was about to be severely tested. The Bantams left colorful, characterful, moving and often amusing records of their experiences. Using a wealth of previously unpublished sources, this book follows the Manchester men through their training, their experiences of the Somme and the Third Ypres Campaign, to Houthulst Forest where, in October 1917, the Battalion was practically annihilated. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)940.3History and Geography Europe Europe World War I 1914-1918Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (5)
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The Manchester Bantams was a battalion of the Manchester Regiment in the Great War, or the 23rd Manchester’s if I am being correct. Caroline Scott has researched and written an excellent volume of history covering a battalion, that outside of Manchester, has been forgotten and has given us an extensive history of the battalion.
The Manchester Bantams was like many other regiments in the early years of the war was a Pals Battalion, made up of men between 5ft and 5ft 3in, which was below the usual height for army recruits. At the same time as covering the history of this battalion, she has also covered somewhat the city of Manchester at war also, as the Bantams were in a representative battalion.
On 24th November 1914, the Lord Mayor of Manchester received a telegram from the War Office that allowed the city to raise a regiment of below standard height soldier, and the following day the first of the Bantams was attested at the Town Hall.
We are taken from the raising of the battalion, to their training in 1915 in the seaside resort of Morecambe on the Lancashire coast. Even covering the march past that took over an hour in front of Lord Kitchener and city dignitaries outside Manchester Town Hall, to when they were sent out to the front in France in 1916.
Scott guides you through the Bantams introduction to the front in France, using maps and postcards of the time as well as listing those who were killed in action, and the cemetery that they now lay in rest in. It covers their time at The Somme, which was a dreadful time for the battalion as it was for many others. Once again, we are carried through with the battalion, until they are finally disbanded at times you feel for both the individual and their battalion, but that happens with these sorts of histories.
This is an excellent history, for those interested in the Manchester Regiment and those who have a wider interest in the battles of the Great War. (