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Trench: A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front by Stephan Bull - $1.99

'Going up Beek trench on a dark night was no picnic. You started along a long narrow alley winding uphill, your hands feeling the slimy sandbag walls, your feet wary for broken duck boards; now and again a hot, stuff smell, a void space in the wall, and the swish of pumped up water under foot proclaimed the entrance to a mine. ... round corners you dived under narrow tunnels two or three feet high, finally emerging into the comparative open of the front line trench.' Soldier, 1/4th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 1916

In this new book, First World War trench expert Stephen Bull provides a complete picture of trench warfare on the Western Front, from the construction of the trenches and their different types, to the new weaponry and tactics employed in defense and attack. In addition, the book describes the experience of life in the trenches, from length of service, dealing with death and disease, to uniforms and discharge. Alongside his compelling narrative of the campaigns fought in the trenches from 1914 to 1918, annotated trench maps highlight particular features of the trenches, while photographs, documents, and first-hand accounts combine to give a full and richly detailed account of war in the trenches.

Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 by Prit Buttar - $1.99

Imperial Germany, Hapsburg Austria-Hungary, and Tsarist Russia clashed on a scale greater than the Western Front campaign to the Marne and the Race to the Sea in 1914.

Drawing on first-hand accounts and detailed archival research, this is a dramatic retelling of the the tumultuous events of the first year of World War I on the Eastern Front, with the battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in East Prussia, followed by the Russo-Austrian clashes in Galicia and the failed German advance towards Warsaw.

With the centenary of the start of World War I in 2014, Collision of Empires is a timely re-discovery of the bitter fighting on this forgotten front. The fighting that raged from East Prussia, through occupied Poland, to Galicia and the Carpathian Mountains was every bit as bloody as comparable battles in Flanders and France, but - with the exception of Tannenberg - remains relatively unknown. As was the case in the West, generals struggled to reconcile their pre-war views on the conduct of operations and how to execute their intricate strategic plans with the reality of war. Lessons were learned slowly while the core of trained personnel, particularly officers and NCOs, in the armies of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia suffered catastrophic losses throughout 1914. Inadequacies in supply and support arrangements, together with a failure to plan for a long war, left all three powers struggling to keep up with events. In addition, the Central Powers had to come to terms with the dreaded reality of a war on two fronts: a war that was initially seen by all three powers as a welcome opportunity to address both internal and external issues, would ultimately bring about the downfall of them all. Prit Buttar, author of Battleground Prussia, provides a magisterial account of the chaos and destruction that reigned when three powerful empires collided.