We have been published in various formats (covering a range of topics and issues) including books, academic journals and reports, popular newsletters and magazines, practical toolkits and supporting guidelines, websites, and government documentation.
Below are a few examples of our publications
The aim of the book was to evaluate the 51st (Highland) Division over the course of the First World War. Underpinning the study was an analysis of both change and continuity – at home and overseas – and the performance of the division as a fighting unit.
The key themes identified for study were training, esprit de corps, recruitment and reinforcement, and battle performance. Through the investigation of the key themes, other important characteristics were analysed, such as command and control, organisation, and the level of centralisation in both the formation and in the wider army.
Key questions in the research applied to both divisional study and to wider academic understanding of the First World War. The book considered a number of themes that had been neglected by historians old and new, and brought into sharp focus some areas of research that may have produced inaccurate assumptions. In addition, a substantial range and quantity of primary sources were utilised – many previously unexplored.
The selection of the 51st (Highland) Division for study was based on a number of criteria: (Highland) Division experiences were both unique and not unique. In some areas, it was a very individual formation, but in other areas (or at particular times of the war), it was not. Undoubtedly, the 51st (Highland) Division left strong impressions. How accurate were these impressions? Were they a result of something more than just consistent fighting quality? Indeed, was there a consistent fighting quality? The book attempted to provide the answers.
EXTRACT FROM FRIENDS ARE GOOD ON THE DAY OF BATTLE
March 1918 had enormous implications for the 51st Division, as it did for the whole British Army. Whatever had remained of the (Highland) Division that had fought since May 1915 was almost completely obliterated during the German March offensive and that which continued to linger was bludgeoned to extinction the following month at the battle of the Lys. The ghost of the division would remain for the rest of the war, but it would never regain the form or structure that it had enjoyed before the March engagement.
Middlebrook has stated that the 51st had a:
“high reputation as a ‘stormer’ division dating from the attack and the capture of Beaumont Hamel during the closing stages of the battle of the Somme. But the Highlanders may have been used too often since Beaumont Hamel; they had suffered many casualties and were suspected of having lost their fighting spirit. There was also some doubt whether the Highland nature was as suited to sitting out a bombardment and then defending against an infantry attack as it was to storming German trenches.”
There is some merit in this, but the argument needs to be developed. The division had indeed been involved in substantial conflict, but it still remained a good division at the onset of the March offensive. Secondly, the allusion to the ‘Highland nature’ is melodramatic, and if referring to the romantic images of clan charges and long-ago battles is anachronistic in this context. However, when referring to the division’s potential inability to defend, it should be borne in mind that the 51st had been trained (albeit not extensively) in defence techniques and it had conducted stout defences during 1917 against vigorous enemy counter-attacks. The 51st Division did fight well enough, but it will be demonstrated that the initial blow on the division was such that it did not have the capacity to recover and the only action that it was capable of taking was reaction.
Reviews
For any fans of this division or with interest in the “learning curve”, a good addition to your library. The Long, Long Trail
Friends are Good on the Day of Battle is a book which one hopes will set others on a similar process when recording the history of a Great War Division. The Western Front Association
This is an extremely impressive piece of work… Wholeheartedly recommended, whether or not you are a Scotsman! SOFNAM Autumn 2018
All those interested in the history of the British army in the First World War are in debt to Craig French. Professor Sir Hew Strachan
Overall, this is a sound analysis, and much can be learned by today’s unit and formation commanders from reading it. Brigadier Chris Roberts, formerly Commanding Officer, The SAS Regiment; Commander Special Forces; Director General Corporate Planning – Army and Commander Northern Command
EXTRACT FROM IN SEARCH OF TITO’S PUNKS
“I have a friend Darko Kujundžić from Sarajevo . . . who now lives in Zagreb . . . He was a kid, a teenager in Sarajevo, and he bought the second LP of Obojeni Program just before the War started. And he lived in Dobrinja, which was a heavily contested area. He was living on the front-line, in these high-rise blocks on the front-line. So they spent days without electricity.
So what he did was, he put his headphones on, and he would play the Obojeni Program LP by spinning it with his finger on the turntable. And at a certain moment he would get to the 33⅓ rpms — to the right speed. He had mastered the technique quickly and so he would manually power his turntable hitting the 33⅓ rpm mark without a problem during the rest of the war.
And he would spin that Obojeni Program record often . . . he’s still got the album at home in Zagreb. On the label, you can still see the mark where his finger was. He would put the finger on the same spot, and he would spin it around.”
Gloucester, England, 1981: multi-racial, teenage street-punk band, Demob, recorded and released what would become their best known and most enduring song, No Room For You. Three minutes and fifteen seconds of raw, chainsaw guitars, a thumping 1950s rock’n’roll bass line and machine-gun military drumming, underscored a rasping vocal which told the story of the 1979 closure of a short-lived, punk rock venue at a disused motel on the edge of the stagnating, provincial city. Depending on your mind-set, the lyrics were either a howl of rage at the injustice, a wail at the loss, or a love-song to an era. It began, “Oh we don’t go there anymore. It’s boarded up, the doors are closed.” At the time it achieved some critical success and sold out of the relatively modest pressing of a few thousand copies. In truth though, it would never reach much more than ‘cult-status’. Still at school, I was Demob’s bass player. Scroll forward to the summer of 2011; late one night I receive a Facebook Friend Request and accompanying message from a Saša M. He lives in a city called Kragujevac in central Serbia and wants to talk about No Room For You: “This song is famous throughout the Balkans. Everybody knows this song . . . it has been recorded by some of the most famous Yugoslavian punk bands.”
Reviews
Excellent. Having read a hell of a lot of books regarding punk music this has to rate amongst the best. Taking in the history of a scene and a time in history. It is written with real attention to detail but more importantly a real connection to the scene and the people who were a part of it. A fascinating book on both the music and the social history of the old Yugoslavia written by someone who feels a real affinity to what went on. I’ve given this book five stars only because that was the maximum I could give. Just read the book.
Trevor Wall, Goodreads review
EXTRACT FROM NO BAD SOLDIERS
On 20 November 1916, the newly promoted Brigadier-General Frank Percy Crozier took command of 119 Brigade, one of three infantry brigades that made up the 40th Division, once labelled “the forgotten Fortieth”. This book brings the history and achievements of the brigade to a wider audience and adds to the story of the controversial Frank Crozier.
Raised in 1915 and originally intended as a formation of the Welsh Army Corps, 119 Brigade, consisting of four battalions of Welsh bantams, had crossed to France in June 1916 – more than a year after it was formed – as a part of the last of the New Army divisions to join the BEF. It then spent an undistinguished few months in the Loos sector. According to Crozier, fresh from his service commanding the 9th Royal Irish Rifles on the Somme, he was told on arrival at divisional headquarters, that the brigade was “very bad – quite the worst in the Division”. Firmly believing that there were no such things as bad soldiers, only bad colonels, Crozier claimed to have transformed the brigade in six months and in the process removed “a brigade-major, a brigade signaling officer, nearly a dozen commanding officers in turn, a few seconds in command, three adjutants, several doctors, quartermasters and transport officers and one or two sergeant majors”. The brigade performed well in April 1917 around Villers Plouich and later, most famously, at Bourlon Wood in November 1917. After the major army reorganization of February 1918, the brigade was reconstituted with a majority of new battalions in time to be severely mauled in the German Spring Offensives but, reconstituted once again (largely with men considered unfit for front-line service), it nevertheless performed creditably in the final months of the war. Despite these upheavals, Crozier remained as GOC until after the end of hostilities and was one of just twenty-seven New Army brigadier-generals to remain in command for more than two years.
REVIEWS
This is a meticulously researched and well written history which is packed full of fascinating statistical information to support the author’s comprehensive analysis. There is considerable emphasis on the typology of the officers and soldiers of the Brigade and their disciplinary record which, to my surprise, includes a mutiny by members of the 12th Bn SWB on November 1916. The author also reveals how the background, occupations, education and experience of his men influenced their individual and collective morale and performance on the battlefield; the so-called human factors of war … Sadly, relatively few Brigade histories have been published for either the First or Second World Wars but “No Bad Soldiers” is not a simple, chronological account, the like of which would, to a certain extent, be mirrored by many similar formations during the War, but is a detailed and fascinating analysis of the impact of human factors on the performance of the Brigade set in the context of life at the front. As such it actually demonstrates the shallowness of narratives such as the “History of the 40th Division” by Lt Col F E Whitton CMG, published by Gale & Polden in 1926. “No Bad Soldiers” really is a splendid book and is compelling and essential reading for all who seek to look beyond, and behind, the often bland narratives of the First World War based mostly on contemporary War Diaries. Most highly recommended.
Brigadier (Retd) Clive Elderton CBE
Chairman The Military Historical Society
French Phillips Historical Consultancy 