The Welsh at War : From Mons to Loos & the Gallipoli Tragedy

Published 30/04/2025 | Paperback / softback,
Description:

The Welsh at War trilogy is the culmination of over twelve years of painstaking research by the author into the Welsh men and infantry units who fought in the Great War.

These units included the four regular regiments – the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, South Wales Borderers Welsh Regiment and Welsh Guards – as well as the Territorial Monmouthshire Regiment, the Yeomanry regiments: the Denbighshire Hussars, Pembroke Yeomanry, Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, Glamorgan Yeomanry and Welsh Horse Yeomanry and their amalgamation into service battalions for the regular regiments during 1917.

Welsh troops fought with great courage in every theatre of the war – the Western Front, Aden, China, Gallipoli, Egypt, India, Italy, Salonika and in Palestine – and in addition to the casualties suffered during these campaigns, many men gained recognition for acts of gallantry.

The three volumes, split chronologically, cover all of the major actions and incidents in which each of the Welsh infantry regiments took part, as well as stories of Welsh airmen, Welshmen shot at dawn, Welsh rugby players who fell, Welsh gallantry winners and the Welshmen who died in non-Welsh units, such as the Dominion forces and other units of the British armed forces.

‘From Mons to Loos and the Gallipoli Tragedy’ records the gallant work of Welsh units and servicemen during the period between the declaration of war in 1914, to the aftermath of the battles of Loos and Gallipoli at the end of 1915, covering: the outbreak of war and the response in Wales; the Battle of Mons and the Retreat from Mons; the Home Front and the Expansion of the Army; the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne; the Landings at Lao Shan Bay and the Siege of Tsingtao; the First and Second Battles of Ypres; the Raising of the 38th and 53rd (Welsh) Divisions; the Raising of the Welsh Guards; the Gallipoli landings, battles and evacuations; the Sinking of the Lusitania; the Battles of Aubers Ridge and Festubert; the Aden Protectorate; the Battle of Loos; up until the arrival of the 38th (Welsh) Division in France in December 1915.