
Harrogate Terriers
John Sheehan(Author)
Pen & Sword Military (Publisher)
Published on 1. May 2017
Book
Hardback
351 pages
978-1-4738-6812-0 (ISBN)
Description
Using original personal and military diaries, with hundreds of carefully selected newspaper extracts, letters and photographs, this book traces individual stories of tragedy and heroism, involving tradesmen, apprentices, lawyers, musicians, sportsmen, brothers, husbands and fathers from Harrogate and the West Riding. As such, it characterises the experience of the British Infantryman in the Great War. The Territorials of the 1/5th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment were the unsung heroes of the Great War. These 'Saturday Night Soldiers' from York and the northern West Riding of Yorkshire went out to face the might of the German Army in April 1915. Through the hot summer and dark winter that followed, they stopped bullets at the Battle of Aubers Ridge and choked on Phosgene gas at Ypres. Caught in the carnage of the notorious first day on the Somme, the West Yorkshire Territorials were held up by General Haig as convenient scapegoats for his tactical failure, only for the 1/5th Battalion to prove him wrong and redeem itself as an attacking force at the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, and then again at Passchendaele in 1917.In the last year of the war, the battalion helped fight a rear-guard action on the Menin Road, and was effectively wiped out at the Second Battle of Kemmel Ridge, only to be re-constituted in time to take part in the bloody advances at Cambrai and Valenciennes, which helped bring the conflict to an end.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
South Yorkshire
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Illustrations
100 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4738-6812-0 (9781473868120)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

John Sheehan
Harrogate Terriers
The 1/5th (Territorial) Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War
E-Book
01/2020
Pen & Sword Military
€19.25
Available for download
Person
John Sheehan studied military history at King's College, London, before qualifying as a lawyer. Later moving to North Yorkshire, he became interested in the history of Harrogate. He has spent thousands of hours burrowing in local archives, and has written numerous articles on the First World War for the Harrogate Advertiser and other papers. John plays village cricket for Burnt Yates CC, and enjoys the magnificent view of Nidderdale from square leg. He is married and has a son.