Trench Warfare, 1914-1918: The Live and Let Live System

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Pan, 2000 - History - 280 pages

The story of the great battles of the First World War has been told by historians, journalists and others. The shock and slaughter of the Somme, Verdun and Passchendaele are a major theme of most books. Large scale battles, however, comprised the smaller part of soldiers' total time in combat. For 90% of that time soldiers fought small scale battles . These small conflicts were violent, continual and involved complex weaponry and specialised tactics. Yet, during small battles, soldiers could and often did, make choices not possible during large ones. From these choices, there evolved between enemies a curious culture of live and let live which constrained the war culture of kill or be killed in fundamental ways.

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About the author (2000)

Tony Ashworth was raised in the Ithon Valley and educated in Radnorshire, Sussex and the Universities of Leicester and London. He has served with the Royal Air Force and lectures in the University of Wales, Cardiff. He now lives in the Vale of Glamorgan.

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