The Russell Cawthorn Collection
The Great War 1914-1918, and Associated Conflicts The Western Front 1914 Up to First Ypres First Battle of The Marne
The Man Who Saved Paris. Roger West's Ride 1914
ISBN
9781908487056
Purchase Price
£5.00 (second hand)
Date Purchased
November 14, 2022
Publisher
Uniform Press (2018, London)
Notes
This is - as the publishers say "a vivid account of the opening weeks of the war by a volunteer despatch rider who may have prevented a swift German victory". The protagonist of this story, Roger West, had been commissioned into the Intelligence Corps because of his linguistic skills. However, he was seconded as a despatch rider to the 19th Brigade, which bore a great brunt of the fighting in the early weeks of the war. West discovered, at one point in his peregrinations around the front that a critical bridge had been left undestroyed. He volunteered to ride back and blow it up, which helped greatly in preventing the retreating French Fifth Army from being taken in the flank. If that has happened, and the Germans succeeded, this could have contributed greatly to the achievement of von Moltke's performance in implementing the Schlieffen Plan. Of course, we will never know - but the book is about an interesting episode in the early weeks of the war.
9781908487056
Purchase Price
£5.00 (second hand)
Date Purchased
November 14, 2022
Publisher
Uniform Press (2018, London)
Notes
This is - as the publishers say "a vivid account of the opening weeks of the war by a volunteer despatch rider who may have prevented a swift German victory". The protagonist of this story, Roger West, had been commissioned into the Intelligence Corps because of his linguistic skills. However, he was seconded as a despatch rider to the 19th Brigade, which bore a great brunt of the fighting in the early weeks of the war. West discovered, at one point in his peregrinations around the front that a critical bridge had been left undestroyed. He volunteered to ride back and blow it up, which helped greatly in preventing the retreating French Fifth Army from being taken in the flank. If that has happened, and the Germans succeeded, this could have contributed greatly to the achievement of von Moltke's performance in implementing the Schlieffen Plan. Of course, we will never know - but the book is about an interesting episode in the early weeks of the war.
