Illustrated War News

[auchonvillerssomme]

I have come across 3 volumes of a publication called 'Illustrated War News' I think I have most of this type of publication but I have never come across this one before. The pictures are excellent and many i have never seen before. Does anyone have the complete set? if so how many volumes were there?

Mick

[ianjonesncl]

I have come across 3 volumes of a publication called 'Illustrated War News' I think I have most of this type of publication but I have never come across this one before. The pictures are excellent and many i have never seen before. Does anyone have the complete set? if so how many volumes were there?

Mick

There are 8 volumes that can be read on line or downloaded from the Internet Archive

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=il...ed%20war%20news

Volume 8 goes up to April 10th 1918 suggesting there may be more

[auchonvillerssomme]

That is very helpful thank you.

[malch]

There were 2 series of Illustrtated War News - 8 volumes in 'landscape' format covering 12th October 1914 - June 7th 1916. It was published in weekly parts, 48 pages per week, 48-52 weeks per volume.

Another 'New' series in 'portait' format covers July 1916 onwards - I'm not sure how many volumes there were in the 'New Series', but it must be about 6.

I have a set covering 12 October 1914 to 14th November 1917 which is 11 volumes in all, with about 1000 pages per volume.

What is astonishing is the clarity of the original images. They are not the standard low-density 'dot' images like those in many books and other perdiodicals of the time but are closer in resolution to emulsion photographs.

There are many, many images of specific actions and events; Interestingly, there is a series on offiers who were KIA, including photographs (I suspect many photos associated with memorials are from this source), photos of Officers and NCO's of various battalions, as well as technical articles on weapons, ships etc., etc.,

No index, of course.

Also, difficult to find a good set needless to say.

M

Below an unusual image from IWN 24 October 1914 showing Portuguese Lancers on exercise - lots more like this !

[auchonvillerssomme]

It was the pictures that made me buy them, i wouldn't normally touch an incomplete set, in one of the volumes there are several sets of named group photos.

Mick

[mandy hall]

Can I ask did you buy your weekly parts and get them bound into volumes?

Mandy

[auchonvillerssomme]

They are 3 bound volumes in the landscape style Tephrite mentions.

Mick

[malch]

Can I ask did you buy your weekly parts and get them bound into volumes?

Mandy

That's an interesting question............

In 1914, you could go down to your newsagent and subscribe to the weekly parts. Once you had about 50, you sent them away and they were bound for you to keep (at a price); rather like the modern publishing houses do for weekly periodicals.

So, my set is 11 volumes in their original 1914-1917 binding, which are quite handsome - quarter Morrocan binding with tooling and gold lettering on the spine - see below for the first 1914 volume front.

Getting a full set is difficult, and I am still chasing the remaining 2 1917-1918 volumes.

M

Oh, forgot to mention that 'Country Life' did a similar deal for Muirhead Bone's rather wonderful engravings entitled 'The Western Front' which were published as a supplement to the magazine whilst Bone was was Official War artist. The bound volume (sometimes seen as 2 separate volumes ) have an additonal foreword by Sir Douglas Haig. Well worth looking out for.

[mandy hall]

Just going to the loft to look at the set that my great grand mother collected and I stopped from going to the dump when my grandfather died.

Mandy

[mandy hall]

Well I don't own what I thought I did. What I actually have is 13 volumes of The Great War The Standard History of the all Europe Conflict printed by the Amalgamated Press Ltd. I was told my great grandmother collected them and had them bound after/during the war. Just looking at the spine can't work out whether they would have been done like this or not.

Mandy

[malch]

Well I don't own what I thought I did. What I actually have is 13 volumes of The Great War The Standard History of the all Europe Conflict printed by the Amalgamated Press Ltd. I was told my great grandmother collected them and had them bound after/during the war. Just looking at the spine can't work out whether they would have been done like this or not.

Mandy

Very interesting. Is there a publication date ? There were some collections that were produced after the war - actually using images from the IWN - Hammerton did just this on a couple of occassions including the series of four volumes called "I was There" published by Wavereley in 1938.

Mind you, 13 volumes should keep you busy. Don't offer look-ups...........................

M

[mandy hall]

I have volume 6 sitting next to me the date is 1916 says edited by H W Wilson and J A Hammerton. They are bound with red cloth

Mandy

[malch]

Well,

I have a moderate collection of this sort of thing but haven't come across that one. Does it include any reasonably good quality maps ? Sadly, such are lacking in the IWN.

Malcolm

[mandy hall]

It does have some maps, some like you would find in an atlas and others will quote from book

"map showing the various battle fronts in the opening stages of the fight for Verdun"

"detailed map showing the operations in Egypt from the desert of Sin to the Western Tripoli frontier"

"area of the operations in the Trentino, the high mountain sector of the Italian battle front"

as you can see this one volume covers a wide variety of areas

It also has 6 pages of photos of officers killed

every page has photographs and drawings the fly leaf describes the volume as being "profusely illustrated".

This volume has chapters on "The Submarine blockade", "The role of railways in the war", The struggle for Verdun: an eyewitness narrative", "Indias Magnificent fighting record" this is just a selection.

Mandy