Manchester in the Great War - Joseph O'Neill

[John_Hartley]

Another from the Pen & Sword series.

 

Unlike another I read recently, this is well researched and well written. O'Neill has a track record in writing about the city's history. Whilst being aware that Manchester had a rapidly expanding middle class, the basis of this social and local history of the war is that it is an industrial city and that povery was never far from most folks' lives. There is a limit to what you can do in 90 pages but this is a good job - the average reader will come away with a feel for the times.

 

As with others in this series, you will rarely read of a gun being fired (wounded soldiers returning home excepted). And that is probably a good thing, in this case. O'Neill's military research is somewhat thin. For example, there's a paragraph on the Manchester Regiment at Manchester Hill in March 1918. In the space of its seven sentences, he manages three basic errors of fact. Firstly twice recording 16/Manchester's CO as Colonel Elstrob, not Elstob. Second, saying 17th Manc attempted to retake Manchester Hill after it fell. They didnt. And third, that 17/Manc was destroyed as a fighting force on the day. It wasnt. But these are minor irritations for the war anorak and it's generally an agreeable read.