Early Battlefield Tour Guides

[IanA]

I have just been looking at my copy of 'How to See the Battlefields' by Capt Atherton Fleming (Cassel & Co, 1919). I would be interested to know whether there were any earlier guides written in English.

[themonsstar]

You could try "8th Bn The Royal Warwickshire Regt" a short description of the battle of Beaumont-Hamel 1st July 1916, compiled from accounts of the survivors and of a Visit to the Field of Battle March 12th 1918 by Brig-Gen W.R.Ludlow C.B. July 1st 1918.

[IanA]

That does sound fascinating and is quite new to me but I think we cannot, in all honesty, describe it as a battlefield guide. I can't see a family buying it on the 2nd July, 1918 and thinking: "Right, off we go. Have we got the Thermos flask?"

[swizz]

I think I'm right in saying that the first Michelin guides to the battlefields came out in 1919. John Masefield's 'The Old Front Line' first came out in 1917. I think that it and the Warwickshires book were intended more for helping people at home to imagine what the battlefields were like, rather than as an actual guide to the area.

[IanA]

I think I'm right in saying that the first Michelin guides to the battlefields came out in 1919.

I think you are correct. I have some originals and some reprints. I would still be interested to hear of any English language battlefield guides published in 1919.

[CROONAERT]

When was "The Western Battlefields - A Guide to the British Line" by Lt.Col.Lowe first published?

I've a copy of it somewhere on my shelves (damned if I can find it though!) and recall that that was published in either 1919 or 1920.

Dave.

[IanA]

When was "The Western Battlefields - A Guide to the British Line" by Lt.Col.Lowe first published?

Hi Dave,

Haven't seen the book myself but a swift google puts it at both 1920 and 1921. It appears to be readily available as a 'print on demand' book.

[CROONAERT]

Found it ... Gale & Polden 1920.

Dave

[truthergw]

A tour of the battlefields or any one of them in 1919, must have required a stout heart and a good deal of determination. Active clearance still going on of both bodies and materiel. A scene of total devastation and quite dangerous. A lot of pacifists must have come back from their first visit to Flanders or Picardy.

[rumjar]

have a copy of A SHORT GUIDE TO THE BATTLEFIELDS by J,O,COOP. 1920.

with 13 maps and 8 photos and its a good read.

joe.

[IanA]

I also have that one. The photos are interesting.

[stripeyman]

I have in front of me Ypres to Verdun by Sir Alexander B. W. Kennedy. Country Life library.

The book has 124 'plates' and the preface was written August 1921.

Bob Grundy

[4thGordons]

IanA, how about this as a candidate: (re "motor tour" etc)

"An Artist's Notes and Sketches with the Armies of Northern France: June-July 1915 with Drawings and Photographs by the Author" By: Walter Hale, published by: The Century Company - April 1916 Copyright 1915, 1916

CONTENTS:

A Voyage of Adventure

A New Paris of Old Memories

A Motor Tour to Rheims and the Champagne District

In the Aisne Valley

Soissons - A Retrospect

A Little Journey to Compiegne

The Beleaguered City of Arras

Back of the Front - Doullens and Albert

One Day (July 8) in the Artois Sector

Afterward - Motoring in the Path of War

Stil waiting for my copy to arrive...

[IanA]

IanA, how about this as a candidate: (re "motor tour" etc)

I'm not convinced that I would call this a 'guide to the battlefields' but it does sound interesting and I haven't come across it before. Thanks for highlighting it.

Ian

[Max Poilu]

As it may be of related interest pictured below is a early 1920's Thomas Cook leaflet.

Bit more in this topic:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...702&hl=cook

[Max Poilu]

And one from Pickfords:

[Dragon]

A few of the early Michelin Guides came out in English in 1919. The Marne one comes to mind, but I believe that ones on other areas were published in 1919 too. Searching on "guides illustrés Michelin des champs de bataille" throws up a few. The Verdun one was also published in German, I believe, but ten years later.

The originals I have are all of Alsace, Vosges and the vicinity and are in French. They also list guides to the battlefields of the 1870 war, such as by Henri Dorizy, 1914.

Edit. Naval and Military Press seem to have reproductions of some of the early Michelin ones in English.

Gwyn

Edited 10 June , 2008 by Dragon

[PhilW]

Hope I haven't missed the point, but (some of?) the 1919 Michelin Guides in English are reprinted by GH Smith of Easingwold and available here

http://www.ghsmith.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=6_7

[IanA]

No points to be missed or scored!! The Michelin Guides are very well known and, as you say, are even reprinted and readily available. It is the early 'amateur' guides which I find interesting. Fleming's comments are personal and immediate - they have an unstructured freshness which is missing from the later, more formal, offerings. I also have another guide by J.O. Coop published (without getting it off the shelf to look) in 1920. This has photographs which serve to illustrate the absolute devestation of the area.

Max's examples show how quickly commerce realised that there were profits to be made.

Thanks to all.

[keithfazzani]

Ian - apropos your point about how quickly commercialism came to the battlefields - I am sure that I read a poem somewhere where the poet foresees all this happening - can't for the life of me remember who or where - perhaps someone else will remember.

[truthergw]

Philip Johnstone High Wood.

[IanA]

Following comments about 1919 Michelin guides, I browsed through a few of them last night. One paragraph from the Marne guide struck me: it says -

"The 'Office National du Tourisme' was created by an Act of April 8, 1910, and reorganised in 1917."

So while Nivelle was getting trounced and revolution breaking out in Russia, the French were quietly sorting out their tourism business. No wonder the Michelin guides came out so promptly!

[Dragon]

There was already a battlefield tourism business because of the interest in the 1870 battlefields. Cycle tours in the early part of the 20th century took in the battlefields around Nancy and Sedan. Even earlier, Waterloo was an increasingly popular venue. Given that widespread devastation and the need for regeneration was predictable, it isn't surprising that organisations like the Office National du Tourisme and the Touring-Club de France devoted thought to planning how to bring in tourists and their money, dressing it up as honouring memory and sacrifice.

I understand that Michelin released two battlefield guidebooks in 1917. According to l'Association des Collectionneurs Michelin: 'La première guerre mondiale n'est pas terminée que Michelin publie les premiers volumes d'une collection destinée à décrire les champs de bataille et les villes meurtries par le conflit. En 1917, deux titres paraissent : "L'Ourcq - Chantilly - Senlis - Meaux" et "Les Marais de St-Gond - Coulommiers - Provins - Sézanne".' (Source.)

The Michelin Guides are very well known and, as you say, are even reprinted and readily available. It is the early 'amateur' guides which I find interesting.

Sorry, I hadn't realised you meant the amateur guides.

Gwyn

[IanA]

Sorry, I hadn't realised you meant the amateur guides.

No apology needed Gwyn. The Michelin guides are incredibly well done: I have a few originals and they are lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs and printed on high quality glossy paper. What I probably did not make clear is that I am primarily interested in the individual efforts of ex-servicemen. Fleming was, I think, a war correspondent with the rank of captain and Coop was a padre. Both guides were published commercially, of course, so not 100% amateur.

Ian

[Charles Fair]

I understand that Michelin released two battlefield guidebooks in 1917. According to l'Association des Collectionneurs Michelin: 'La première guerre mondiale n'est pas terminée que Michelin publie les premiers volumes d'une collection destinée à décrire les champs de bataille et les villes meurtries par le conflit. En 1917, deux titres paraissent : "L'Ourcq - Chantilly - Senlis - Meaux" et "Les Marais de St-Gond - Coulommiers - Provins - Sézanne".'

Thats correct, I have original editions of both (picked up for next to nothing in the brocantes when I lived in Paris a few years ago). They have photos of memorial services at the early memorials which must date from August 1916.