I have played this scenario 3 time and it is one of my favorites. I have not been able to find too much written about this campaign in English. Does anyone have some good sources on this?
Thanks
Race to the Sea Question
-
Verdun1916
- Posts: 279
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2022 8:42 am
- Location: Hässleholm, Sweden
Re: Race to the Sea Question
As far as I know there are no books specifically covering the "race to the sea". Atleast not in English. In German you have the official German War History, and in French you have their counter part. These are not the easiest to get a hold of since they were written about 100 years ago. And unless you read German or French they don't help anyway.
The same goes for unit (regimental) history from the units involved. The problem is you first need to know what units were involved which might be difficult as a staring point. The second issue is that far from all of it has been published, let alone in English, in book form or been digitalized.
Alot of it is hand written making translating difficult even if you read German and French. And thirdly it's difficult to find in general, no matter if it's British, German, French or Belgian. It would take a lot of digging through archives.
But the period refered to as the "race to the sea" comprised a number of battles:
First Battle of the Aisne (13 to 28 September),
the First Battle of Picardy (22 to 26 September),
the Battle of Albert (25 to 29 September),
the First Battle of Artois (27 September to 10 October),
the Battle of La Bassée (10 October to 2 November),
the Battle of Messines (1914) (12 October to 2 November),
the Battle of Armentières (13 October to 2 November) and
the Battle of the Yser (18 October to 30 November).
So if you can search for books on these individual battles in English you will probably get a good overall view of what happend during the "race to the sea".
Biographical and autobiographical litterature, mainly written about or by the generals in command during the "race to the sea" might be another option. However autobiographies always need to be read with a large amount of source criticism since they are usually more or less written with an agenda.
Sorry I couldn't give you a simple answer on this matter!
The same goes for unit (regimental) history from the units involved. The problem is you first need to know what units were involved which might be difficult as a staring point. The second issue is that far from all of it has been published, let alone in English, in book form or been digitalized.
Alot of it is hand written making translating difficult even if you read German and French. And thirdly it's difficult to find in general, no matter if it's British, German, French or Belgian. It would take a lot of digging through archives.
But the period refered to as the "race to the sea" comprised a number of battles:
First Battle of the Aisne (13 to 28 September),
the First Battle of Picardy (22 to 26 September),
the Battle of Albert (25 to 29 September),
the First Battle of Artois (27 September to 10 October),
the Battle of La Bassée (10 October to 2 November),
the Battle of Messines (1914) (12 October to 2 November),
the Battle of Armentières (13 October to 2 November) and
the Battle of the Yser (18 October to 30 November).
So if you can search for books on these individual battles in English you will probably get a good overall view of what happend during the "race to the sea".
Biographical and autobiographical litterature, mainly written about or by the generals in command during the "race to the sea" might be another option. However autobiographies always need to be read with a large amount of source criticism since they are usually more or less written with an agenda.
Sorry I couldn't give you a simple answer on this matter!
Re: Race to the Sea Question
Thank you. Not finding a lot in English but I will keep digging for articles
-
Verdun1916
- Posts: 279
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2022 8:42 am
- Location: Hässleholm, Sweden