Hey you guys, first post on here, I’m looking for good recommendations on books that document the eastern front, or the Austro-Hungarian or Serbian experience. Anything you’ve read that you’ve found to be informative and up to date would be incredible and I’d greatly appreciate the rec😄

Blue/black guy bottom right corner, I know this is a movie but I am just wondering if that is accurate or not

He was a huge ww1 history nerd, had a pretty amazing collection. Was involved in a lot of groups and amateur archaeology. Would always send me books to read. His major focus was sheet music from the time but he collected weapons, posters, uniforms. Used to find a lot of it on the job as a garbage man in San Fran. Miss you so much Nonno. Just wanted to share this with y’all it was always my favorite. This is from 1915.

WW1 Veterans Gear on Display at Fort McHenry in Baltimore back in 2017

Does anyone have any photos of French ft17's in White Russian service?

Thanks.

Charley's War - British comic strip written by Pat Mills and drawn by Joe Colquhoun.

Was wondering if any of y'all have read it and what you thought.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/89676

Hello, I am doing some family research and discovered that my great-grandfather was part of the 3rd Battery of Landwehr-Fußartillerie-Bataillon Nr. 74 during WWI.

During his time in the military, he won two prestigious medals, but the notes only say "for fighting in the East"

I reached out to the German Military archives, who told me those records were destroyed in a fire in 1945.

I have the dates he was given the awards, but not how he earned them, so I am trying to find any information to piece this together.

Does anyone have this information? Or at least point me in the right direction?

Google seems to struggle with this kind of niche answer, so any help is appreciated.

Popped up on my Facebook ads - genuinely impressed with what the site looks like. Does need users to flush it out and make additions!

allwhoserved.org.uk

Most records give a person a single line — a name, a date, a grave reference. I wanted somewhere each serviceperson could have a full page instead: photos, service history, medals with their citations (from the Gazette or the medal rolls), a timeline, and the family memories that don’t survive anywhere official. Anyone can build or add to a page, and what comes from records is kept clearly separate from what comes from family memory.

It covers everyone who served, not only those who died in service - free, no ads.

Have always been fascinated with WW1, but after multiple podcasts and books, I find I'm still very behind on the fundamentals of the conflict.

What is one book everyone learning about WW1 should read.

Many thanks !

H.R.H. Prince Alexander with the officers observes the Bulgarian positions at Čeganj mountain, Kajmakčalan, Macedonia.

Photo by Risto Šuković

Courtesy of the National Library of Serbia, Great War Collection ([https://velikirat.nb.rs\](https://velikirat.nb.rs))

Photo: https://se.pinterest.com/andrewpine/world-war-i-eastern-front/

I was feeling rather bored and so I made the decision to research a Great War Digger who came from my neighbourhood of Lisarow (if there were any) on the Central Coast, NSW. To my amazement, a man named Cecil Carrington Wamsley from a neighbouring town, Ourimbah, instantly popped up and thus the hunt for his story began.

Cecil was born in the Central Coast suburb of Ourimbah in New South Wales on the 7th of December,1890. Known to his mates as "Curly", Cecil attended school at Ourimbah and was a talented cricketer. The Wamsley family was well known in the Ourimbah area and owned a timber mill, an orchard and a hotel.​

He enlisted on the 26th of March 1915 and recieved military training at Liverpool (NSW) with the 20th Battalion, C​

Company. Service number: 1017

Cecil left on the “HMAS Berrima” on 25/6/1915 en route to Gallipoli, trained in Egypt from late July until mid-August, and on the 22nd of August landed at ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli. Operating purely defensively, the battalion was tasked with defending Russell's Top until their withdrawal a few months later. Proceeded to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli on the 16th of August 1915.​ After the unsuccessful campagin, he was disembarked "Ex Mudros" to the Greek island of Lemnos during the evacuations on the 9th of January 1916 towards Alexandria in Egypt and then embarked on the HMT "Ingoma" from Alexandria towards the Western Front, landing at Marseilles on the 25th of March 1916. Marseilles was the premier French Mediterranean port and a critical staging ground during the Great War. It served as the primary entry point for hundreds of thousands of colonial troops, British Indian Army soldiers, and Anzac forces before they deployed to the Western and Eastern Fronts. ​

The 20th were then transported north by rail to French Flanders near the Belgian border. They entered the trenches of the Western Front for the first time in April 1916. In the following month, they had the dubious distinction of being the first Australian battalion to suffer a trench raid by the Germans.

Cecil's journey would take a drastic turn when he was gunned down by German machine gun fire during an Allied charge at the Battle of Pozieres on the night of the 25th of July 1916. Another witness stated that he was killed by artillery.​

​

His final moments were witnessed by Henry James Walsh (1782) of the 20th Battalion.​ Cecil's body was never recovered from the battlefields of France. He is memorialised at Lisarow Cemetery and Ourimbah train station in Australia and Villers-Brettenouex memorial in France.

Just a minute's walk away from my house, I discovered an elaborate marble column that was erected in Lisarow Cemetery to the memory of Cecil. The column is cut off at an angle and a laurel wreath sits on the cut angle, the word ANZAC sits below the wreath and below that are crossed British and Australian flags and then with entwined flowers. The inscription on the base of the column reads, "He answered his country's call. In loving memory of Pte. Cecil C. (Curly) No. 1017 20th Batt. AIF. Dearly loved youngest son of Albert A.E. & Eliza Wamsley. Killed in action "Pozieres" France 26 July 1916 aged 25 1/2 years. His duty done, life's troubles o'er."​

Lest we forget.

Images below depict two portraits of Cecil, the memorial and the statements provided by Private Henry James Walsh who was with him in his final moments.