Hot Blood & Cold Steel, edited by Andy Simpson

Hot Blood & Cold Steel: Life and Death in the Trenches of the First World War, edited and compiled by Andy Simpson
Tom Donovan Publishing, 1993
203 pages, Glossary, Structure of the BEF, Bibliography, Index, 14 page of b&w photos
Library: 940.4 HOT

Description
Hot Blood and Cold Steel tells what it was like to live and fight in the trenches of the Western Front in the Great War. Death is present too, all pervadingly, for it was never far away and those who survived were the "lucky" ones - even if they suffered the torments of vermin, mussy and stinking trenches and shell-holes, almost constant danger, sometimes mutilating wounds and strained nerves.

This is the story of the men who held the front line in France and Flanders. It is a graphic account of a strange and seemingly unending style of life and death in all their facets. It is a unique approach, an anthology interwoven with a continuous commentary so that the reader is always kept aware of the context of the writing. The balanced and un-emotive approach cannot, however, fail to leave the reader unmoved.

Domestic life in the line: accommodation, food and drink, wiring and carrying, the whole day and night routine are investigated, as are the operational aspects of trench life - raiding and patrolling in no-man's land and the German lines.

Actual battle experience is also featured, but one of the most interesting parts of the book is devoted to the attitudes of the front line soldiers, officers and their men, to each other; to the staff; to their Allies; to wounds; to fear; to God; to the sheer horror of it all.

There is also a strong sense of humor about some of the material included - often a necessary antidote to the appalling conditions, but it should not be thought that everyone involved hated it. Some young soldiers found in it experience and responsibility beyond their years, while the professionals went to war with cool enthusiasm.

The technological war and the changing battlefield are also discussed, incorporating some current thinking on Great War tactics and strategy.

The aim of this all-encompassing portrayal of front line life is to grip the reader such that they cannot put it down, and that by the time it is finished they will have a genuine understanding of what it was like to fight in the trenches of the Western Front.

Table of Contents
1. The Trenches
2. Domestic Life in the Line
3. Vermin
4. Weapons and Technology
5. Trench Life - Operations
6. Under Fire
7. Fear and Shellshock
8. Wounds, Death and Burial
9. Religion and Superstition
10. Officers, Men and the Regiment
11. The Front Line Soldier and the Staff
12. Allies
13. The Germans
14. Offensive Operations - the Somme
15. The Armistice
Appendix 1 - Glossary
Appendix 2 - The Structure of the BEF
Bibliography

Maps
General map of the Somme
Trones Wood

Photos
--Capt H. Dundas, Scots Guards
--Rifleman G. Brown, Rifle Brigade
--Battle of the Marne (unidentified soldiers reacting to shelling)
--Unidentified soldiers in 'high command' trench, probably Ypres Salient, 1915
--Several views of the ruination of the ruins of St. Eloi
--Battle of Messines - ruined trees
--Unidentified soldiers in trench, Yorks and Lancs, Arras Front, 12 Jan 1918
--Unidentified officers of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles 7 Feb 1918
--Unidentified Australian Lewis gun crew, Garter Point near Ypres, 27 Sep 1917
--Unidentified soldiers gathered around a MK 1 tank at Flers, 17 Sep 1916
--Mk IV tank
--Three unidentified soldiers, part of a 'bombing squad' c' 1915
--Two unidentified guardsmen manning a post, Ypres Salient, April 1916
--Unidentified Canadian Scottish moving up to the attack on Cambrai. Wirecutters on rifles.
--11 unidentified soldiers for a posed photo, Queen's Regiment with Lee Enfield rifles
--Several unidentified soldiers in posed photo, 23rd light trench mortar battery, 23rd Brigade, 8th division
--3 recognizable but unidentified men (among 8) , a British 9.45 mortar crew in Pigeon Wood, Gommecourt, March 1917
--3 recognizable but unidentified soldiers among 8, 12-inch howitzer in action, Aveluy Wood, September 1916






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