Book description
Soon after the start of the Great War, work hastily began on a
series of hutted camps in Wiltshire for more than 100,000 men, and
during the course of the war it became home to troops from Canada,
Australia and New Zealand as well as Britain. With soldiers forming a
third of the population the effect on the businesses, farms, and
indeed the morals of the county was dramatic. Even after the Armistice
peace did not return, with mutinies and rioting in the camps because
of frustration at delays in demobilization. Wiltshire and the Great
War describes this turbulent, fascinating period in depth. It
describes pre-war training, showing how inappropriate it was to future
warfare, outlines the pioneering of military aviation in the county
and describes the role of railways in moving tens of thousands of
troops. There are accounts of shirkers, spies, escaped prisoners of
war, prostitutes, the 'landship' that clanked across the county and
the wireless station that pinpointed the position of Zeppelins. Also
described are advances in military technology, the camp-building
scandals that led to an inquiry by a Royal Commission, press
censorship, and the blighting of the Stonehenge landscape.
