The Official British History of World War One

Note: The earlier volumes of this work are available on archive org, we will ad the links as as time permits, and as the volumes become available online.

Military Operations

Between 1923 and 1949, the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence under the auspices of Sir James E. Edmonds published the History of the Great War based on Official Documents: Military Operations covering Britain’s roll in the war on land, including fourteen volumes of narrative covering the Western Front and eleven dealing with other fronts.

Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1914

• Volume I: Mons, the Retreat to the Seine, the Marne and the Aisne, August – October 1914, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1922
• Volume II: Antwerp, La Bassée, Armentières, Messines and Ypres, October – November 1914, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1925

Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1915

• Volume I: Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Battles of Ypres, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds and Captain G.C. Wynne, 1927
• Volume II: Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1928

Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1916

• Volume I: Sir Douglas Haig’s Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1932
• Appendices to Volume I
• Volume II: 2 July 1916 to the end of the Battles of the Somme, Captain Wilfrid Miles, 1938
• Maps and Appendices to Volume II

Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1917

• Volume I: The German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line and the Battles of Arras, Captain Cyril Falls, 1940, Appendices
• Volume II: Messines and third Ypres (Passchendaele), Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1948
• Volume III: The Battle of Cambrai, Captain Wilfrid Miles, 1948

Military Operations: France and Belgium, 1918

• Volume I: The German March Offensive and its Preliminaries, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1935
• Volume II: March-April: Continuation of the German Offensives, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1937
• Volume III: May-July: The German Diversion Offensives and the First Allied Counter-Offensive, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1939
• Volume IV: 8 August-26 September: The Franco-British Offensive, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, 1947
• Volume V: 26 September-11 November: The Advance to Victory, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds and Lieutenant-Colonel R. Maxwell-Hyslop, 1947

Military Operations: Gallipoli

• Volume I, Brigadier-General C.F. Aspinall-Oglander, 1929
  Maps and Appendices
• Volume II, Brigadier-General C.F. Aspinall-Oglander, 1932

Military Operations: Italy, 1915-1919, Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds and H.R. Davies, 1949

Military Operations: East Africa, 1914-1916

• Volume I, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Nordern, 1941
• Volume II, unpublished

Military Operations: Togoland and the Cameroons, 1914-1916, Brigadier-General F.J. Moberly, 1931

Military Operations: Macedonia

• Volume I: From the Outbreak of War to the Spring of 1917, Captain Cyril Falls, 1933
• Volume II: From the Spring of 1917 to the End of the War, Captain Cyril Falls, 1935

Military Operations: Egypt and Palestine

• Volume I, From the Outbreak of War to June of 1917, Captain Cyril Falls, 1928
• Volume II: From June 1917 to the End of the War, Captain Cyril Falls, 1930, Part I
• Volume II: From June 1917 to the End of the War, Captain Cyril Falls, 1930, Part II

Military Operations: Mesopotamia

• Volume I: Outbreak of Hostilities, Campaign in Lower Mesopotamia, Brigadier-General F.J. Moberly, 1923
• Volume II: April 1916: The Attempt on Baghdad, the Battle of Ctesiphon, the Siege and the Fall of Kut-al-Amara, Brigadier-General F.J. Moberly,1924
• Volume III: April 1917: The Capture and Consolidation of Baghdad, Brigadier-General F.J. Moberly, 1926
• Volume IV: The Campaign in Upper Mesopotamia to the Armistice, Brigadier-General F.J. Moberly, 1927

Naval Operations

Published under the title “History of the Great War Based on Official Documents: Naval Operations”, five volumes were written by the official Royal Navy historian Sir Julian S. Corbett (1854-1922). Sir Julian died when he was completing Volume III and before he had agree to the corrections to this volume. The remaining works were completed by the writer and poet Sir Henry J Newbolt (1862-1938).

• Naval Operations Volume I: The events leading up to war, organization of three fleets in Home Waters, coastal Destroyer Flotillas, opening movements on the outbreak of war in Home Waters and the Mediterranean, the passage of the British Expeditionary Force to France, Heligoland Bight action, operations off the Belgian coast October 1914,. Cameroons Expedition, Far East, Battle of Coronel and the Falklands. By Sir Julian S. Corbett, April 1920
• Naval Operations Volume I: Maps
• Naval Operations Volume II: Dardanelles Campaign, German raid on Yorkshsire coast December 1914, Dogger Bank action, by Sir Julian S.Corbett, November 1921
• Naval Operations Volume III: Spring 1915 to the Battle of Jutland 31 May/1 June 1916, events in Home Waters, the Dardanelles, Salonika, Mesopotamia (to November 1915), the destruction of the Koenigsberg, the Battle of Jutland. By Sir Julian S. Corbett, 1923
• Naval Operations Volume III: Maps
• Naval Operations Volume IV: From Jutland to February 1917 – Home Waters, East Africa, Cameroons, Mesopotamia, the Baltic, Salonika campaign (January – June 1916 and January 1917), German introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare. By Henry Newbolt.
• Naval Operations Volume IV: Maps
• Naval Operations Volume V: Early 1917 to the end of the war, German submarine campaign in Home Waters, the Mediterranean and off the American coast, the convoy system, blocking Zeebrugge and Ostend. By Henry Newbolt.
• Naval Operations Volume V Maps

Merchant Navy

• The Merchant Navy, Volume I, by Sir Archibald Hurd, London 1921
• The Merchant Navy, Volume II, by Sir Archibald Hurd, London 1924
• The Merchant Navy, Volume III,by Sir Archibald Hurd, London 1927
• Seaborne Trade, Volume I – The Cruiser Period, by C. Ernest Fayle
  The Cruiser Period covers from the outbreak of the War in 1914 through to about February 1915. It chronicles the operations of German surface raiders and submarines in European waters, the North and South Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Pacific. There is a heavy emphasis on naval operations and how they affected merchant ships.
• Seaborne Trade, Maps
• Seaborne Trade, Volume II – Submarine Campaign (from the Opening of the Campaign to the Appointment of a Shipping Controller) by C. Ernest Fayle.
  Covers the early period of the German submarine campaign from Feb. 1915 to Dec. 1916. It covers the impact of increased German submarine operations, the higher demands made for food and material, not only in the United Kingdom, but for France and the Allies and in support of overseas operations.
• Seaborne Trade, Volume III, – The Period of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare by C. Ernest Fayle.
  This final volume covers the period from January 1917 to the end of the war in November 1918, a period which saw the onslaught of unrestricted submarine warfare by the Imperial German Navy.

World War I Naval Staff Monographs

A good companian to the Naval Operations are the Admiralty Staff monographs, which were compiled during the Interwar period and cover various engagements and campaigns of the Royal Navy. You can download all 19 Naval Staff Monographs from the website of the Australian Navy.

Air Operations

Six volumes of The War in the Air. Volume I was written by Walter Raleigh, who died after its completion. H A Jones wrote the next six volumes.

• Volume I: Air operations of the 1915 Gallipoli campaign; the Western Front in 1915/1916; naval air operations. By Walter Raleigh.
• Volume II: Gallipoli Campaign in 1915; the Western Front from the winter of 1914-15 to the end of the Battle of the Somme in November 1916; naval operations in Home Waters to the end of 1916; naval air operations from Dunkirk in 1915 and 1916 and bombing operations from Luxeuil in the latter part of 1916. By H A Jones, 1928.
• Volume III by H A Jones
• Volume III Maps
• Volume IV: Naval air operations in 1917 and early 1918, Western Front from June 1917 (Battle of Messines) to German Spring offensives in March 1918. By H A Jones
• Volume V: German air attacks on Britain in 1917-1918. By H A Jones.
• Volume V Maps
• Volume VI: Events leading to the creation of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 1^st April, supply and manpower, the RAF in Palestine 1918, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Persia, Mesopotamia, russian Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Italy. Actions in India throughout the war, naval aircraft co-operation in 1918 in Home Waters and the Mediterranean, Allied offensives on the Western Front in 1918. By H A Jones
• Volume VII: Appendices

Medical History of the War

The medical history of the First World War was written by the Colonel-Commandant of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) Major General Sir William Grant Macpherson KCMG, CB (1858 – October 1927).

• Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics
• Medical Services: General History, Volume I, Medical services in the United Kingdom, British garrisons overseas, military operations in Tsingtau, Togoland, the Camaroons and South-West Africa, by Major General Sir William Grant Macpherson KCMG, CB and Major T J Mitchell.
• Medical Services: General History, Volume II, Operations in France and Belgium 1914-1915
• Medical Services: General History, Volume III, Western Front 1916-1918, Italy, Egypt and Palestine, by Major General Sir William Grant Macpherson KCMG, CB
• Medical Services: General History, Volume IV, Gallipoli Campaign 1915, Macedonia, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Persia (Iran), Aden, Russia, ambulance transport by Major General Sir William Grant Macpherson KCMG, CB and Major T J Mitchell.
• Diseases of the War, Volume I
• Diseases of the War, Volume II
• Hygiene of the War, Volume I
• Hygiene of the War, Volume II
• Pathology, 1923
• Surgery of the War, Volume I
• Surgery of the War, Volume II
• Veterinary Services

Misc Topics

In addition to the volumes covering operations during the war, the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence also published a number of series relevant to historians of the war. The Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War, 1914-1920, published in 1922, provides an invaluable source of all manner of topics related to the British involvement in the war, from casualties to size of the armed forces at different points in the war. Principle Events, 1914-1918 gives a useful chronology of the war from the British perspective. A.M. Henniker’s Transportation on the Western Front, which was published in 1937, also provides important information about the British logistical effort during the war.