News from the Front: War Correspondents, 1914-18 - Tapa dura

The reality of what actually happened on the First World War killing fields at Ypres, the Somme and Passchendaele was not widely known in Britain until long after the war had ended. But when at last the public learned the full story of how, over four bloody years, swathes of British soldiers had been mown down and blasted to oblivion to gain just a few yards of ground on the Western Front, there was a popular outcry. How could this have happened? Why had the people not been told the truth by the press? At first branded as outlaws by Lord Kitchener and liable to arrest if found anywhere near the front line, by 1918 the war correspondents had become fully integrated into the military system as mouthpieces for the 'official' version of events. News From the Front relates their troubled story and focuses in particular on the work of five men who became accredited to the British General Headquarters: William Beach Thomas, Philip Gibbs, Percival Phillips, Perry Robinson and Herbert Russell. Using a wide range of contemporary newspaper extracts to complement his narrative, the author reveals why the British Army allowed war correspondents to the Front in May 1915, and examines how they were controlled and their despatches censored to produce reports which enhanced the British position.

Martin J. Farrar is an administrator with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and lives in Milton Keynes.