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Overview
Defending Albion is the first published study of Britain's response to the threat of invasion from across the North Sea in the first two decades of the twentieth century. It examines the emergency schemes designed to confront an enemy landing and the problems associated with raising and maintaining the often derided Territorial Force. It also explores the long-neglected military and political difficulties posed by the spontaneous and largely unwanted appearance of the "Dad's Army" of the Great War, the Volunteer Force.
Synopsis
Once again, Britain faced the real (or perhaps imagined) possibility of invasion, this time from the newly-expanded fleet of Kaiser Wilhelm. The War Office and other government entities responded in ways that would now be considered rather odd, including developing a voluntary force, which eventually comprised 270,000 men by the beginning of the Great War. Although impressive in numbers it is unlikely the men's training would have prepared them to thwart an invading force, but they did placate the fears (and jeers) of those who expected to see enemy gunships running up the Thames at any moment. Mitchinson continues his work as an independent scholar on the Great War here by focusing on the reasoning it took to create and develop such a force, what it was supposed to do, and what it thought it was supposed to do. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR