The Democracy of War : Anstruther and Cellardyke in the First World War by Dunion, Kevin - 2007

Scotland: Kilrenny and Anstruther Burgh Collection, 2007. Soft cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 5.5" X 8.5. Signed by the author. p/b 176 pages, condition is very good. The First World War can be traced through the experience of those commemorated on the Anstruther and Cellardyke war memorials. They died when Britain lost its first naval battle for 100 years at Coronel; they drowned at Jutland, the biggest naval encounter in naval history. They fell at Loos, at Arras and Passchendaele and suffered privations in Gallipoli. Brothers were slaughtered on the first day of the Somme when more men were lost than on any single day in military history. They took on von Richthofen in the skies above the trenches and lost. But war had a particular impact on a fishing community. Skippers were fined for fishing in the Forth before their boats were requisitioned and converted to search out submarines and sweep away mines, and were sunk by them both. Local women collected huge sums of money to care for the wounded survivors and prisoners-of-war. The story that emerges is of ordinary people who did something extraordinary.