These notes, written by 'a General Officer at the Front' and published in 1914, give a clear picture of conditions experienced, and lessons learned, in the first weeks and months of the Great War. There is a great emphasis on constructing defensive emplacements to protect men and guns from the devastating power of the German artillery from which 'our infantry has suffered much'; and a corresponding recognition of the well-known superiority of the British rifleman in sheer rapidity of fire. There is also recognition that planes are replacing horses as spotters: 'Long distance reconnaissance by...

October 1918.

A brief and clearly phrased basic instruction manual on the Lewis Gun, the versatile American made weapon that became the standard issue machine gun for the British Army in the Great War.The booklet, published in May 1917, tells how to strip and assemble the gun; how to load, aim and fire it; and how to clean it and maintain it after action. There are also sections on elementary drill and stoppages.

Published in April 1918, the month that the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force, this little official booklet issued by the General Staff is a general introduction for pilots of the aims of aerial combat. With sections on such topics as the necessity of offensive action; attacking ground targets with bombs and machine-guns; the importance of surprise and manouevre; the evolution of formation flying; and aerial weapons this gives a clear view of how aerial fighting had evolved in the course of the Great War at the very hour of the RAF's birth.

The heroic war poet Siegfried Sassoon gives an unforgettable description in his 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' of a bayonet instruction course he attended - and the fierceness of the training given. This 1916 booklet - re-issued in 1918 - which details all aspects of bayonet training, bears out his emphasis on the importance the Army still placed in this simple but trusty weapon. 'The bayonet is an offensive weapon, ' it instructs. 'Go straight at an opponent with the point threatening his throat and deliver the point wherever an opening presents itself.

Already by the end of the 19th century, the machine gun had emerged as the most important new development in warfare of the age, and the British army, as this 1911 official publication attests, was well aware that the weapon would transform the conduct of war. The book is a translation of articles written in German by the Austro-Hungarian School of Musketry and appearing in a military journal the previous year. What the War Office translators call 'useful instruction' as employed by a potential enemy power - with whom Britain would find itself at war within three years - covers the handling...

This 1917 manual of musketry training is designed to instruct all infantry ranks in the use and care of their rifles, even under the gruelling battle conditions of the western front in the fourth year of the Great War. It is also aimed at instructing Commanding officers to make the best use of their men's firepower under all conditions. There are chapters on the care and maintenance of arms; on visual training and distance judging; fire discipline and range firing; and section, platoon and company training.

By 1917, the year this War Office manual was issued, the machine gun had become king of the western front - its lethal rule bloodily proved on July 1st 1916. Based on the Vickers and Maxim guns - but also making reference of the US-made Lewis gun, the booklet covers the organisation of Machine Gun companies; the training and drill; fire direction; and the use of machine guns in actual battle conditions. It is illustrated by photographs showing correct and incorrect firing positions.