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# Tony Cowan

Researching the German army in the First World War

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.tonycowan.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](https://www.tonycowan.com/blog/)
- [Once upon a time before the Great War](https://www.tonycowan.com/once-upon-a-time-before-the-great-war/) - Discover how a junior German officer’s language manual sparked a high-level diplomatic row between King Edward VII and Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1904.
- [Remembrance](https://www.tonycowan.com/remembrance/) - When you go home, tell them of us and sayFor your tomorrow, we gave our today. In memory of Captain Comrie Cowan, MC and Bar, company commander, 16th Battalion The Royal Scots, seriously wounded at Arras on 7 April 1917, aged 20. My grandfather. Captain Charlie Cowan, company commander, 12th Battalion The Royal Scots, died
- [German military intelligence assessment in the First World War](https://www.tonycowan.com/german-military-intelligence-assessment-during-the-first-world-war/) - Before the war, German military intelligence assessment of other countries was handled by the individual country and specialist departments of the Great General Staff. So, for instance, the Third Department covered France and Britain. Any coordination of these assessments was handled by officers above departmental level, meaning the Chief of the General Staff and the
- [What's in a picture?](https://www.tonycowan.com/whats-in-a-picture/) - Or rather, ‘Who’s in a picture?’ The cover photo of Holding Out – which was found for me by my cousin Justin Lyon – is a slightly cropped version of a photograph from Corbis Historical/Getty Images. Their caption is: Field Marshal General von Hindenburg and General of Infantry Otto von Below pose in a group
- [Prosit Neujahr - Happy New Year!](https://www.tonycowan.com/prosit-neujahr-happy-new-year/)
- [The Catastrophe of 8 August 1918](https://www.tonycowan.com/the-catastrophe-of-8-august-1918/) - A few years ago, I co-edited this translation of the 1930 German official monograph on the first day of the battle of Amiens, Die Katastrophe des 8. August 1918. My role was to fine tune the translation and to write the editor’s introduction, which you can find here. The book was sponsored by the Australian Army
- [A Picture of German Unity? Federal Contingents in the German Army, 1916-1917](https://www.tonycowan.com/a-picture-of-german-unity-federal-contingents-in-the-german-army-1916-1917/) - This is a chapter I contributed to an edited book published back in 2014. In it, I analyse the relationship between the constitutionally separate parts of the German army, the Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon and Württemberg contingents. This is part of a bigger German political scene, the Kaiserreich’s dynamic between centralising and particularist (autonomous) tendencies. So

## Pages

- [About me](https://www.tonycowan.com/) - My research focuses on the military history of the First World War, particularly the German army. I was awarded a PhD by King’s College London and have developed my thesis into a book, Holding Out: The German Army and Operational Command in 1917, published in CUP’s Cambridge Military Histories series. There's more about the book
- [Publications](https://www.tonycowan.com/publications/) - Holding Out: The German Army and Operational Command in 1917 Holding Out was published by Cambridge University Press in April 2023, in both hardback and electronic formats; a paperback edition will follow in early 2025. The book analyses the German army and its operational command in the First World War through a case study of
- [Reviews of 'Holding Out'](https://www.tonycowan.com/reviews/) - Richard S. Faulkner in the US Army University Press's Military Review, 20 May 2025. The online version is here. Roger Lee in the Australian Army Research Centres's Land Power Library, 24 October 2024. The online version is here. Nicholas Sambaluk on H-WAR, July 2024. The online version is here. Paul Skrebels in Sabretache (the journal
- [Ὦ ξεῖν’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις](https://www.tonycowan.com/ὦ-ξεῖν-ἀγγέλλειν-λακεδαιμονίοις/) - Ὦ ξεῖν’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῆιδε κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι. Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie. This version of the epigram and the Steven Pressfield translation are from Dr Peter Gainsford's website at https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2019/02/simonides.html . He has a fascinating discussion there of the
- [The databases](https://www.tonycowan.com/holding-out-support/the-databases/) - I've based part of the analysis in my book Holding Out on statistics drawn from databases covering the prosopography of officers and military formations such as divisions. To create the prosopographical database, I first assembled reliable CV information on officers of interest, principally commanders of formations from division upwards and general staff officers of all
- [Research tools](https://www.tonycowan.com/research-tool-1/) - When I was working on my book Holding Out, and before that the PhD on which it's based, I developed a number of research tools to support what I was doing. I think some of these at least would be useful to others researching the German army in the First World War, so I'll publish
- [Contact](https://www.tonycowan.com/contact-me/) - [ninja_form id=1]
- [Holding Out: The German Army and Operational Command in 1917](https://www.tonycowan.com/holding-out-the-german-army-and-operational-command-in-1917/) - Holding Out was published by Cambridge University Press in April 2023, in both hardback and electronic formats; a paperback edition will follow in early 2025. The book analyses the German army and its operational command in the First World War through a case study of the major Entente Western Front offensive of spring 1917 (the
- [Supporting material](https://www.tonycowan.com/holding-out-support/supporting-material/)
- [Photos](https://www.tonycowan.com/photos/) - I decided not to include any photos in the book, so I'll be putting some up here. Coming soon: General der Infanterie Otto von Below
- ['Holding Out' support](https://www.tonycowan.com/holding-out-support/) - One reason for setting up this website is to make available supporting material for my book Holding Out: The German Army and Operational Command in 1917 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023). As I’ve explained in the Introduction, the book grounds parts of its analysis on statistics covering the prosopography of officers and military formations such
- [Alexander Comrie Cowan](https://www.tonycowan.com/alexander-comrie-cowan/) - My grandfather Alexander Comrie Cowan, known as Comrie, was born on 30 April 1896 in Scotland. His family were prosperous and locally influential businessmen whose wealth was based on their ownership of what had become the largest paper-making firm in Scotland, Alex Cowan and Co, based in Penicuik just south of Edinburgh. In July 1914,
- [Search](https://www.tonycowan.com/search/)

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://www.tonycowan.com/category/uncategorized/)
- [Holding Out](https://www.tonycowan.com/category/holding-out/)

## Tags

- [First World War](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/first-world-war/)
- [German army](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/german-army/)
- [federal](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/federal/)
- [battle of Amiens](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/battle-of-amiens/)
- [official history](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/official-history/)
- [Remembrance; Cowan family](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/remembrance-cowan-family/)
- [King Edward VII](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/king-edward-vii/)
- [Kaiser Wilhelm II](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/kaiser-wilhelm-ii/)
- [language training](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/language-training/)
- [Boer War](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/boer-war/)
- [Wilhelm von Jecklin](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/wilhelm-von-jecklin/)
- [Bernhard von Bülow](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/bernhard-von-bulow/)
- [Graaff-Reinet](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/graaff-reinet/)
- [Count Edward Gleichen](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/count-edward-gleichen/)
- [Henry Shute](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/henry-shute/)
- [Diplomatic Scandals](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/diplomatic-scandals/)
- [South Africa](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/south-africa/)
- [Pre-WWI Diplomacy](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/pre-wwi-diplomacy/)
- [Military History](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/military-history/)
- [Anglo-German Relations](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/anglo-german-relations/)
- [The Military Interpreter](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/the-military-interpreter/)
- [German regiments](https://www.tonycowan.com/tag/german-regiments/)