What do you think?
Rate this book
Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War
A British soldier walked over to the German front line to deliver newspapers; British women married to Germans became "enemy aliens" in their own country; a high-ranking British POW discussed his own troops' heroism with the Kaiser on the battlefield. Just three amazing stories of contact between the opposing sides in the Great War that eminent historian Richard van Emden has unearthed--incidents that show brutality, great humanity, and above all, the bizarre nature of a conflict between two nations with long-standing ties of kinship and friendship. Meeting the Enemy reveals for the first time how contact was maintained on many levels throughout the War, and through its stories--sometimes funny, often moving--gives us a new perspective on the lives of ordinary men and women caught up in extraordinary events.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 2013
9 people are currently reading
204 people want to read
About the author
Richard van Emden
41 books33 followersRichard van Emden is a British author and television documentary producer who specializes in the First World War.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 21, 2018
When in 1914 hostilities broke out between Britain and Germany, this not only impacted the lives of thousands of soldiers, but also the lives of a lot of civilians, particularly those married to the enemy, or living abroad in the enemy’s home country. In this book, Richard van Emden investigates the impact of the Great War on the lives of these people.
The first Briton to die in the Great War was not a soldier, but a civilian: Henry Hadley, a fifty-one-year-old language teacher who was fatally shot by a resentful Prussian officer, while trying to leave Germany for England. It is just one of the examples of the personal tragedies that took place of which Richard van Emden is describing, quoting from personal letters and official government documents.
At that time, at the outbreak of hostilities, there were some 50,000 Germans living in Britain. They were earning a living as a waiter in one of London’s restaurants, shopkeepers or husband or wife, married with a Briton. Although most of the alien subjects left Britain during the first months of the war, British born women were a problem. In Britain, anyone who married a (German) foreigner, was deemed to have adopted the German nationality. When widowed or separated, they remained an alien subject. As wife of a German, they were not entitled to any government welfare and were dependent of any German welfare, paid through the American embassy. However, any sons that the marriage produced, had the British nationality resulting in the fact that these destitute women had their husbands interned as German subject, while at the same time their children were fighting (often with their German names) the Germans in de fields of Flanders, employed in what mockingly was called by the press as the ‘Kaiser’s own’.
The book not only deals with the civilians (as described above) but also the personal encounters between British soldiers and their German counterparts. There were some moments of humanity: stretcher bearers allowing to pick up their wounded in the no-man’s land between the trenches after an assault, the chivalry of enemy pilots (for example, dropping a wreath on an enemy airfield after a renowned enemy pilot was killed) and German soldiers returning personal items they found on dead English soldiers on the battlefield.
It also covers one of the more darker scenes in the German handling of POW’s. After finding out that captured German soldiers were forced to work behind the English lines they decided - as a punishment - to send English POW’s to the Russian front, were many perished due to hard labour and starvation. Only after the British government promised to not deploy German POW’s behind the frontline(s) anymore, they were returned to the POW camps inside Germany, although for many it was too late.
Richard van Emden touches on some personal stories that perhaps have never been told before and delivers an emotional point on the story of what happened when Britain and Germany - nations with long-established ties of culture and friendship - clashed on both the Western and the Home Fronts during the Great War.
The first Briton to die in the Great War was not a soldier, but a civilian: Henry Hadley, a fifty-one-year-old language teacher who was fatally shot by a resentful Prussian officer, while trying to leave Germany for England. It is just one of the examples of the personal tragedies that took place of which Richard van Emden is describing, quoting from personal letters and official government documents.
At that time, at the outbreak of hostilities, there were some 50,000 Germans living in Britain. They were earning a living as a waiter in one of London’s restaurants, shopkeepers or husband or wife, married with a Briton. Although most of the alien subjects left Britain during the first months of the war, British born women were a problem. In Britain, anyone who married a (German) foreigner, was deemed to have adopted the German nationality. When widowed or separated, they remained an alien subject. As wife of a German, they were not entitled to any government welfare and were dependent of any German welfare, paid through the American embassy. However, any sons that the marriage produced, had the British nationality resulting in the fact that these destitute women had their husbands interned as German subject, while at the same time their children were fighting (often with their German names) the Germans in de fields of Flanders, employed in what mockingly was called by the press as the ‘Kaiser’s own’.
The book not only deals with the civilians (as described above) but also the personal encounters between British soldiers and their German counterparts. There were some moments of humanity: stretcher bearers allowing to pick up their wounded in the no-man’s land between the trenches after an assault, the chivalry of enemy pilots (for example, dropping a wreath on an enemy airfield after a renowned enemy pilot was killed) and German soldiers returning personal items they found on dead English soldiers on the battlefield.
It also covers one of the more darker scenes in the German handling of POW’s. After finding out that captured German soldiers were forced to work behind the English lines they decided - as a punishment - to send English POW’s to the Russian front, were many perished due to hard labour and starvation. Only after the British government promised to not deploy German POW’s behind the frontline(s) anymore, they were returned to the POW camps inside Germany, although for many it was too late.
Richard van Emden touches on some personal stories that perhaps have never been told before and delivers an emotional point on the story of what happened when Britain and Germany - nations with long-established ties of culture and friendship - clashed on both the Western and the Home Fronts during the Great War.
December 9, 2016
"MEETING THE ENEMY: The Human Face of the Great War" provides the reader with different perspectives of how the war --- on a uniquely human level --- impacted upon civilians and combatants alike in Britain and Germany between 1914 and 1918.
When Germany mobilized for war on August 1, 1914 (having already declared war on Russia; she would declare war on France 2 days later), many British residents and tourists in Germany began to sense that Britain many soon enter the conflict against Germany. And so, many of these residents and tourists began to leave the country by whatever means were near to hand.
"One Englishman looking to leave Berlin as quickly as possible was a fifty-one-year-old language teacher ... Henry Hadley. A former army officer in the West India Regiment, he took his cue to go on the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Germany. Deciding to catch a train to Paris, he quickly sorted out his affairs in the German capital and then, the next day, returned to his rented apartment and packed his bags, leaving early the following morning." Hadley and his housekeeper, Elizabeth Pratley, travelled by train from Berlin to Cologne without incident. It was when their train approached Gelsenkirchen that matters began to get out of control. Service was slow. Hadley became upset with a waiter and a heated exchange took place in close proximity to a group of dining German Army officers. Hadley made his way back to Mrs. Pratley and asked her to keep watch over the luggage. He said he wouldn't be long in returning. Hadley went into an adjoining corridor on the train. Mrs. Pratley "heard loud noises followed by sounds of a scuffle. She rushed outside to find [Hadley] lying on the floor. 'They have shot me, Mrs. Pratley. I am a done man,' he gasped. A German officer, later identified as Lieutenant Nicolay, had fired his revolver at point-blank range, hitting [Hadley] in the stomach. The Germans then turned their attention on Mrs. Pratley."
While Mrs. Pratley was taken away for questioning, Hadley was taken to a hospital in Gelsenkirchen. He died there a few hours later in the early morning of August 5, 1914, shortly after Britain had declared war on Germany. The British government soon learned of Hadley's death and made some inquiries with Berlin, none of which proved satisfactory. (Lieutenant Nicolay was exonerated.) Mrs. Pratley was later released and allowed to return to Britain soon thereafter.
The book goes on to considerable lengths to show how both Britain and Germany dealt with "enemy aliens" in their midst, both during the earliest days of the war and in subsequent years of the conflict. A lot of the stories involving many of the enemy aliens and their families were often tragic and sad, amid the rise and spread of war hysteria. This was especially true in Britain, which had far more naturalized Germans and German and Austrian internees than Germany had British and Empire internees.
"MEETING THE ENEMY" also examines the varied relationships the rival combatants (soldiers and airmen) had with each other throughout the war, both on the front lines (e.g. the Christmas Truce of 1914 and the more limited one that took place the following Christmas - a practice British higher military authorities ruthlessly discouraged) and at POW camps in Germany and Britain. There was an instance in which the Germans, in February 1917, moved a group of British POWs to the Eastern Front, where they were forced daily to work on digging German support trenches and made to sleep in appalling conditions in ragged tents on non-salubrious terrain in the bitter winter weather. This was done for several months as a sort of tit-for-tat because Britain had some German POWs engaged in labor activities at some of the French ports and in areas less than 20 miles from the front. Both countries failed to come to an agreement to resolve this matter of POW employment at the front til later in the year. By that time (November 1917), of the 500 British POWs sent to the Eastern Front to perform hard labor, only 72 returned to prisoner of war camp in Germany. I was both angered and shocked to learn about this incident on the part of the Germans in World War I. (Something of that magnitude I had expected of the Germans in World War II in certain instances. For example, their treatment of Soviet POWs and their murder of 50 captured Allied airmen as a result of the "Great Escape" in March 1944. But not in the earlier conflict in which both sides tended to observe some sort of chivalric code, which was a throwback to earlier norms of warfare in Europe.)
This was the second book related to World War I that I've read from Richard van Emden. And I learned so much from it, because "MEETING THE ENEMY" made me see more keenly than ever how that war impacted on both combatants and societies concurrently. All in all, this is a very readable, well-written and scrupulously researched book that comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
When Germany mobilized for war on August 1, 1914 (having already declared war on Russia; she would declare war on France 2 days later), many British residents and tourists in Germany began to sense that Britain many soon enter the conflict against Germany. And so, many of these residents and tourists began to leave the country by whatever means were near to hand.
"One Englishman looking to leave Berlin as quickly as possible was a fifty-one-year-old language teacher ... Henry Hadley. A former army officer in the West India Regiment, he took his cue to go on the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Germany. Deciding to catch a train to Paris, he quickly sorted out his affairs in the German capital and then, the next day, returned to his rented apartment and packed his bags, leaving early the following morning." Hadley and his housekeeper, Elizabeth Pratley, travelled by train from Berlin to Cologne without incident. It was when their train approached Gelsenkirchen that matters began to get out of control. Service was slow. Hadley became upset with a waiter and a heated exchange took place in close proximity to a group of dining German Army officers. Hadley made his way back to Mrs. Pratley and asked her to keep watch over the luggage. He said he wouldn't be long in returning. Hadley went into an adjoining corridor on the train. Mrs. Pratley "heard loud noises followed by sounds of a scuffle. She rushed outside to find [Hadley] lying on the floor. 'They have shot me, Mrs. Pratley. I am a done man,' he gasped. A German officer, later identified as Lieutenant Nicolay, had fired his revolver at point-blank range, hitting [Hadley] in the stomach. The Germans then turned their attention on Mrs. Pratley."
While Mrs. Pratley was taken away for questioning, Hadley was taken to a hospital in Gelsenkirchen. He died there a few hours later in the early morning of August 5, 1914, shortly after Britain had declared war on Germany. The British government soon learned of Hadley's death and made some inquiries with Berlin, none of which proved satisfactory. (Lieutenant Nicolay was exonerated.) Mrs. Pratley was later released and allowed to return to Britain soon thereafter.
The book goes on to considerable lengths to show how both Britain and Germany dealt with "enemy aliens" in their midst, both during the earliest days of the war and in subsequent years of the conflict. A lot of the stories involving many of the enemy aliens and their families were often tragic and sad, amid the rise and spread of war hysteria. This was especially true in Britain, which had far more naturalized Germans and German and Austrian internees than Germany had British and Empire internees.
"MEETING THE ENEMY" also examines the varied relationships the rival combatants (soldiers and airmen) had with each other throughout the war, both on the front lines (e.g. the Christmas Truce of 1914 and the more limited one that took place the following Christmas - a practice British higher military authorities ruthlessly discouraged) and at POW camps in Germany and Britain. There was an instance in which the Germans, in February 1917, moved a group of British POWs to the Eastern Front, where they were forced daily to work on digging German support trenches and made to sleep in appalling conditions in ragged tents on non-salubrious terrain in the bitter winter weather. This was done for several months as a sort of tit-for-tat because Britain had some German POWs engaged in labor activities at some of the French ports and in areas less than 20 miles from the front. Both countries failed to come to an agreement to resolve this matter of POW employment at the front til later in the year. By that time (November 1917), of the 500 British POWs sent to the Eastern Front to perform hard labor, only 72 returned to prisoner of war camp in Germany. I was both angered and shocked to learn about this incident on the part of the Germans in World War I. (Something of that magnitude I had expected of the Germans in World War II in certain instances. For example, their treatment of Soviet POWs and their murder of 50 captured Allied airmen as a result of the "Great Escape" in March 1944. But not in the earlier conflict in which both sides tended to observe some sort of chivalric code, which was a throwback to earlier norms of warfare in Europe.)
This was the second book related to World War I that I've read from Richard van Emden. And I learned so much from it, because "MEETING THE ENEMY" made me see more keenly than ever how that war impacted on both combatants and societies concurrently. All in all, this is a very readable, well-written and scrupulously researched book that comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
December 5, 2017
The events of the First World War bring forth the tragic images and ideas of ruined fields, endless trenches and numerous casualties. These were five truly miserable years with only unimaginable grief and loss as a result. During those years, English and German soldiers stood their ground, with only No Man’s Land in between them. But occasionally this frightening wasteland was crossed and soldiers of both nations came face to face, and not only to fight.
The famous 1914 Christmas Truce – where men of both nations set aside their arms and came together to exchange talk, souvenirs and an occasional game of soccer – is just one of the many examples which Richard van Emden describes in his book “Meeting the Enemy – The Human Face of the Great War”. Throughout the years, English and German would meet, leading to wholly surprising results. These were men often tired of fighting, which lead to moments of recognition, understanding and fraternization.
Meanwhile, the treatment of Germans living in Britain and Britons living in Germany, caused certain challenges as well and their descriptions in this book bring to light an side of the War not mentioned often enough. Aggression, alienation and despair were matters on the home front as much as on the battlefield.
“Meeting the Enemy” is a great and remarkable book on WW1; with it Van Emden manages to present a wholly new and interesting perspective on events already so often described. This might be one of the most human and personal looks at the events available and distinguishes itself in the plethora of documentation available, carrying tragedy and hope within its pages.
The famous 1914 Christmas Truce – where men of both nations set aside their arms and came together to exchange talk, souvenirs and an occasional game of soccer – is just one of the many examples which Richard van Emden describes in his book “Meeting the Enemy – The Human Face of the Great War”. Throughout the years, English and German would meet, leading to wholly surprising results. These were men often tired of fighting, which lead to moments of recognition, understanding and fraternization.
Meanwhile, the treatment of Germans living in Britain and Britons living in Germany, caused certain challenges as well and their descriptions in this book bring to light an side of the War not mentioned often enough. Aggression, alienation and despair were matters on the home front as much as on the battlefield.
“Meeting the Enemy” is a great and remarkable book on WW1; with it Van Emden manages to present a wholly new and interesting perspective on events already so often described. This might be one of the most human and personal looks at the events available and distinguishes itself in the plethora of documentation available, carrying tragedy and hope within its pages.
July 2, 2024
Really interesting book with lots of interesting stories from all sides of WW1. I really enjoyed hearing the testimonies and letters of those at home and those fighting. It was novel to read a book that covered so much of the human side of war an focused on an individual perspective against a political one. How the politicians made decisions they saw fit but how the men on the front didn't feel the same way, before and after Armistice.
April 6, 2014
Richard van Emden knows his stuff and writes in a way that makes you want to keep reading. The colossal research undertaken for this book comes out in friendly prose, miles away from stuffy academic writing. This really is one of those books that anyone interested in WW1 can read.
There are of course battlefield stories, but much of the book also deals with civilian aspects of the war, how the politics of the day affected normal Germans living in Britain and vice versa.
The book requires little or no prior knowledge of historical events or technical terms. It focuses on human stories which at their core are simple: separation. It may well change the way you think about the Great War.
There are of course battlefield stories, but much of the book also deals with civilian aspects of the war, how the politics of the day affected normal Germans living in Britain and vice versa.
The book requires little or no prior knowledge of historical events or technical terms. It focuses on human stories which at their core are simple: separation. It may well change the way you think about the Great War.
January 17, 2024
Lesser-known stories brought to live. An enjoyable read.
“Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War” by Richard van Emden explores the “social cost of war; on the western and home front, but always within the context of Anglo-German relations”. Following the chronology of the Great War and often using unpublished letters and diaries, the author brings to live a collection of less known stories of ordinary men and women, British and German, soldier and civilian, all caught up in the catastrophe of the first world. The result is a kaleidoscope of less known but fascinating details of the Great War. Shocking and uplifting, harrowing and heart-warming, but ultimately about the human experience of war.
Easy to read, “Meeting the Enemy” is full of forgotten aspects and surprising details ranging from the large amounts of Germans working and living in Britain before the war, the tribulations of foreign nationals caught up in the bureaucracy and politics of their host nation to the German outrage about the (alleged) British use of dum-dum bullets to the shocking horrors of Mitau in Latvia, the Infantry Labour Companies for Brits of German descent and the fact that half of those killed in the Great War have no known grave.
In summary, I enjoyed reading “Meeting the Enemy” and can recommend it to anyone interested in the First World War.
“Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War” by Richard van Emden explores the “social cost of war; on the western and home front, but always within the context of Anglo-German relations”. Following the chronology of the Great War and often using unpublished letters and diaries, the author brings to live a collection of less known stories of ordinary men and women, British and German, soldier and civilian, all caught up in the catastrophe of the first world. The result is a kaleidoscope of less known but fascinating details of the Great War. Shocking and uplifting, harrowing and heart-warming, but ultimately about the human experience of war.
Easy to read, “Meeting the Enemy” is full of forgotten aspects and surprising details ranging from the large amounts of Germans working and living in Britain before the war, the tribulations of foreign nationals caught up in the bureaucracy and politics of their host nation to the German outrage about the (alleged) British use of dum-dum bullets to the shocking horrors of Mitau in Latvia, the Infantry Labour Companies for Brits of German descent and the fact that half of those killed in the Great War have no known grave.
In summary, I enjoyed reading “Meeting the Enemy” and can recommend it to anyone interested in the First World War.
March 12, 2018
Another solid book by Richard van Emden delving deeper into the Great War. One part of this book that I especially appreciated was how it wasn't just concentrated on the battlefield but on the wider story of the war, experienced as both combatants and non-combatants.
May 13, 2020
I really liked the concept behind this book but was frustrated by the organization of the material. I eventually began skimming sections that felt repetitive.
However, I did learn from this book which is my key criteria for histories.
However, I did learn from this book which is my key criteria for histories.
February 10, 2025
Sehr interessantes Thema, aber ein bisschen trocken erzählt.
Want to read
March 11, 2014description: A British soldier walked over to the German front line to deliver newspapers; British women married to Germans became ΓÇ£enemy aliensΓÇ¥ in their own country; a high-ranking British POW discussed his own troopsΓÇÖ heroism with the kaiser on the battlefield. These are just three amazing stories of interaction between the opposing sides in the Great War that eminent historian Richard van Emden has unearthedΓÇöincidents that show brutality, great humanity, and, above all, the bizarre nature of a conflict between two nations with long-standing ties of kinship and friendship. Meeting the Enemy reveals for the first time how contact was maintained on many levels throughout the war, and its storiesΓÇösometimes funny, often movingΓÇögive us a new perspective on the lives of ordinary men and women caught up in extraordinary events.
August 10, 2014
I like this historian because he gives a wider of picture from an English and German point of view. I liked learning about how there were good relations between Germany and England before the war and that the Kaiser was shocked to learn about the English betrayal. I was shocked to read about the mistreatment of English women who had been married to German men and how they were no longer recognised as English citizens even though they had still lived in England all their lives. They lived on charity donations from FEC since they husbands were sent to Interment camps and were not recognised by the English and German states. The German state refused to provide assistance because they had sons fighting for the English army etc and towards the later end of the war they couldn't afford too.
February 5, 2015
A very interesting book that talks about relations between Britain and Germany during the First World War.
Beginning with a discussion of how "enemy aliens" (Germans in Britain and Brits in Germany) were handled, then to the Christmas Day truce in 1914, the lesser one in 1915, POWs, and so much more.
It really shows a spotlight on how horrific the war was, but yet also how sometimes the soldiers on the front line didn't buy into it all. It was cool reading how sometimes troops would shout at each other, wishing the other side good morning, etc.
Well-written, though occasionally dry, I really enjoyed reading this one.
Beginning with a discussion of how "enemy aliens" (Germans in Britain and Brits in Germany) were handled, then to the Christmas Day truce in 1914, the lesser one in 1915, POWs, and so much more.
It really shows a spotlight on how horrific the war was, but yet also how sometimes the soldiers on the front line didn't buy into it all. It was cool reading how sometimes troops would shout at each other, wishing the other side good morning, etc.
Well-written, though occasionally dry, I really enjoyed reading this one.
November 30, 2014
A fascinating exploration of diplomatic and other contact between the British and Germans during the First World War both at government level and on the battlefield. The book relates how the two governments transacted business, largely through third-parties, though that contact unsurprisingly grew more frosty the longer the war lasted. But it is the contact between the troops themselves, and their families, that provided most of the interest for me; proving that goodwill and humanity can survive even under the most difficult circumstances.
July 16, 2014
A fascinating look at the interaction between Britains and Germans in WW1, from the well known Christmas truces, to less well known jointly engineered quiet areas and the treatment of POWs and of civilians caught in the wrong country in 1914, or immigrants torn between the two. Well researched and written it's an interesting change from the usual diet of political wrangling and bloody battles.
January 5, 2016
Terrific book about human interaction leading up to and during World War 1. Although I read this for research, it turned out to be by far the best book of all the WW1 books I recently read - full of facts, many incredible, very well written, never dull, and focussing on how individuals, men and women, managed during the conflict. Would be difficult to find a better work, I think.
May 4, 2020
Really eye-opening - I learned a lot, even about dumb/dumbs (those nasty bullets that both sides shouldn’t have been using but totally did - if I remember correctly).
April 11, 2017
Meeting the Enemy, published in 2013, is a summary of the various circumstances in which relationships with the enemy were undertaken in the First World War, other than the face-to-face meeting on the field of battle. This includes internment of enemy aliens, POWs, fraternisation (including the Christmas truce of 1914 and 1915), the taking of prisoners and war crimes trials amongst others. Each section is supported by an immense selection of anecdotes in support of these events. The treatment of the subjects of mixed-nationality marriages is a recurring theme. Beautifully researched and informative.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews