Background
John Alfred Terraine was born on January 15, 1921, in London, United Kingdom. He was the son of Charles William and Evelyn (Holmes) Terraine.
St Paul's Street Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 2BQ, United Kingdom
John was educated at Stamford School, Lincolnshire.
St Paul's Street Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 2BQ, United Kingdom
John was educated at Stamford School, Lincolnshire.
Photo of John Terraine
(The catastrophe which overtook Europe from 1914 to 1918 w...)
The catastrophe which overtook Europe from 1914 to 1918 was a conflict so terrible and so gigantic that it is referred to simply as "The Great War." In this text, Corelli Barnett traces the history of the war from its origins in a Europe wracked with political and ethnic tensions, through the years of bitter struggle, appalling losses, and destruction on a titanic scale, to its bitter end in the fatally-flawed armistice of 11th November 1918.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-War-1914-1918-Pictorial-Printing/dp/B001OTGP1O/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=John+Terraine&qid=1612520815&sr=8-8
1965
(This book is a classic narrative history of the last year...)
This book is a classic narrative history of the last year of the First World War. Author John Terraine was associate producer and chief screenwriter of the 1963-1964 BBC TV documentary The Great War. He was the founder and President of the Western Front Association, a member of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. For the weary Allies, 1918 was truly a year of victories - and at last, the final triumph. First came the defensive victories of the British and the French against the last desperate offensive launched by the Germans in the spring. Then came the turning point of Foch's counter-offensive on the Marne followed by Haig’s great attack on 8 August, the black day of the German Army, the breaking of the Hindenburg Line and the pursuit of the defeated German Army across the wasteland of war. This challenging and perceptive book gives honor where it is due: to a victorious British Army in 1918.
https://www.amazon.com/Win-War-1918-Year-Victory-ebook/dp/B07T72774K/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=John+Terraine&qid=1612520815&sr=8-6
1978
(Did the tanks really "win" World War I? Was the machine-g...)
Did the tanks really "win" World War I? Was the machine-gun the "most lethal weapon"? Were all British generals really cavalrymen? Did generals have no better idea than to throw thousands of men against impregnable defenses to make a gap for the cavalry to ride through, knee-to-knee? Was World War I the most deadly in history? The mythology which surrounds the 1914-1918 war to this day embraces all these myths and more. This book argues that the truth can be approached only by looking at that war in the light of the others which really resemble it - the American Civil War and World War II.
https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Fire-Myths-Anti-Myths-1861-1945-dp-0850523303/dp/0850523303/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1612520815
1980
https://www.amazon.com/White-Heat-New-Warfare-1914-18/dp/0850523311
1982
(Traditionally, the right of the line is the vanguard, the...)
Traditionally, the right of the line is the vanguard, the place of honor and greatest danger in battle. In this history of the Royal Air Force during the European War of 1939-1945, John Terraine shows how the RAF, which in 1939 was small and inadequate for the task it was called upon to perform had, by the end of the war, taken up its proper position. He describes the build-up to war, the early tests in France and at Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, the RAF in North Africa and the Mediterranean, the strategic air offensive over Germany, and eventual victory in Europe.
https://www.amazon.com/Right-Line-Role-RAF-WW-ebook/dp/B00KIXWJ8U/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=John+Terraine&qid=1612520815&sr=8-4
1985
https://www.amazon.com/Time-Courage-Royal-European-1939-1945/dp/0026169703/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=John+Terraine&qid=1612520815&sr=8-5
1985
https://www.amazon.com/U-boat-Wars-1916-45-John-Terraine/dp/0399132910/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1612520815&sr=8-1
1989
(Twice within 25 years, Britain was threatened with starva...)
Twice within 25 years, Britain was threatened with starvation by the menace of the U-Boat. In this study of submarine warfare, the author explains why Winston Churchill wrote "the only thing that ever frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril." Until it had been overcome, the Anglo-American entry into Europe in 1944 would have been impossible. John Terraine concentrates on the combatants themselves, both German and Allied, but does not overlook the three main factors in the equation - the political, the military, and the technological, as well as the intelligence, the weapons, and the devices both sides employed in order to outwit each other. He also focuses on the fighting men on either side, seeing the action from "where it was at."
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Great-Waters-U-Boat-1916-1945-ebook/dp/B00KTM7GUG/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=John+Terraine&qid=1612520815&sr=8-3
1989
John Alfred Terraine was born on January 15, 1921, in London, United Kingdom. He was the son of Charles William and Evelyn (Holmes) Terraine.
John was educated at Stamford School, Lincolnshire. A graduate of Keble College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in modern history, health problems prevented him from enlisting in the British military.
John Terraine found employment with the British Broadcasting Corp. in 1944 and from 1952 to 1963 was its Pacific service program organizer. From 1963 to 1964, he was with the Television Talks department, thereafter becoming a freelance historian. As such, Terraine continued to work on television series for the BBC, which included The Great War (1963-1964), The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten (1966-1968), and European History in the Twentieth Century (1974-1975).
As a historian, Terraine was most often considered an authority on World War I - though he also wrote authoritatively on World War II - and he became somewhat controversial for asserting, contrary to popular opinion, that England's generals did a much better job than they had been given credit for in the Great War. He also explained how "Kitchener's Army" evolved from a poorly trained army into an effective fighting machine by 1918, and his writings illustrate how World War II could be viewed as a continuation of the World War I fight against Germany. From a focus in the 1950s and 1960s on television work, Terraine gradually evolved into primarily an author of military history books by the 1970s, and his output was prodigious through the end of the 1980s.
Among his publications are The Great War, 1914-1918: A Pictorial History (1965), Impacts of War, 1914 and 1918 (1970), White Heat: The New Warfare, 1914-18 (1982), A Time for Courage: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939-1945 (1985), and The U-Boat Wars, 1916-1945 (1989).
John Terraine is remembered as a leading British military historian, whose reputation was based mainly, but by no means exclusively, on his numerous publications on the first world war, and particularly the war on the western front. His outstanding achievement in television was the BBC's groundbreaking 26-part series The Great War, in which in 1963-1964 he had a dominant role as associate producer and principal scriptwriter.
Terraine received the prestigious Chesney Gold Medal in 1982 from the Royal United Services Institute Council and was named a patron in 1997. Other honors include receiving the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award in 1985 for his book The Right of the Line: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939-1945, being named an honorary fellow of Keble College in 1986, and being made a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1987.
(Did the tanks really "win" World War I? Was the machine-g...)
1980(The catastrophe which overtook Europe from 1914 to 1918 w...)
1965(Traditionally, the right of the line is the vanguard, the...)
1985(Twice within 25 years, Britain was threatened with starva...)
1989(This book is a classic narrative history of the last year...)
1978Though a sensitive, emotional man acutely vulnerable to criticism, Terraine was also a bold and indefatigable controversialist, defending his views in the newspaper letter columns and in reviews, articles, and a remarkable output of books. Critics pointed out that he relied too heavily on standard publications as distinct from archival research, and was inclined to repeat himself; that his tone became increasingly polemical on some critical issues; and that his deterministic overview of the nature of the war on the western front was inconsistent with his stress on the British army's tactical and technological innovation under Haig's direction. Nevertheless, while some historians still differ from Terraine on specific issues, such as his hostile attitude towards Lloyd George, he deserves praise for persevering when he was almost alone in his positive view of Haig's conduct of the war. In this respect, professional military historians have broadly come round to his way of thinking, even if it remains at odds with public opinion.
Terraine was a member of the Western Front Association and Royal Historical Society.
While in public debate Terraine could sometimes appear opinionated, choleric, and even blimpish, his views were sincerely held, and in private he was convivial, humorous, and a lively conversationalist.
In 1945 Terraine married Joyce Waite: their daughter, Carola, followed in her father's career as a historian. In later years, after the marriage had broken up, he found a devoted companion in Kathy Stevenson.
