Defending Albion is the first published study of Britain's response to the threat of invasion from across the North Sea in the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. It examines the emergency schemes designed to confront an enemy landing and the problems associated with raising and maintaining the often derided Territorial Force. It also explores the long-neglected military and political difficulties posed by the spontaneous and largely unwanted appearance of the 'Dad's Army' of the Great War, the Volunteer Force.

List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction: The Invasion Issue Supplementing the Home Army Planning for Defence Mobilization and New Auxiliaries Protection Companies and Invasion Scares The Home Army in 1915 Reforming and Expanding the Home Army Restructuring and Compulsion 'A Sham or a Real Thing?': The Volunteer Force in 1917 The Diminishing Threat Epilogue Appendix I: Extra Reserve Battalions Appendix II: Home Defence Scheme, July 1914 Appendix III: Provisional Units Appendix IV: The Home Army in 1918 Appendix V: Coastal Fortresses and Garrisons Notes Bibliography Index

BILL MITCHINSON has written prolifically on the Great War. His books include Cotton Town Town Comrades (1993), Gentlemen and Officers: The Impact and Experience of War on a Territorial Regiment (1995), Pioneer Battalions in the Great War (1997) and Amateur Soldiers (1999). He is an authority on the battlefields of the Western Front and is the author of three volumes in the Battleground Europe series. He is a member of the Centre for World War One Studies at the University of Birmingham and is employed as a freelance editorial consultant by a major publishing house.