For King and Kaiser

A detailed history of the Royal Saxon Army in Belgium during World War I, featuring photographs and personal letters.

Following on from their pioneering account of the Saxon army in World War I—Fighting the Kaiser’s War—Andrew Lucas and Jürgen Schmieschek have compiled this remarkable sequel covering Saxony’s war in Flanders in much greater detail. Once again, they draw on vivid extracts from personal accounts and letters as well as regimental and documents from the Saxon archives, and they illustrate their powerful study with hundreds of previously unpublished personal photos that show every aspect of wartime experience in the front line and the rear areas.

The role of the Saxon army in the three battles of Ypres is recorded in graphic detail, and rare photographs offer fresh perspectives on famous wartime locations on the Western Front including Ploegsteert Wood, the Menin Road, Bellewaarde, Wytschaete, and Passchendaele. The historic photographs—and the insights provided by the accompanying text—give us a fascinating inside view of the Saxon soldiers and their relations with the local population who were obliged to host them.

The quality of the evocative personal material—text and images—collected by Andrew Lucas and Jürgen Schmieschek makes this exceptional work a major contribution to the literature on the German forces on the Western Front.