Passchendaele
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
Nearly ninety years ago, on 31st July 1917, the small Belgian village of Passchendaele became the focus for one of the most gruelling, bloody and bizarre battles of World War 1. By 6th November, when Passchendaele village and the ridge were captured, over half a million British, French, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and Germans had become casualties. Philip Warner, the noted historian of twentieth-century warfare and the author of over fifty books on military history, many published by Pen & Sword, has skilfully brought together all the elements of this horrific campaign - the historical background, personal accounts, strategies and tactics, the personalities and the political manoeuvres. He investigates the issues which had a crucial effect on the course of the battle, including the mutinous state of the French army, the bombardment which destroyed the drainage system, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's determination to continue operations despite the appalling weather and ground conditions, and the stormy relationship between Haig and Lloyd George. However, it is the determined fighting ability and the bravery of the allied soldiers, rather than the tactical plans of the commanders, that dominate this detailed and totally absorbing account of the harrowing four-month campaign called the Battle of Passchendaele.Passchendaele is a masterly and timely analysis of one of the most important battles in history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Half a million British, French, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and German soldiers were killed or wounded in the four-month series of battles in 1917 called Passchendaele or, officially, Third Ypres. In this somber account of Allied attempts to achieve a breakthrough, Warner keeps his narrative firmly on the horror (``That men could survive such an experience and remain sane is, perhaps, more astonishing than the death toll''). A campaign of short attacks and counter-attacks on Belgian soil, Passchendaele was a struggle during which survivers became intimately familiar with details of terrain. This distinguished British historian, who has studied the ground closely, provides vivid ``landscape portraits'' that take on a haunting dimension in the final chapter, a guided tour of the battlefield. Unlike many historians who vilify the British commander-in-chief for ordering suicidal attacks, Warner ( Kitchener ) argues that he cannot name a contemporary general who could have done better at Passchendaele than Field Marshall Douglas Haig. Photos.
