The Western Front, by Richard Holmes

The Western Front: Ordinary Soldiers and the Defining Battes of World War I, by Richard Holmes
TV Books, LLC, 1999, 2000
219 pages, further reading, index, b&w photos scattered throughout book
Library: 940.4 HOL

Description
The Western Front in World War I was the scene of devastating French warfare and astonishing human loss: nearly 750,000 soldiers perished in the battles fought in France and Belgium from 1914 to 1918. In The Western Front, renowned historian Richard Holmes traces the path those soldiers took, and presents the political, military, and human dilemmas of a bitter and bloody war.

In gripping detail, Holmes, the host of an accompanying History Channel documentary, takes us through the major and most costly battles of the Western Front, many of which garnered dubious gains at best, and all of which were won only with great human sacrifice.

The first Battles of Ypres was not only a scene of heavy Allied losses, but was dubbed by the GErmans the "Massacre of the Innocents", Verfun was a scene of astonishing casualties, where the professed goal of the German commander was to bleed the French forces to death; the fighting in the trenches of the Somme-a battle of attrition that lasted six months-proved a turning point for the morale of the British Army and the "muddy grave of the German field Army and of the confidence in the infallibility of German leadership"; while the long wearing slog toward Passchendaele was paved with inept leadership and mutinies in the French forces before dreadful conditions simply ground the battle to a halt.

Portraying the Western Front in stark and moving terms, Holmes draws not only from current scholarship, but also from letters written by the soldiers and the stories of the survivors themselves. His account makes vivid the human experience of war-how the men endured the indiscrimate slaughter and incomprehensible brutality that surrounded them.

Illustrated with photographs, artwork, and battlefield diagrams, The Western Front tells the story of our grandfathers and great grand-fathers. It is a perceptive and powerful account of our world history.

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Making the Front
2. Feeding the Front
3. Holding the Front
4. Commanding the Front
5. Enduring the Front
6. Breaking the Front
The War in Outline
Further REading
Index


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