World War I

Résumé du livre

More than seventy years after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the First World War continues to cast an immense shadow over the twentieth century, its course and effects having played a large part in shaping the world we live in today. Although it was a global conflict, with actions fought as far afield as the Falkland Islands and Tsingtao in China, it is the Western Front--the decisive theatre of the war--that still dominates our collective memory. For most people, the enduring images of the 1914-1918 war are those of frightful carnage on the battlefields of northern France and Belgium and of legions of doomed young men being sacrificed in futile frontal assaults against machine guns for the sake of a few yards of Flanders mud. Yet was this the whole story? In his concise and highly readable narrative Peter Simkins rightly re-emphasizes the grimmest aspects of the conflict but also questions some long-established popular beliefs about the nature and conduct of the war on the Western Front. Re-examining the role of the senior commanders on both sides, the author suggests that, far from being all uncaring butchers and bunglers, some generals did their best to reduce casualties and, by learning how to apply the new technology, were able to overcome the deadlock which that same technology had initially produced. Above all he shows how the amateur citizen-soldiers of Britain and her Dominions emerged from the dreadful attrition battles of 1916 and 1917 to become the cutting-edge of the Allied armies in the last months of the war. The book is not just about commanders and major battles. in a series of special features, Peter Simkins describes the daily routine of the front line soldier and covers such diverse topics as transport and supply, rest and recreation, medical services and communications. Striking use is made of almost 400 authentic photographs which, together with the narrative and detailed captions, offer many stimulating insights into the way in which me lived, fought and died in France and Belgium during those terrible years.