The Western Front 1917-1918: From Vimy Ridge to Amiens and the Armistice - Rilegato

Wiest, Professor Andrew

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1906626022 ISBN 13: 9781906626020

Casa editrice: Amber Books Ltd, 2008

Riassunto

After the first few months of World War I, the Western Front consisted of a relatively static line of trench systems which stretched from the coast of the North Sea southwards to the Swiss border. To try to break through the opposing lines of trenches and barbed wire entanglements, both sides employed huge artillery bombardments followed by attacks by tens of thousands of soldiers. Battles could last for months and led to casualties measured in hundreds of thousands for attacker and defender alike. After most of these attacks, only a short section of the front would have moved and only by a kilometer or two. After Gallipoli, Australians were moved to fight in France on the western Front, in battles including the Battle of the Somme. On the first day of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, 60,000 Allies were casualties, including 20,000 deaths. The principal adversaries on the Western Front, who fielded armies of millions of men, were Germany to the East against a western alliance to the West consisting of France and the United Kingdom with sizeable contingents from the British Empire, especially the Dominions. The United States entered the war in 1917 and by the summer of 1918 had an army of around half a million men which rose to a million by the time the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. For most of World War I, Allied Forces, predominantly those of France and the British Empire, were stalled at trenches on the Western Front. With the last few men who served in World War I now dying out, and the 90th anniversary of the Armistice coming in November 2008, there is no better time to revaluate this controversial war and shed fresh light on the conflict. With the aid of numerous black and white and colour photographs, many previously unpublished, the World War I series recreates the battles and campaigns that raged across the surface of the globe, on land, at sea and in the air. The text is complemented by full-colour maps that guide the reader through specific actions and campaigns.

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Recensione:

For all its impact, World War I remains shrouded in myth, mystery and mourning. It exists as a series of disjointed images: old photographs and fragments of poems; devasted landscapes; anonymous soldiers scrambling over the top; above all, the endless cemeteries of the Western Front. 'The History of World War I' returns that tragic conflict to the sphere of history. Based on a half-century of sophisticated research, incorporating state-of-the-art graphics, the six volumes of the series present the war on land, at sea, and in the air in a global context, and in human terms. --Dennis Showalter

This is one of a series of authoritatively written books published by Casemate on the Great War and follows the final years of what they optimistically called at the time the war to end all war ...this volume does a fine job of explaining a complex situation in a readable manner with the help of 20 full-colour maps, plus numerous photographs and artwork illustrating the participants and their equipment. --Classic Military Vehicle, 03/2009

L'autore:

Andrew Wiest is Professor of History, co-director of the Center for the Study of War and Society and Director of the Vietnam Studies Program at the University of Southern Mississippi. He was formerly Visiting Professor at Department of Warfighting Strategy at the United States Air Force Air War College and Visiting Senior Lecturer, Department of War Studies, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He has published numerous books, including Haig: The Evolution of a Commander, Potomac Press, 2005; Infantry Warfare: The Theory and Practice of Infantry Combat in the Twentieth Century, (MBI, November 2002). The Illustrated History of World War I, (Thunder Bay, October 2001), and Passchendaele and the Royal Navy, (Greenwood, March 1995).

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Amber Books Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1906626022
• ISBN 13: 9781906626020
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 224