Passchendaele

Description

No conflict of the Great War excites stronger emotions than the war in Flanders in the autumn of 1917, and no name better encapsulates the horror and apparent futility of the Western Front than Passchendaele. By its end there had been 275,000 Allied and 200,000 German casualties. Yet the territorial gains made by the Allies in four desperate months were won back by Germany in only three days the following March. The devastation at Passchendaele, the authors argue, was neither inevitable nor inescapable; perhaps it was not necessary at all. Using a substantial archive of official and private records, much of which has never been previously consulted, Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior provide the fullest account of the campaign ever published. The book examines the political dimension at a level which has hitherto been absent from accounts of "Third Ypres." It establishes what did occur, the options for alternative action, and the fundamental responsibility for the carnage. Prior and Wilson consider the shifting ambitions and stratagems of the high command, examine the logistics of war, and assess what the available manpower, weaponry, technology, and intelligence could realistically have hoped to achieve. And, most powerfully of all, they explore the experience of the soldiers in the light—whether they knew it or not—of what would never be accomplished. Contents Illustrations Maps Acknowledgements Introduction to the Second Edition Introduction Part I. Setting the Scene 1. The Conundrum 2. The Search for a Solution, 1915-1916 3. Stratagems: January-May 1917 4. Decisions: May-July 1917 Part II. Initiation 5. Making Plans 6. False Dawn: Messines Part. III Gough 7. The New Commander 8. 31 July: The Implements 9. First Strike 10. Rain Part IV. Plumer 11. Menin Road 12. Polygon Wood 13. Broodseinde Part V. Political Interlude (i) 14. Deciding and Not Deciding: The War Cabinet and the War Policy Committee, August-November 1 91 7 Part VI. The Lower Depths 15. Poelcappelle 16. Neverending Story 17. Final Folly Part VII. Political Interlude (ii) 18. The Last Inaction: The War Cabinet, October-November 1917 19. Conclusion Notes Note on Sources Bibliography Index