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Rating: 
Summary: While full of good information.....
Review: ...I found this book to be rather dry and difficult to get into. Of course I was looking for something a little more basic. This book might be best for someone who already has some knowledge of the battle and wants to expand on it, rather than as an introduction.
Rating:
Summary: While full of good information.....
Review: ...I found this book to be rather dry and difficult to get into. Of course I was looking for something a little more basic. This book might be best for someone who already has some knowledge of the battle and wants to expand on it, rather than as an introduction.
Rating:
Summary: Blooody campaign, bloody Haig
Review: Quite a good expose of the limitations of Haig as a general, insensitive, uncaring, obstinate and incompetent, a farce of a man if not for the tragedy of tens of thousands lives wasted by his idiotic tactics.
Rating: 
Summary: outstanding
Review: There"s not to much to add from the other reviews I think. This is a highly readable book. Much can be said of a operation that lasted 3 months at such a terrible cost and then give up what you gained in only 3 days! The book also points the finger of blame not just on Plummer, Haig, and Gough but also the war cabinat overseen by Loyd George and Robertson. A must read for those who never understood the campaigne.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: There"s not to much to add from the other reviews I think. This is a highly readable book. Much can be said of a operation that lasted 3 months at such a terrible cost and then give up what you gained in only 3 days! The book also points the finger of blame not just on Plummer, Haig, and Gough but also the war cabinat overseen by Loyd George and Robertson. A must read for those who never understood the campaigne.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent account of a pointless campaign
Review: This book tells how British General Haig threw thousands of his own men through mud in fruitless assaults on the German trenches. It tells in great detail how many lives were lost for how little ground taken and how the British General staff could not devise any new ways to fight and ignored the losses. It is an excellent book for anyone interested in military history or even psychology.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opener, Highly readable and top notch scholarship
Review: Unlike the usual dross (though still readable) that many WWI history books are like, this is an amazingly good book.The authors have obviously done their background work using the primary sources to an extent that to the reader, they convincingly break several WWI myths as routinely stated in many WWI history books. The first being about Battles of Attrition; making it clear the aims of the Generals in the various battles had solid strategic objectives that they were trying to gain. The Attrition excuse being made after the event to try and make a failed battle sound like a victory of sorts. Tanks were not a war winning weapon in WWI, but of importance for supporting the infantry (tanks being highly vunerable to artillary. The argument by the authors is that artillary was the WWI winning weapon on the Western Front. The main eye opener (for me at least) was the primary importance of artillary and evolving role and technology of the artilliary which had developed (high accuracy continuous correction shelling, counter battery, creeping barrage) to the point by 1917 that potentially, the British could break the German lines on the Western Front to a limited extend, and with limited casualties. However the hankering by Haig for a Breakthrough (and continous belief that one more push would demolish the morale of the German Army) helped lead "inadvertantly" to another attrition style battle. Overall, well worth buying and hopefully setting the standard that future WWI histories will be written to.
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