No other campaign, save for that of the Somme, epitomizes the "meat grinder" character of the Western Front in WWI more than Verdun. Some 1,250,000 casualties were incurred by the French and Germans in about ten months for a piece of land "little larger than the combined Royal Parks of London." Although almost forty years old, this account is probably the best in English and is meticulously researched and exquisitely written. This book TRULY shows the horrors of the Great War and the absolute futility of Verdun. The only downside is where the author assumes that the reader has a classical education, because he constantly interjects snippets of French into the book... still, a MUST HAVE!

This book goes a long way towards showing how many of the conventional beliefs concerning WW1 are totally innaccurate. He dosen't diminish the loss of life but he does show that the generals in charge were no less capable than their WW2 counterparts. Much of what was practiced in WW2 started in WW1. Pascall builds a compelling case that the generals on both sides invented ingenious new strategies that simply failed in the context of a war of attrition. An outstanding contribution to the body of knowledge of World War One.

In August 1914, at Tannenberg in East Prussia, the German 8th Army under Hindenburg and Ludendorff won a stunning victory over two Russian armies. In this account of the greatly outnumbered German army's defeat of the Russian forces, Showalter provides a through historical and cultural context; examines the tactical, operational and strategic aspects of this decisive WW I battle; and clears up many of the myths associated with it.

The carnage on the Western Front at Passchendaele, where 275,000 Allied and 200,000 German soldiers fell, was neither inevitable nor inescapable, the authors of this gripping book insist. Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson here offer the most complete account of the campaign ever published, establishing what actually occurred, what options were available, and who was responsible for the devastation.

The African front comprised a series of conflicts, schemes, maneuvers, heroics, disasters, inhospitable climate and geography, and insects--as the Allies sought to conquer four German colonies.