Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations

List of Plates

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1 – The Start of the War and of the Western Front

THE START OF THE WAR

THE OPENING OF THE WESTERN FRONT

Chapter 2 – Late 1914 and the Battles of 1915: Birth of a New Style of Warfare

1915: A YEAR OF FRUSTRATION

THE COSTS OF ‘TRENCHLOCK’

Chapter 3 – The Battle of Verdun, 1916

VON FALKENHAYN'S ASSAULT

THE FRENCH COUNTER-ATTACK

Chapter 4 – The Battle of the Somme, 1916

THE BIG PUSH

THE LONG HAUL

Chapter 5 – Spring 1917

THE HINDENBURG LINE

THE NIVELLE OFFENSIVE

Chapter 6 – Passchendaele

THE START OF THE ATTACK

PLUMER TAKES OVER

Chapter 7 – The Bitter Winter of 1917–18

THE MARCH OFFENSIVE

THE GERMAN OFFENSIVES CONTINUE

Chapter 8 – The Flashing Sword of the Counter-Offensive

THE BATTLES OF AMIENS AND PÉRONNE

FROM THE HINDENBURG LINE TO THE ARMISTICE

Chapter 9 – The American Contribution to Victory

WHO WON THE WAR?

THE MEUSE-ARGONNE

Chapter 10 – The Western Front as a Historiographical Phenomenon

IMMEDIATE PERCEPTIONS

THE SECOND GENERATION

Notes

Glossary of Terms

Further Reading: A Short Annotated Bibliography

Index