Osprey Essential Histories 14 : The First World War (2) : The Western Front 1914-1916

In this, the first of two books on the Western Front, Professor Peter Simkins describes the course of fighting from the German invasion of Belgium in 1914 to the close of the titanic battles at Verdun and the Somme in 1916. It follows the transition from the war of movement in the late summer and autumn of 1914, through the imposition of the trench deadlock to the first great battles of attrition in the middle period of the conflict. By the end of 1916, as this book describes, the struggle on the Western Front had come to touch the lives of almost every family in the warring nations. But, as the Battle of the Somme reached its bloody conclusion, the balance of military power on the Western Front was shifting. In discussing these changes the author points out how new battle techniques and tactics in 1916 foreshadowed important changes in how the war would be fought in its remaining two years. More than 80 years on, the Great War - and particularly the struggle on the Western Front - continues to fascinate us and to cast long shadows over the world in which we live. For Britain, the effort and sacrifice involved in creating and sustaining its first-ever and biggest-ever mass citizen army, and in helping to defeat the main enemy in the decisive theatre of operations, left deep emotional and psychological scars that have influenced much of the nation's subsequent history and that are still felt today. Recent research has, however, begun to alter many of our most basic perceptions of, and attitudes towards, that war. In these two books, Peter Simkins - himself an acknowledged authority on the Western Front - re-examines the struggle and shed an interesting new light on the nature, course and effects of the fighting in France and Belgium from 1914 to 1918. Text by Peter Simkins.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Background to War : The Road to War
• Warring Sides : The Opposing Armies
• Outbreak : Countdown to War
• The Schlieffen Plan
• The Fighting : War on the Western Front 1914-1916
• Portrait of a Soldier : Private Archie Surfleet
• The World around War : The Home Fronts 1914-1916
• Portrait of a Civilian : Winnifred Adair Roberts
• How the Period Ended : No End in Sight