Battles on the Eastern Front 1914-18: Suicide of the Empires (Great Battles) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Alan Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1999 | Series: Great Battles

On the outbreak of war in 1914, the armies of the western front soon became bogged down in the mud at Flanders. But on the wide plains and forests of Eastern Europe the three great Empires - Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary - grappled in a series of battles involving millions of men and hundreds of miles of front. Shortly after the outbreak of war the Russian "steamroller" had lurched into Prussia only to be hurled back amind the marshes of Tannenberg. For the next three years the fighting swung indeterminately back and forth. This work describes the campaigns which provoked the downfall of three great empires and left the world changed forever.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Clark, educated at Eton and Oxford, read for the Bar but did not practise. Tory MP for Plymouth Sutton 1972-1992; Kensington and Chelsea, 1997-99. Various junior ministerial appointments in the Margaret Thatcher and John Major governments of the 1980s. Best-known for his Diaries (three vols) which The Times placed in the Samuel Pepys class. They were filmed by teh BBC with John Hurt as Clark and Jenny Agutter as Jane Clark. Alan Clark died in 1999.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Windrush Press, Ltd.; illustrated edition edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1900624230
• ISBN-13: 978-1900624237
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,523,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Insubstantial, September 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Battles on the Eastern Front 1914-18: Suicide of the Empires (Great Battles) (Paperback)

Originally published in 1971, the book offers no new information regarding the eastern front during WWI. While the period and place hold considerable interest, this book does not come close to satisfying it, except, perhaps, as a precis. One would be better served to consult SLA Marshall in the American Heritage volume on World War I.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to a poorly understood part of WWI, August 13, 2000

By 

Scott M. Bushnell (Saint Joe, Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battles on the Eastern Front 1914-18: Suicide of the Empires (Great Battles) (Paperback)

Alan Clark's overview of the Eastern Front in World War I is a good starting place for readers to know more about the "war to end all wars." A considerable number of U.S. books have been devoted to the Western Front, which is understandable since it was where American soldiers fought and died. But far fewer works have dealt with the catastrophe of inept Russian and Austro-Hungarian armies at war. What is obvious from Clark's work is the tragic cost of the war for those two empires. What also emerges is the obvious superiority of the German command in comparison to its Russian and Austrian counterparts and, by implication, the over-confidence that this performance bred for the next world war. The author -- who often came under attack (sometimes rightly so) from the academic community -- also includes suggested additional readings on the Eastern Front.

4.0 out of 5 stars A short overview of the WWI Russian front, September 17, 2011

By 

Ulfilas (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battles on the Eastern Front 1914-18: Suicide of the Empires (Great Battles) (Paperback)

At 111 pages in length, this book is hardly an exhaustive treatment of the First World War on the Eastern Front. The author does, however, address a number of important points. It all begins with a discussion of Germany's Schlieffen Plan, which called for a quick victory against France in the West before focusing on the Russians in the East. Ultimately, the Germans were forced to send some of the forces earmarked for the West to the East to stave off the Russian advance--a decision that made the trench-based stalemate in the West more likely.

As the author lays out the events that aided the able German forces in crippling the lumbering Russian army, a number of interesting facts are brought to light--not the least of which was that Tannenberg had been the site of German Army war games and maneuvers that each German officer knew like the back of his hand. What brought little help to the Germans was their Austrian-Hungarian ally--a nearly feudal entity that outmatched even the Russians in incompetence and pointless bureaucracy. The Austrians did excel in one department--that of the massive howitzers produced by their Skoda works--behemoths that dwarfed even the guns of Germany's preeminent arms manufacturer Krupp.

This book has a number of maps and photographs to help and engage the reader. Nevertheless, the author would have done well to include a few more well-marked maps. In particular, I would have appreciated a more detailed mapping of the forces deployed and movements executed at Tannenberg.