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The First World War (3): The Western Front 1917-1918 (Essential Histories)

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Peter Simkins, a former senior historian at the Imperial War Museum, picks up in this volume of Osprey's Essential Histories series where he left off at the end of 1916. As in the first volume, Simkins' narrative is clear and concise, but skewed with an Anglo-centric focus that downplays the participation of non-Englishmen on the Western Front.

Rather than the standard section on "background to war," Simkins begins this volume with a discussion of Allied and German strategic choices for 1917. Since this volume is a continuation of the first, the normal sections with background material on the warring sides and the political issues are omitted, which renders this volume less than ideal as a stand-alone. The author provides ten maps to support his narrative: the Western Front 1914-1918; the German withdrawal in 1917; the Battle of Arras; the Nivelle Offensive; the Third Battle of Ypres; Operation Michael; the end of Operation Michael; the German 1918 offensives; the Battle of Amiens; the final Allied offensives. As in the first volume, Simkins' Anglo-centric bias is evident in the maps, which primarily emphasize British offensives. The lack of any maps depicting the American St. Mihiel or Argonne offensives, or the Franco-American counterattack at Soissons are noteworthy omissions. Air operations are also slighted in this volume, as in the first.

Simkins' narrative begins with the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917, followed by the British offensive at Arras and the French Nivelle offensive. Simkins is honest that the Arras offensive represented a mixed bag, with the capture of Vimy Ridge to its credit, but balanced against the highest daily casualty rate of the war for the British. Simkins also notes that the British were slow to modify their tactics, e.g. using tanks in "penny packets" over bad terrain. Although the author notes that the British had "ambiguous objectives and a faulty plan" in describing the follow-up offensive that resulted in the Third Battle of Ypres, his discussion fails to convey the utter stupidity of that offensive. Indeed, throughout the text, Simkins defends the British BEF commander, General Douglas Haig, despite enormous evidence that Haig's bull-headedness caused unnecessary loss of life by maintaining an almost religious belief that "one more push" would gain a breakthrough at Ypres. Nor does Simkins ever discuss whether Haig's belief that a breakthrough at Ypres would prove decisive was really justified other than a few small channel ports, no major objectives were near Ypres).

In covering the fighting in 1918, Simkins is honest about the defects in the British defenses that facilitated the initial German success in the spring offensives, although again he avoids mentioning mistakes made by higher British officers, i.e. Lieutenant General Gough. Simkins' coverage of the Allied efforts to blunt the German offensives is good, but he criticizes General Pershing's reluctance to send in the partly-trained American divisions piece-meal (failing to note that Pershing was planning for the long-term and that it was not his fault that the Allied front had virtually collapsed). It is also interesting that Simkins' map which depicts the final Allied offensive in September-November 1918 shows no French participation. American successes at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne are mentioned, but off to the side, as if they were sideshows. The crucial role played by the arrival of American forces in 1918 - often exaggerated by American authors - is minimized here. Simkins does fail to note that British forces held less of the front than either French or American troops at the end of the war.

In the final sections, Simkins once again displays unabashed Anglo-centrism with his "portrait of a soldier" (British Private Noakes) and "portrait of a civilian" (British munitions worker Caroline Webb). These characters are so similar to the two British characters described in the first volume (both soldiers were English privates born in 1896) that it is apparent that the author made no effort whatsoever to personalize the war from the French or German perspectives (or the loyal Canadians and ANZACs who came to defend the empire). Certainly Ernst Jünger's memoirs would have been a suitable basis for representing a German point of view, and there are numerous French memoirs as well. According to this type of historiography, the only people on the Western Front who mattered were Englishmen. The final section, on how the war ended skimps over unrest in Germany that led to the collapse of the monarchy and it is odd that there is no mention of the total casualties suffered by each of the combatants. A final section summarizing the human and financial costs of one of the most vicious wars in history would certainly seem appropriate, but it is not provided. Overall, this volume is not quite as good as the first.