Customer Reviews

How the War Was Won: Command and Technology in the British Army on the Western Front: 1917-1918

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Many books have evaluated the role of the British Expeditionary Force in winning the First World War, and all such studies have, of course, centered on the performance of Douglas Haig. How the War was Won: Factors that Led to Victory in World War I by Tim Travers follows this convention, but Travers adds the factor of burgeoning and frightful technology to the performance of Haig and the BEF, and he then asks the question, "When were the Germans really beaten?"

Travers examines his issues in a calm, clear manner, and the final result is one of the more intelligent and articulate evaluations of the war we have seen. His conclusion, to put it in its most simple, perhaps reductive, form, is that the Germans were worn out by Allied technology--and the war was, in fact, over for the Germans long before they and the British realized it.

Each chapter of the book contains an introductory paragraph which the back cover claims makes the book "particularly useful for students." This is quite true, but it is not only new students who benefit: Even the more knowledgeable reader cannot help being impressed by the quality of summaries found in these opening paragraphs. His assessment of the difficulties at Passchendaele in the first chapter is marvelously economical.

This is a reprint of a volume originally published in 1992. Highly praised when it first appeared, it remains essential to our understanding of the war